September 24, 2013
Kellogg Cereal Advertising: Society’s Mirror It has been said that to understand the present, you must first know the past. Kellogg’s advertisements have been a staple in society since 1906 using different media avenues to present their products to consumers. Their historical advertisements are essentially a mirror into past societies. This presentation will review how Kellogg’s cereal advertising concepts and methods have changed throughout the decades and how they reflected the trends and concerns of the American people from the 20th century (1940s) through the early 21st century (present).
Advertising Concepts Advertisements come in many different forms from the paper press, to radio and television, internet, billboards, and even celebrity branding. It is used to draw consumer business by creating a need or want for specific products or services . Advertisements have been utilized to target mass audiences as well as target smaller specific audiences. With the continual advancement of technology, advertising techniques will continue to be reinvented even though its purpose has remained the same for centuries.
According to William O’Barr, from the Advertising Educational Foundation (2005), advertising can be traced back as far as the 1600s during the early stages of globalization. Advertisements were printed in newspapers to sell wares from new worlds and sparked dreams of prosperous lives in a foreign country. The circulation life of advertisements is usually short lived as they are replaced often to keep consumers interested in a product. However, advertisements that are preserved can be useful in piecing together images of what the society that created them was like (O’Barr, 2005).
Kellogg: A Brief History In February of 1906 the Kellogg brothers, Will Keith and John Harvey, established the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company . When the company created their incredibly