FO: Print Ads from the 1940s and 1950s

"The gay sketches above... can only suggest the warm and friendly welcome awaiting you in the Philippines." That's the first sentence of the ad copy for a print ad published in the United States in 1947.

Yes, in case you didn't know, the word "gay" used to be more than just a term for sexual orientation. Looking at the way words are used in ad copy is one way of using the Ad*Access Project in classrooms—from elementary to graduate school—to teach English or History, among others.

There are only 13 ads that mention the Philippines, but there are more than "7,000 ads, mainly from U.S. publications dating between 1911 and 1955." Food for thought from the site's about page: "Few ad agencies retain comprehensive files of their output. And relatively few libraries, museums, or archives make an effort specifically to document the industry."

Bench is one of the few Filipino companies that puts its ads online and has a librarian. Please leave a comment below if you know of other companies that have online archives of their ads.

Via Journal of Search-Engines.


Category: Filipiniana Online