OH, HOW TIMES CHANGE - MAGAZINE ADS 40 YEARS AGO

On Saturday, November 16th, I celebrated my 40th birthday with a party complete with birthday cake, singing, and presents. I ended up with ten bottles of wine, gift cards, a handful of gag gifts, and a little book from my aunt about life in 1973. As I read the book, what struck me the most was the changes in the magazine print ads.

So I decided to do a comparison: a magazine ad from 1973 for Maybelline Powder-Twist Eye shadow and a 2013 ad for Maybelline Falsies® Big Eyes® Mascara.

The first thing that stuck out when I read the 1973 nostalgia book was the numerous words in the ad, the copy. Other than the product name and tag lines, the 1973 ad contained approximately ninety-nine words; the 2013 ad, just a third of that. This reflects what many people have said about today: people want bullet-point, quick, easy, text-message sized copy. The chances of anyone seeing this ad today and reading even all of the thirty-five words on the 2013 version is slim. The chance of reading the ninety-nine words on the 1973 ad? Probably almost zero.

The content of the copy also serves as evidence of another trend in marketing: focusing on benefits. Other than listing the so-1970s colors in which the Powder-Twist is available, the copy focuses on how to use the product. I suppose since this was a new invention, they wanted to focus on how easy it was to use the new method. Today, we'd focus on the time-saving and let the package directions teach the consumer how to use it. Today's ad, as you might expect, focuses on benefits: corner to corner volumization and edge to edge bottom lash magnification.

The differences don't end at the written copy. The entire graphics of the 1973 ad consists of photos of the six eye shadow shades and a lady applying it that takes up about 1/4 of the page. The lady on the 2013 ad takes up about half the page with photos of the wand showing the difference between the upper and lower applicators (and presumably how they help the eyelashes), a photo of the product open and closed, a clip art graphic of eyelashes, and the skyline of New York City in the background. All the 1973 ad has for its background is a homely pink to purplish gradient. The 1973 ad uses what appears to be five different fonts while the 2013 uses somewhere around nine.

Seeing these two ads side-by-side is a real "eye-opening" experience and provides a good lesson on how what worked 40 years ago would not work today.

Here's to 40 more years!
-The Wordsy Woman

Sources:

2013, December 13. Maybelline New York full page advertisement. All You. p. 39.

Worthington, Art (Ed.). 2010. The Year was 1973. Chatsworth, CA: Flickback Media Inc.