Political Correctness Whats That 1

With the festive season underway, we have been closely observing all the new (and old) Christmas adverts. Some adverts have come under harsh criticism for being sexist, whilst others have been deemed distasteful, so we decided to take a look at past adverts before the term ‘politically correct’ became de rigueur. Some of our findings were slightly shocking but equally entertaining. We can’t imagine the uproar some of these adverts would cause if they were released today!  Have a look here: "When advertising wasn't PC"

Anyone can see that adverts have changed huge amounts over the years. They have become more televised and digital, and particularly in recent years we have seen a massive leap into interactive marketing, witnessing some incredibly quirky ideas. To show how much marketing has changed over the centuries we have made some comparisons to today’s adverts.

At this time of year the brand, Coco Cola are known for their classic ‘Holidays are coming’ advert and when this comes on TV we know that Santa is on his way. Throughout the year Coca Cola produce a lot of creative adverts, many concentrating on being active and sporty, if the advert below is real they appear to have done a complete 180⁰ since then.

Another change to adverts could also be down to products evolving. For example today’s BB Cream is an equivalent to ‘Golden Peacock Bleach Cream’ from the 1940. Both adverts  feature ‘beautiful’ women with no impurities, but there have been improvements on the branding and there is no way a skincare product could be sold with the phrase ‘bleach’ in it in 2012.

Funnily enough, when viewed in context, most of these adverts were entertaining, inspirational and most importantly sold; take them out of context however and drop them into today’s market and they’d be blown out of the water. Nothing shows societal marketing trends better than considering past and present...

Some more comparisons; past and present

Kenwood

Motorola