3 ms·

Good thoughts, and I think it's "both", but don't make the mistake of assuming every era gets to choose freely whatever medium it wants to use. This might be a

by rdiddly 10y ago

Good thoughts, and I think it's "both", but don't make the mistake of assuming every era gets to choose freely whatever medium it wants to use. This might be at least partly a story of technologies. For example it's possible that in the 1920s they would've loved to use more images, if cameras were easier to get, and easier to use, and photographs were easier to print. (And anyplace I use "easier," feel free to substitute "cheaper.")

smacktoward 10y ago
Yep, this is almost certainly part of it; but I'm not sure technological determinism tells the entire story. Consider that in the latter half of the 19th century, for instance, the American magazine market was driven by titles that used new technologies like daguerrotypy and then photography to present big, striking images -- titles like the National Police Gazette (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_Gazette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_Gazette), Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Leslie's_Illustrated_Newspaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Leslie's_Illustrated_New...), and Godey's Lady's Book (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godey%27s_Lady%27s_Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godey%27s_Lady%27s_Book). The advertising and poster art of the same period, though, is much more text-oriented. Look at Wikimedia's collections of ads from the 1870s (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1870_advertisements_in_the_United_States https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1870_advertiseme...) and 1880s (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1880s_advertisements_in_the_United_States https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1880s_advertisem...) and you'll see what I mean -- though if you go through them chronologically you can also see them getting simpler and more streamlined as time goes on, so it was definitely a field in transition. I wonder how much of the lag is just because of the way advertising as a business works. No ad, after all, gets run unless it first gets approved by a client; and the clients are usually more conservative and risk-averse than their ad-makers are. So advertising's slowness in following the culture could just come down to the fact that a campaign has to appeal to the sensibilities of stodgy old business dudes if the public is ever going to see it at all.

by rdiddly 10y ago

smacktoward 10y ago

Yep, this is almost certainly part of it; but I'm not sure technological determinism tells the entire story. Consider that in the latter half of the 19th century, for instance, the American magazine market was driven by titles that used new technologies like daguerrotypy and then photography to present big, striking images -- titles like the National Police Gazette (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_Gazette https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Police_Gazette), Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Leslie's_Illustrated_Newspaper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Leslie's_Illustrated_New...), and Godey's Lady's Book (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godey%27s_Lady%27s_Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godey%27s_Lady%27s_Book). The advertising and poster art of the same period, though, is much more text-oriented. Look at Wikimedia's collections of ads from the 1870s (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1870_advertisements_in_the_United_States https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1870_advertiseme...) and 1880s (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1880s_advertisements_in_the_United_States https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:1880s_advertisem...) and you'll see what I mean -- though if you go through them chronologically you can also see them getting simpler and more streamlined as time goes on, so it was definitely a field in transition. I wonder how much of the lag is just because of the way advertising as a business works. No ad, after all, gets run unless it first gets approved by a client; and the clients are usually more conservative and risk-averse than their ad-makers are. So advertising's slowness in following the culture could just come down to the fact that a campaign has to appeal to the sensibilities of stodgy old business dudes if the public is ever going to see it at all.