Blog Assignment #7- Food Ads

I chose to examine the New York Times Magazine from January 4th, 1953 Section 6. It was hard to find food ads, but the 4 ads I did find had many things in common.
Ad #1 was for Carolina Brand Rice. It was a simple ad, with a large simple box packaging the rice. There was a woman in a sexy evening gown holding the box up and singing "praises" to how good the rice was supposed to be. The ad stated, "There's nothing really finer than Carolina...the extra long grain rice." The lettering was bold on the ad and emphasized the main point of the ad, such as "Carolina," "extra long grain" and "finer." This ad, though very simple (and VERY 50's) was strikingly similar to food ads that we see today, using women in sexy clothing to sell a product.
Ad #2 was for Golden Mix (for griddle cakes and waffles). The packaging was, again, a simple box with bold lettering emphasizing the main point of the add. This ad had no people portrayed in it. It was simply a box of the product and big bold letters that stated, "Don't waste syrup, milk and butter on ordinary pancakes! Use Golden Mix and enjoy the world's finest!" Again, we see the word "finest" used once more to explain the status or quality of the product.
The third ad was for Arnold Brick Oven Loaf and the ad had a large fat man in a baker's hat holding the oven loaf, smiling. The ad said, "Brick Oven is the finest white bread we ever baked! The very finest U.S.A butter in the Arnold Brick Loaf is rated a 93." In this advertisement, the rating of "93" is never really explained and I assume people are supposed to assume that means it's rated 93/100, but like I said, it's very unclear. Here we see the word "finest" used two different times in this one ad. Perhaps this word was a popular word in the early 1950's, I really don't know. But it was poppin' up like crazy all over these ads.
The last ad I examined was for Land O' Lakes Sweet Cream Butter. The ad states, "From the rich Land O' Lakes, America's finest butter." And once again, "finest" is used to describe the butter. The ad was very colorful and the bold lettering was used to emphasize "finest."
All of these ads were very simple, with big bold lettering and very similar words used to advertise the products. I noticed in many of the other ads I saw (food, clothing, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) women's sexuality was used to attempt to lure people in to looking at the ad and possibly wanting to but the product. This is something that is very prevalent today, and it was surprising to see that as a common advertising strategy, even in 1953. I'm a sociologist, so don't get me started on the issue of exploiting women for profit, and the abuse of women's sexuality to sell items. My blog will be 100 pages long.

A good read:

Dixon, Helen G., Maree L. Scully, Melanie A. Wakefield, Victoria M. White, and David A. Crawford. "The effects of television advertisements for junk food versus nutritious food on children's attitudes and preferences." Social Science & Medicine 65.7 (2007): 1311-1323.

(the title of the journal is supposed to be underlined and the second and third line of the citation should be indented, but the computer won't do it for some reason, just as an FYI.)