1920’s Advertisement Assignment
Historical Context: During the 1920’s, Americans became mass consumers of newly invented consumer products
which helped spur the nation’s economy. Advertising agencies took the lessons learned, during the propaganda efforts
of WWI, to persuade Americans to purchase new products for their homes. The consumer age was born with name
brand products replacing no name store products. Some of the advertisements are quite different from what we see
today, and in some ways they are quite similar. See the examples at the bottom.
Directions:
1. Watch the video on 1920s advertising; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rs69vxaRSI
2. Using Google images, and the internet sources, find any product that was advertised in the 1920’s. Then show the
same product as it exists today (2000- present). Show both of the advertisements. (Copy and paste them into a
Word or Google document. Tell where you found the ad.).
3. Answer the following questions:
a.
What product is being advertised?
b.
Who are the advertisements targeting? Are they targeting mainly women, men, children, teen- agers, or
someone else? Is one advertisement clearer on whom they are targeting?
c.
What are the differences between how the company advertised in the 1920’s versus today’s
advertisement? What are some of the ways in which they are still similar?
d.
If you lived in the 1920’s, do you think you would want to buy the product based on the advertising? In
the current time period, would you want to buy the product based on the advertising? Which
advertisement would make you buy the product, in other words, which advertisement was more
persuasive?
4. Write a paragraph to compare and contrast the two advertisements.
 https://myclassicgarage.com/social/profile/joepep-automotive-portraits
 https://www.pinterest.com/pin/454089574907650822/