How did health-related ad appeals change over the time period covered in MMA?
One of the striking differences between the pre- and post-World War II periods is the use of what advertisers referred to as “fear copy,” that is, appeals that tried to frighten people into buying a product. As historians have noted of interwar advertising in general, ads in the 1920s and 1930s often referred, if only indirectly, to potentially serious, even fatal health problems. In contrast, post-1945 ads seem much more low key in their health appeals. The reasons for this overall shift are unclear. One factor may have been the introduction of antibiotics in the 1940s and 1950s, which encouraged an optimistic mood in American medicine and public health; this mood may have helped undercut fear-based appeals in advertising copy. (See “Suggestions for Classroom Use” for some comparative exercises.
