1950s vs. 2009

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The ads both use interesting pictures to draw in the audience. The first ad from the 1950s uses an attractive image of a handsome couple to force or compel the viewer to read the small scenario. The modern ad has a picture of an unattractive woman and a small quote. Both bring in the audience. The modern ad uses language that is humorous to point out that the Listerine product creates so much confidence that obviously repelling people feel as if they are hot shots. The older ad has a lengthier message, about 200 words long, on the topic of how a woman was distancing herself from her boyfriend because of her bad breath. It goes to promote Listerine as “the most widely used antiseptic in the world”. The old ad appeals to the emotions of a female, luring in women and telling them how to get or keep their man by having good breath. The modern ad uses humor to lure in the audience, the small slogan at the bottom informing the viewer that the Listerine strips. The older ad appeals to female audiences, the people who would be doing most of the shopping at the time. The newer ad appeals to most young adults, those in their late teens or early twenties, possibly even those into their thirties. The older ad appeals to the notion of love and happiness, whereas the newer ad appeals to beauty and appearance in the sense that the Listerine strips give confidence about how one looks. The older ad has a long, detailed message, for at the time, the ad would most likely be found in a magazine, when women would peruse it at their leisure. The ad from now, on the other hand, has a brief message with a small slogan or phrase near the image of the product. This minute amount of writing, compared to the 50s ad, appeals to the nature of our times. We as a generation and time period tend to only give commercials and ads a glance before redirecting our attention elsewhere. The older ad definitely focuses on appealing to young women, whereas the newer ad has a wider range of audience. Before, the persuasive techniques could be lengthy, with small stories to draw in the audience and compelling images to initially bring in the viewer. But, the ad from 2009 has one large image with a small phrase meant to excise humor because of the wit involved in calling the large image a picture of a highly attractive woman. The technique of appealing to emotions of love and romantic happiness has now shifted to those of beauty, confidence and even humor.