History 474B

Fall 2014

Primary Source Assignment

Overview

Paging through old magazines, one can intuitively tell, simply by looking at the ads, that they were published in the 1970s. The avocado kitchens, the earth shoes, the “layered” dresses and wide-lapelled leisure suits, the “textured” room décor, and the eclectic mix-and-match styles – all dead giveaways that you have returned to the 1970s.

Your challenge in this assignment is to analyze print advertisements from the 1970s in order to explain why – beyond our intuition – we know that these ads are from the 1970s. Drawing on our readings and class discussions, you should present an analysis of the ads through a new set of historically informed eyes.

Getting Started

The best way to choose ads is to go to the fourth floor of Oviatt Library where the bound magazines are shelved. There you will find full runs of numerous magazines from the 1970s – Time, Newsweek, Esquire, Atlantic, New Yorker, Parents Magazine (but only from 1978 on). You can also order from storage 1970s volumes of Better Homes and Gardens, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Ebony, Field and Stream, Harper’s, and Playboy (yes, Playboy!)

As you look at the ads, remember the themes from the 1970s we discussed in class and how they suggested a change in values which in turn produced a larger shift in the overall cultural mood. How are the ads that you’ve chosen to analyze suggestive of what was going on in the United States during the “era of limits”?

To structure your discussion, focus your essay on two of the following themes:

• Conserving energy
• Getting “back to nature”
• Raising consciousness (or embracing a new consciousness)
• Responding/adapting to limits
• Grasping for new identities
• Expressing sexuality more freely

Analyzing the Ads

Drawing from Thomas Hine’s The Great Funk and other class readings, as well as our discussions in class, you should analyze (or “decode”) a minimum of eight 1970s print ads (a minimum of four ads for each of the two themes you select). Use your knowledge of the social, economic, and cultural changes that occurred during this period to demonstrate how these ads reveal the changes the country was undergoing.

Consider the following questions as you examine 1970s print ads:

• How does the advertisement appeal to specific values and beliefs popular among 1970s consumers?

• How does the advertisement “pitch” its product in a uniquely 1970s way or capture specific elements of the broader cultural mood of the 1970s?

• Why might the specific images and the choice of words used in the ad resonate with a 1970s audience?

• What do the ads and the products they advertise tell us about the ways that Americans in the 1970s wanted to present themselves?

• If the ad is selling a “lifestyle” even more than a specific product, what are the main elements of that “lifestyle”?

Presenting your Findings

So you don’t have to use the bulk of your paper to describe the ads, be sure to attach copies of them. We are less interested in your description of what’s in the ad (we can see that for ourselves). We’re more interested in your analysis of why these products and these ads would appeal to someone in the 1970s. So, don’t tell us what we already see; give us a plausible “so what” – why is the ad a useful piece of evidence for someone trying to learn more about this historical period? What specific aspects of this ad demonstrate something important to someone doing “historical detective work” on the 1970s?

Requirements

The essay is due on Saturday, October 25^th by 11:59 pm. If you would like to work on the essay with a writing tutor, indicate in the subject line of your email that your submission is a draft. You must turn in the final version one week after your tutor appointment.

Your essay should be 2000 words (about 7 pages).

Photocopies or digital photographs of your eight advertisements should be emailed along with the paper. You can also turn in hard copies of the ads.

Assign each ad a number. On a “Works Cited” page following your essay, give the full magazine cite that corresponds with each ad’s number. For example:

1. Vogue, September 22, 1973.

2. Better Homes and Gardens, October 3, 1977.

Citing

In addition to the Works Cited page, you should cite your magazine sources within the text the first time you refer to them. Include the magazine title and the date of the issue. For example: (Time, 6/6/1974). If you quote from Hine’s book or some other assigned reading, cite, as usual in the text: (Hine, 47).