PRINTER'S INK written by Ariane Laezza Consumerism in Printer's Ink and Niketown - Click here to download Word version > back to main page Printer's Ink "Only advertisers who want to reach rich old men advertise in The New York Times" (figure 1). This statement, taken from a New York Times advertisement featured in Printer's Ink intends to be sarcastic. The next line of text reads, "Smart advertisers know that The New York Times reaches rich old men. But they also know about the Times' 691, 000 weekday women readers (543, 000 of them homemakers.)". The ad incites advertisers to consider the newspaper as an effective medium in reaching an underestimated group of consumers: women, who make up a large percentage of the Times' readership. This particular ad acknowledges women as a distinct and separate consumer group with purchasing power. Throughout this paper I look to explore how women have become a target consumer group and through the use of various advertisements how advertisers have attempted to target them. The advertisements shown from the 1960s depict young, white, middle class women as consumers in North America's capitalist, mass consumption driven economy. The notion of consumerism, for both sexes, really began in the decades following the Civil War. During this time, in North America, the culture's fundamental qualities were the "…acquisition and consumption as the means of achieving happiness; the cult of the new; the democratization of desire; and money value as the predominant measure of all value in society." (Leach, 3). Essentially, Capitalism began to form a well-defined culture in which the business market, and hence consumerism, took centre stage. This, essentially, is when modern advertising came in. At the turn of the century, when factories began increasing the mass production of goods, advertising came of importance. "In 1880 a total of $30 million was invested in advertising; by 1910, new big businesses such as oil, food, electricity, and rubber were spreading more than $600 million or 4% of the national income (a percentage that remained unchanged for the next sixty years)." (Leach, 42). In fact, magazines and newspapers such as The Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan and The Saturday Evening Post were only made achievable because of the investments made in advertising by businesses. It is important to note that these particular publications were directed towards women and it can be assumed that many, if not most of the ads in them were geared towards women too. Figure 1, though dating more recently to the 1960s, alludes to this point. As mentioned previously, this ad is directed not to consumers but to advertisers, encouraging them to consider why advertising to women in The New York Times would be profitable. It is interesting that the products labeled such as Clairol, Clorox, Heinz Ketchup and Sara Lee, to name a few, are all products that would be purchased in a grocery store. This is because women were believed to be the main consumers of the family, particularly when it came to grocery shopping (a notion still present today). Advertisements rely on the use and power of images to sell products and this fact goes back to the notion of "eye appeal" where "colour, form, and visualization is indispensable to advertising's success" (Leach, 43). In Figure 2 a woman stands before an open fridge. She stands to the right of it (viewer's left) with her left hand resting on its door and her right hand gesturing to what is inside of it. As simple as this image appears to be, it actually signifies plenty in terms of femininity and gender roles in the 1960s. She has her hair and makeup done, is wearing a dress, an apron and high heeled shoes. She appears as an archetypal housewife figure, standing proudly before a fridge full of food, that she, we can assume, went out to purchase. The fridge is on display, but correspondingly, so is she. This catalog-like advertisement was quite obviously intended for a female audience, one that was most likely middle class and one where the women either associated with the model or were inspired to be like her (or her image). The general consensus at the beginning of the century amongst advertisers was that, "'you may forget what you read - if you can read at all. But what you see, you know instantly.'" (Leach, 43). This importance, placed on the image was discussed by Roland Barthes in his semiotic writings on the advertising image. According to Barthes, "…in advertising the signification of the image is undoubtedly intentional; the signifieds of the advertising image are formed a priori by certain attributes of the product…"(Barthes, 33). Figure 3 shows a young, stylishly dressed, attractive woman standing in front of what appears to be a shop window. She is in an outdoor setting, possibly shopping or running some errands. Although the image is full of signifiers of femininity and of consumerism such as cosmetics, jewelry, feminine attire etc., there is also text included that acts as linguistic anchorage (Barthes, 37), explaining the image even further. The text reads, "For the girl on the go…the complete, one-step make-up". This ad is meant to appeal to other "busy" girls who are "on the go" who effectively associate with the female in the picture. This woman is an idealized beauty who wears fashionable clothes and wears them well. The women viewing this ad associate with the image she is portraying and essentially want what she has. This fact goes back to the notion of achieving happiness through consumption and material goods. This connection is used by advertisers in advertisements as a way to incite and therefore increase consumption. There are other factors too that affect an increase in consumption. "…the expansion of a middle class with more time and money to spend, the extension of consumer credit and installment buying and the burgeoning of advertising" (Cohen, 112). Having a larger middle class with greater buying power means that a larger number of people are able to make bigger purchases. Larger investments such as cars become attainable. This began with Henry Ford in the early 1900s when for the first time in history the middle class could afford automobiles (Hounshell). In figure 4, this 1965 ad for Plymouth Satellite pictures a man and a woman, back to back with both their arms bent up in the air and their fingers shaped in imitation of a gun, reminiscent of a spy film. They appear as partners, backing each other up. The text reads, "Half the world wants a performance car, and the other half wants a beautiful car." There is a parallel between the beauty of the woman depicted and what it says a woman looks for in a car, in this case, beauty. The woman appears, strong, in an assertive stance similar to that of the man's. This ad acknowledges women as consumers that affect consumer trends. Interestingly enough, it separates the world into two parts: men and women. Men want a performance car and women a beautiful one. Whereas in Ford's days the product was there, as is, for the consumer to purchase, this 1965 ad is from a time when the markets were consumer driven and the consumer had power and choice in what they bought. In figure 5, a variety of adverts for liquor are shown. Just as the other ads, these ones show young, attractive, white, upper or middle class women. They appear content, inviting and seem overall satisfied with the product they are consuming. The caption under the ads from Printer's Ink is interesting and reads, "Women's influence on consumer trends in liquor preferences now has tremendous effect upon the industry's attitudes and methods of doing business. Advertising is no exception.". It is obvious then that women were regarded as an important target consumer group. Essentially, throughout these ads, it seems to be understood that women, as a consumer group, do effectively affect purchasing decisions and therefore trends in the market as well. However, it is important to note that all of these advertisements depict quite similar looking women. They again are all white, middle to upper class, young, attractive and all represent, in some way or another, typically feminine traits. According to Barthes, in order to understand and interpret advertisements the way they were intended to be received, a certain level of cultural knowledge must be present (Barthes, 35). Figures one through five illustrate not only an idealized image of a woman in 1960s North America, but more importantly show how they incited women of this time to consume. > back to main page