Modern Food Advertising

Before that late nineteenth century, food was not commonly marketed directly to Americans.

Shoppers at typical nineteenth century grocery stores would walk in, find a clerk and tell the clerk what they needed and the clerk would pass the order to other employees.

The goods then either delivered to the customer’s home or given to the customer on the spot.

The invention of modern advertising can be largely be credited to patent medicine sellers of the Reconstruction era.

They came up with all sorts of spurious and very dangerous cures for such ill-defined diseases as neuralgia and dyspepsia, which seemed epidemic in that unsettled time.

Early soft drinks were sold and marketed as patent medicine. An 1892 advertisement for Coca-Cola was typical of the genre the carbonated potion was recommended as “the Ideal Brain Tonic for Headache & Exhaustion.”

Coffee substitutes were originally promoted in much the same way. As late as 1951, the Federal Trade Commission was investigating the Post Company for running ads for its Postum beverage claiming that drinking coffee discourage marriage or that it results in “divorces, business failures, factory accidents, juvenile delinquency, traffic accidents, fire or home foreclosures.”

Since 1970s and the latest presents a picture that hasn’t change much. But two thirds of the TV commercial on Saturday morning TV were foods.

Over half of these commercials were for breads cereal, rice and pasta and the next largest category (28%) were fast food outlets.

The strong rise of food advertising was closely related to the emergence of brand names and the transformation of the retail sector.

In pre-industrial society the production and purchase of consumer goods were mostly locally oriented.

The range of available goods was limited and their quality depended on their region and the preferences of the retailer. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, industrial mass production of consumer goods, including food products, increased rapidly.

Producers needed to sell to a wider market and to provide the customers with information about the product.

Advertising offered the obvious means to this end. This led the manufacturers to package their products and complete them with a brand name.

Advertising are major influences on American food consumption patterns. Food marketers are the nation’s largest advertisers, with around $30 billion per year is for food products after automobiles. About 70% of food advertising is for food products, principally packaged foods, snacks and soft drinks and another 28% for food service especially fast foods.
Modern Food Advertising

Post Word War II Food Advertising

Post Word War II Food Advertising
The changes of the post World War II era the transformation of advertising of the late 1800s. A spate of new products and cooking technologies came into the market.

Women changed their living patterns by moving away from urban communities to larger but more isolated homes in the suburbs.

In 1961, when one survey organization asked married women about their cooking abilities, only 23 percent claimed they were better than their mothers while 68 percent feared they were worse.

Little wonder that they were happy to load their brand new freezers with frozen foods and seek advice from women’s magazines on how to combine canned tuna with cream of mushroom soup.

The suburbs led to larger, broad aisled supermarkets which in turn necessitated bigger, bolder packaging. The car based culture and new mobility created a demand for standardization fast food across the United States.

Fast food chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s had the advertising budgets to promote their restaurant nationally.

The 1950s also ushered in the new medium of television. At first programs and ads on TV simply imitated what had work on radio but with rising costs, it was no longer economically viable for one company to sponsor a whole program.

By 1960s, the now familiar sequence of commercial interspersed with programming became the norm.

The 1970s brought cable television and hundred of channels to a medium that had hitherto been dominated by only three networks.

Traditionally, food and kitchen appliance advertising funded day time television, while products aimed at a male market dominated evening television.

But as the market increasingly splintered , the food industry could reach their sought after demographic with ever increasing precision.

With the advent of the Food Network on 1993, sellers of barbecue equipment or Olean Cuisine had finely defined audiences for their wares.
Post Word War II Food Advertising