Inger L. Stole
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037122
- eISBN:
- 9780252094231
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037122.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter details the Council’s activities throughout 1944. It studies how individual advertisers were coached to stay on course, sacrificing money, resources, and some of their creative ...
More
This chapter details the Council’s activities throughout 1944. It studies how individual advertisers were coached to stay on course, sacrificing money, resources, and some of their creative independence to streamline the government’s campaigns and make the Council a success. Most of the government’s requests were for help with noncontroversial campaigns, which meant there was little chance that participating advertisers might arouse public resentment. But this was not always easy, especially when commercial concerns clashed with patriotic goals—a fact driven home by a highly controversial anti-venereal disease campaign. With this campaign, the Council found itself awkwardly in the middle of its obligations to the Office of War Information and the need to protect individual advertisers’ self-interest.Less
This chapter details the Council’s activities throughout 1944. It studies how individual advertisers were coached to stay on course, sacrificing money, resources, and some of their creative independence to streamline the government’s campaigns and make the Council a success. Most of the government’s requests were for help with noncontroversial campaigns, which meant there was little chance that participating advertisers might arouse public resentment. But this was not always easy, especially when commercial concerns clashed with patriotic goals—a fact driven home by a highly controversial anti-venereal disease campaign. With this campaign, the Council found itself awkwardly in the middle of its obligations to the Office of War Information and the need to protect individual advertisers’ self-interest.
Inger L. Stole
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252037122
- eISBN:
- 9780252094231
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252037122.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This concluding chapter discusses the impact of wartime events on advertising and consumer activism after World War II, and examines their reverse trajectories in the 1950s. With a few notable ...
More
This concluding chapter discusses the impact of wartime events on advertising and consumer activism after World War II, and examines their reverse trajectories in the 1950s. With a few notable exceptions, it was not until the later 1960s that advertising came under new scrutiny by a nascent consumer movement. The key factor in the transformation of advertising’s image was the (War) Advertising Council’s tireless work on behalf of the advertising community. Displaying an excellent sense of timing and direction, the WAC coached and chastised individual advertisers, pleading for their compliance in what it believed to be a fantastic public relations opportunity. The war experience had shown that just as advertisers were capable of providing the keys to social success, they were equally adept at guiding the public through issues of political magnitude.Less
This concluding chapter discusses the impact of wartime events on advertising and consumer activism after World War II, and examines their reverse trajectories in the 1950s. With a few notable exceptions, it was not until the later 1960s that advertising came under new scrutiny by a nascent consumer movement. The key factor in the transformation of advertising’s image was the (War) Advertising Council’s tireless work on behalf of the advertising community. Displaying an excellent sense of timing and direction, the WAC coached and chastised individual advertisers, pleading for their compliance in what it believed to be a fantastic public relations opportunity. The war experience had shown that just as advertisers were capable of providing the keys to social success, they were equally adept at guiding the public through issues of political magnitude.
