Interesting Ads...

I ended up going home this weekend because my Dad came home to visit. About one month ago my Dad moved to Oklahoma to start a new job. For now, my Mom stays in Jacksonville for a month and then she stays with my Dad for a month. So, since my dad was home I definitely wanted to visit. One night while I was home, my dad decided to bring out all of his photo albums and other memorabilia from when he was younger. 

In his box he had magazines from 1979 and right away I was interested to see the advertisements. Not only was I surprised by the design, but by the products that were being advertised as well. I don't know if surprised is the right word... I suppose that I had never thought about how different older advertisements would be. I'm sure that anyone would guess that the design of ads today is much more advanced. Many of the ads were black and white (when it was clear that they should have been in color) and if they were in color, it was faded or too bright. But, what I found most interesting was the products that were in the advertisements. I kid you not, every ad was either a cigarette ad, airline ad or an alcohol ad. Now, this magazine came out right around the time when doctors were starting to figure out that cigarette's are in fact very bad for people. The copy on every cigarette ad would state something along the lines of, "Finally, less tar without less taste." The alcohol ads were similar to the alcohol ads that we see today, except for the lack of interesting design. Seeing airline ads was very strange since I honestly do not believe I've ever seen an airline ad in my life. It does make sense to me though since gas prices were so low in the 70s that airlines had to advertise in order to bring in consumers. Since gas prices are outrageously high today, airlines know that they will have consumers whether they advertise or not. 

I had a great time looking through these magazines  and seeing all of the older ads. I have two more magazines that my dad kept and I am looking forward to reading them as well.