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“Advertising As Cultural Criticism: Bill Bernbach Versus The Mass Society” By: Thomas C. Frank. Harrison Garovi. Thomas C. Frank. Born March 21, 1965 From Kansas City, Missouri (currently lives in Washington DC)
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“Advertising As Cultural Criticism: Bill Bernbach Versus The Mass Society”By:Thomas C. Frank Harrison Garovi
Thomas C. Frank • Born March 21, 1965 • From Kansas City, Missouri (currently lives in Washington DC) • American journalist, political analyst, historian, and columnist for Harper’s Magazine • Analyzes trends in politics, advertising, popular culture, economics, and mainstream journalism • Studies relationship between politics and culture in the US • His book What’s the Matter with Kansas? garnered nationwide recognition • Has a doctorate in history from the University of Chicago
Anti-Advertising • A style of advertising “which harnessed public mistrust of consumerism-perhaps the most powerful cultural tendency of the age-to consumerism itself.” • Bill Bernbach’s advertising agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB), utilized this strategy for Volkswagen in the 1960s • His agency operated against the norm, having a “hostility to rules of any kind; a sort of commercial antinomianism.” • He emphasized advertising as an artform
Advertising As An Artform • “There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules. They can tell you that [pictures of] people in an ad will get you greater readership. They can tell you that a sentence should be this short or that long. They can tell you that body copy should be broken up for easier and more inviting reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there’s one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.”
Irony of Consumerism • Volkswagen points out that those who save are rewarded the most in life. • Ironic because Volkswagen is trying to sell cars. • “Big 3” automakers notoriously released “new” models every year to encourage consumption. • DDB wished to contradict this mantra. • Clever puns and humor. • Make fun of itself (bad styling, features, etc) • Marketed towards those afraid of conforming.
Changing Volkswagen’s Image “It was hard to forget that Hitler himself was directly involved in designing the Volkswagen. Even though the Fuehrer was helped along by the Austrian car engineer Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, the cute Volkswagen in 1959 reminded lots of people about the ovens.” –George Lois (worked on the Volkswagen account)
New Image • Became associated with the counter-culture • Creative Revolution: “The magic formula by which the life of consumerism could be extended indefinitely, running forever on the discontent that it itself had produced.” • A new “hip” and “different” persona
Questions • 1. Are there any modern brands that utilize these techniques? • 2. Do you still view Volkswagen as a counter-culture symbol? • 3. Do consumers still succumb to consuming on the basis of trying not to conform?
