The development of a mass society based on mass consumption depends on introducing the consumers to the product; this is done most effectively through advertising. Mass advertising made possible the development of mass newspapers in the mid-nineteenth century. During the same time, advertising agencies formed first to serve as brokers between the newspaper and the client, and later to help the client in devising ways of reaching the reader/ consumer. This interaction also consolidated the position of the advertisers who became major players in all subsequent commercial media in America.

In 1999, $17 billion was projected to be spent on advertising, something over $399.40 per person.

Some products advertised in America during the mid-nineteenth century remain dominant in the advertisement world today. Brand names, thus name recognition, became important through advertising. Consumers began to demand Campbell’s soup (1869), Levi Strauss’s overalls (1873) and Procter & Gamble’s Ivory soap (1879). Another product, patent medicine, commanded half of advertising space in the late nineteenth century. In the 1990s, prescription drugs were once again allowed to be advertised, changing both pharmaceutical development and the etiology of disease. Patent medicine advertising was also important because it created a crisis with its exaggerated false claims, and brought in the government to regulate the truthfulness of advertisements, alongside self-regulation by the industries themselves.

When radio came along in the early twentieth century, advertisers found a new venue to push their products. Because of the large revenue already visibly generated through advertising, Americans chose to adopt commercialism rather than other financial means, like tax collection, to support the broadcasting industries. By the early 1920s, many radio shows, like the soap operas, were sponsored by particular products. Advertising firms, such as Young and Rubicam, produced popular radio shows with Jack Benny for their clients. Early television shows also carried sponsors’ names, for instance Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theater. Today, Procter & Gamble still own television soaps like As The World Turns.

Postwar Americans live in a world permeated by commercial images. Yet, while advertising does not guarantee more sales, it does promote name recognition: the absence of advertising is perceived as a detriment to sales. At the same time, advertising does not simply sell a product, it promotes consumerism and produces consumers. This has enabled consumerism to become the American way of life.

The industry also refined its tools in order to understand and reach the consumer, as well as to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements. George Gallup began polling of public opinion, while A.C. Nielsen sold indices of food and drug sales. Advertisers found out that women made most of the decisions about what to buy for the household, so many advertisements were created with a female audience in mind. While soap operas were major poles for women listeners and viewers in both radio and television, Hollywood has used its glamorous stars to sell particular images for women. By the 1940s, it used product placement to sell Bette Davis’ transformed look in Now Voyager through press releases urging women to buy the cosmetics Bette used.

Advertising does not exist in an unconstrained marketplace, however. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and later the FCC, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other government agencies have all regulated advertising in one form or another.

Consumer Reports, consumers’ union and other private groups examine whether advertising claims are truthful or not; Ralph Nader and other public interest researchers have also challenged corporate claims. The industry trade group, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, established in 1917, also has regulated its practice to protect the credibility of the industry. However, the government, in general, favors the advertising industries. While blatantly false claims are not tolerated, in the era of deregulation, the Supreme Court extended 1st Amendment protection to advertisement (1976), and Congress removed the FTC’s power to stop “unfair” advertising (1980).

Furthermore, added financial incentives are given to advertisers where advertisement expenses are tax write-offs.

Advertising does not simply create brand names and sell products, but it also helps define culture. One of the most successful advertising icons is the Marlboro Man, the archetypal cowboy created in 1955 to change Marlboro from a woman’s cigarette to a man’s cigarette. The sales of Marlboro soared 3.241 percent within one year. The Marlboro man, though controversial, has become a global emblem of American masculinity, rugged, individualistic and tough. The Aunt Jemima icon, an 1893 image of an African American woman who served happily was attacked in the 1950s for its portrayal of the black mammy stereotype. Yet it has not disappeared, but has undergone various modernization schemes to represent changing sensitivity towards race while maintaining brand identity. Automobiles, the quintessential American symbol, are the most advertised items in the country, urging Americans to have more than one car and new cars every few years.

In the 1990s, with ever more sophisticated rating systems, advertisers do not simply want to reach as many people as possible, but also want to target, through niche marketing, particular groups of people who are prone to spending more money. At the same time, since the mass media is totally dependent on advertising, media content has been affected by the changing input of advertisers. Fortune, for example, reported that Forbes magazine “systematically allows its advertising executives to see stories and command changes before they are run.” In 1999, many major advertisers, like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, IBM, are once again providing financial support for the WB network to develop family friendly television shows. Other niche appeals to teenagers or minorities may define television or cinema products so as to exclude dialogue about shared/public values. In the early twenty-first century, the Internet has become an ever expanding medium for advertising.

Advertising not only sells products, but also sells the Government too. During the Second World War, the War Advertising Council was formed to promote voluntary advertisement campaigns. This unit was later renamed the Ad Council. It specializes in making advertisements for non-profit and social issues, which radio and television stations are required to play as public service requirements in their licensing.

Politicians and lobbyists also use advertising. In the wars on drugs of the 1980s, comprehensive advertisement campaigns were launched in different media to push for behavioral change accompanying legislation. In the 1990s, debates over healthcare have been fought through intensive advertising inside the Beltway, regardless of how effective messages or coverage may have been nationwide. Political campaigns are also big spenders for advertising. In 1999, George Bush, the favored candidate for the Republican Party for the 2000 presidential election, raised so much money for his campaign that he foreswore the federal money for the primaries which would restrict his spending. For others, this proves a final dilemma of product and image that advertising has fostered within American mass society.

Advertising, in fact, brings together the economic and political success of the American century with more troubling themes—massification (versus ideals of individualism), manipulation instead of freedom, image instead of truth. These contradictions, juxtaposed to the pervasive power of advertising not only in commerce but in politics, literature, education and healthcare, suggest dilemmas the nation has yet to resolve.