Madison Avenue
Comes of Age: The Advertising Industry
After several decades of urbanization and industrialization, post-
World War I America was marked by a rapid increase in the availability of
mass-produced merchandise. The 1920's brought a boom in advertising as post war
consumerism and the cult of salesmanship corresponded. Most advertising still
appeared in the print during the 1920's, and ad revenue promoted the growth of
the mass-circulation magazine, called slicks. Advertising became a specialty,
and advertising firms, like law firms and accounting firms, began to move into
the commercial world, where they offered their services in the creation of
local and nationwide advertising campaigns.
The radio boom from 1921 to 1928 was an unprecedented media explosion.
The 1920’s in America were rapid years, packed with fads and speculations and
climaxes of every sort. The American public in the 1920’s flocked to novelty;
fascinated by radio technology, millions of Americans rushed out almost at once
to buy radio receivers. In 1921 there were nearly seven thousand radio sets in
use throughout the United States. By 1928 there were nearly ten million.
Corporations such as Westinghouse, RCA and General Electric built hundreds of
stations to fulfill the public's demands for radio. Only a handful of radio
stations sprinkled the nation in 1921. By 1922 there were 670. The Department
of Commerce was overwhelmed with applications for radio station licenses and
did not know how to handle the assault. Initially the Department prearranged
all stations the same frequency and told them to work out frequency-overlap
arrangements with the neighbors.
Just as advertising was starting to get its ethical house in order, a
new and potentially powerful medium, radio on the horizon. The potential for
advertising abuse within this medium worried many people, and early amateur
broadcasters. As the radio industry developed in the early twenties century,
there was a movement to leave this medium free of advertising. Secretary of
Commerce Herbert Hoover insisted “the quickest way to kill broadcasting would
be to use it for direct advertising. Hoover also believed the radio was
different then print media in a sense that the audience would find it more
difficult to avoid advertising over the air. In spite of all the resistance to
idea of using radio to sell products in the U.S., government and industry
eventually agreed that advertising was the best way to cover the steep costs of
setting and operating a radio station. The first radio commercial was run by
AT&T flagship station, WEAF in New York, in 1922. The commercial advertised
an apartment complex in Queens.
By 1926, when network radio began, advertising had become the accepted
means of supporting radio. Network radio changed the ad industry, giving it
greater reach an impact than the industry had known previously. The consensus
among ass agencies was that the radio advertising needed to entertaining and
attention grabbing to keep the listeners tuned in. Creative talent was needed
moiré than ever, and ad agencies grew as they hired radio specialists.
The term Madison Avenue was taking because all the big time ad
agencies such as GM, Ford and other big business were all located around
Madison Avenue in New York. Radio made the biggest impact of advertising in the
United States.
Saks & Company's Display
of Model of S.S. Giulio Cesare, 1922
The rapid growth
of Madison Avenue and the main road to advertisement in the United States .
LINKS
http://www.louisville.edu/~kprayb01/1920s.html
http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/
http://www.myinsulators.com/commokid/telephones/1920s_telephone_ads.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005846/introduction/introduction.htm
By: David Awwad
Spring 2002