Summary Of Inger L. Stole's Advertising At War
Counter to the previous argument may be traced from Inger L. Stole’s “Advertising at War: Business, Consumers, and Government in the 1940s”. here Stole discusses the role and impact of advertisement in the United States during the Second World War. Stole argues that by the start of year 1941, defense theme advertisements became popular among the masses. These advertisements were executed by both commercial sector brands and the U.S. Army. Initially the ratio of defense ads was higher in newspapers and magazines but later on a decline was observed in public interest in defense theme advertisements. Stole strengthens the argument by referring a study conducted on 18 consumer magazines of that time claiming that out of 13,741 advertisements published in 386 issues only 498 (3.6%) advertisements were found using defense as a theme.
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That depicts that with the passage of time public had started loosing interest in war advertisements.
This is pretty much true that the commercial sector brands/ companies used to adopt war theme in order to attain public attention and to associate their brand with patriotism, that to increase the consumption and ultimately sale of the product. Whereas the government used advertisement as tool to build a strong home front and keep the public in confidence regarding war affairs. But as soon as the people starting giving less attention to such advertisements, it raised a question on the efficiency of war themed advertisements. The popularity of such advertisements was even lesser in women magazines or the magazines with more female readership. A research depicts that there was a minor amount of war themed ads in such magazines i.e. 0.7% where as other publications like Times, Look and Liberty had a slightly more ration of such ads ranging between 6.3 to 8 percent. This was even a small percentage that called the advertisers and manufacturers to rethink their PR
tactics.
As it become inevitable to engage the tool of advertisement for fulfilling war time needs, the manufacturers along with the government put efforts to reestablish the war themed advertisement. Certain departments of the U.S. government including Price Administration were initially challenging the effectiveness of such advertisements but with constant efforts from different sources they understood that war themes advertisements are important for communicating war needs to the public. Thus a bond of mutual understanding was established between the government and the advertisers. This was the time when the Advertising Council was seeking the maximum help it could get and the government’s attitude was in their favor. Stole refers to a letter written by Paul B. West to American Vice President of the time, Henry Wallace which read:
“I know that our members are willing and anxious to be the utmost aid in winning the war. This aid can be used not only in the form of increased production of war goods, but also the efficient use of mass communication in giving the public the information it needs and in promoting the voluntary cooperation of all Americans… By bringing the proper representatives of the government together with this group in the type of meeting we have planned, the needed understanding can be achieved and with it the cooperative effort which is so essential to the success of the war program”
Unlike India, there is a lot of research done on America’s Second World War scenario. America was a key player during the Second World War. Number of American soldiers was fighting on different war fronts round the globe. It became necessary for the state to earn public confidence and well as to build trust among the soldiers’ relatives. In the U.S. different brands / manufacturers took this as opportunity to support the government for the cause and get their selves known and recognized by the public. There were a couple of manufacturers who aimed not to sell any product but to associate them with the fulfillment of war production needs. John Bush Jones claims that during the Second World War, maintaining unity was one of the major concerns of U.S. government. Advertisements were used as a practical source in this regard. Jones refers to an ad published on 1st December 1941 in ‘Life’ magazine. The ad consisted of a drawing of seven people walking towards the reader. Three of them were women, two men, (all well dressed middle class civilians) a sailor on the left and a soldier on the right side. The ad’s caption read “You Bet there’s National Unity in the Gift We Want This Christmas” This was a Parker Pens ad published during the Christmas month with very focused message published before the incident of Pearl Harbor giving a feel of unity to the home front. As mentioned, most of the advertisements were focused to associate the products with war efforts, similar efforts were made by a steel brand known as ‘Inland Steel’ which published a series of advertisements in famous magazine ‘Time’. Some of the captions used by Inland Steel in these advertisements were “Over a Million Soldiers Will Sleep on Cots of Inland Steel” and “At Inland ‘Full Speed Ahead’ Helps Build Our Two-Ocean Navy”. Now this was an advertisement that tried to establish a bonding with war efforts and portray an image of the company doing its bit for the war. This approach could help the brand to raise its positioning and give a sense of satisfaction to the consumers attaching themselves to the brand.
That depicts that with the passage of time public had started loosing interest in war advertisements.
This is pretty much true that the commercial sector brands/ companies used to adopt war theme in order to attain public attention and to associate their brand with patriotism, that to increase the consumption and ultimately sale of the product. Whereas the government used advertisement as tool to build a strong home front and keep the public in confidence regarding war affairs. But as soon as the people starting giving less attention to such advertisements, it raised a question on the efficiency of war themed advertisements. The popularity of such advertisements was even lesser in women magazines or the magazines with more female readership. A research depicts that there was a minor amount of war themed ads in such magazines i.e. 0.7% where as other publications like Times, Look and Liberty had a slightly more ration of such ads ranging between 6.3 to 8 percent. This was even a small percentage that called the advertisers and manufacturers to rethink their PR
tactics.
As it become inevitable to engage the tool of advertisement for fulfilling war time needs, the manufacturers along with the government put efforts to reestablish the war themed advertisement. Certain departments of the U.S. government including Price Administration were initially challenging the effectiveness of such advertisements but with constant efforts from different sources they understood that war themes advertisements are important for communicating war needs to the public. Thus a bond of mutual understanding was established between the government and the advertisers. This was the time when the Advertising Council was seeking the maximum help it could get and the government’s attitude was in their favor. Stole refers to a letter written by Paul B. West to American Vice President of the time, Henry Wallace which read:
“I know that our members are willing and anxious to be the utmost aid in winning the war. This aid can be used not only in the form of increased production of war goods, but also the efficient use of mass communication in giving the public the information it needs and in promoting the voluntary cooperation of all Americans… By bringing the proper representatives of the government together with this group in the type of meeting we have planned, the needed understanding can be achieved and with it the cooperative effort which is so essential to the success of the war program”
Unlike India, there is a lot of research done on America’s Second World War scenario. America was a key player during the Second World War. Number of American soldiers was fighting on different war fronts round the globe. It became necessary for the state to earn public confidence and well as to build trust among the soldiers’ relatives. In the U.S. different brands / manufacturers took this as opportunity to support the government for the cause and get their selves known and recognized by the public. There were a couple of manufacturers who aimed not to sell any product but to associate them with the fulfillment of war production needs. John Bush Jones claims that during the Second World War, maintaining unity was one of the major concerns of U.S. government. Advertisements were used as a practical source in this regard. Jones refers to an ad published on 1st December 1941 in ‘Life’ magazine. The ad consisted of a drawing of seven people walking towards the reader. Three of them were women, two men, (all well dressed middle class civilians) a sailor on the left and a soldier on the right side. The ad’s caption read “You Bet there’s National Unity in the Gift We Want This Christmas” This was a Parker Pens ad published during the Christmas month with very focused message published before the incident of Pearl Harbor giving a feel of unity to the home front. As mentioned, most of the advertisements were focused to associate the products with war efforts, similar efforts were made by a steel brand known as ‘Inland Steel’ which published a series of advertisements in famous magazine ‘Time’. Some of the captions used by Inland Steel in these advertisements were “Over a Million Soldiers Will Sleep on Cots of Inland Steel” and “At Inland ‘Full Speed Ahead’ Helps Build Our Two-Ocean Navy”. Now this was an advertisement that tried to establish a bonding with war efforts and portray an image of the company doing its bit for the war. This approach could help the brand to raise its positioning and give a sense of satisfaction to the consumers attaching themselves to the brand.