Advertisements have been around as long as the trading of goods have been around. According to Wikipedia, Thomas J. Barratt, "the father of advertising", created on of the first slogans in the 1860s, "Good morning. Have you used Pears' soap?" This slogan was ubiquitous to the brand of Pears soap that was being sold for many decades after its debut.
When cars were first being promoted by Ford, they had the same need to get their brand out there.
This is an old ad created by Ford to promote their newly made cars. It depicts a family: a father driving, the mother in the front passenger seat, and the sister and kid brother in the back. Ford Motors didn't take the approach that Barratt did. Barratt created a catchy slogan that would embed the soap he was selling into the mind of the mass consumer. Ford instead created a more sophisticated, full-paged ad to showcase their touring car. The ad shows the "ideal" vision of a family driving through the countryside with their new For Motors touring car. The text explains why a Ford car should be a Ford Car should be a family's next large purchase. The ad also gives the product the illusion of exclusivity and scarcity by saying the car is in high demand and limited supply.
Here is a Ford ad from 2013 that showcases the Ford Fusion. I noticed that the car itself is more of the focus in most modern car ads, such as this one. Car companies are no longer trying to sell the image of a driving America, because most of us already have to utilize motor vehicles in our lives. Instead, Ford has to try to stand out to the plethora of other car companies. They do this by highlighting the 37 mpg as well as running a viral video campaign.
It's interesting to see the change in direction in the two ads. The old ad tries to sell off a new product by selling a lifestyle, while the new ad has to struggle to keep up with the competition.
Here's the "viral" video the link in the new ad leads to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfJ5Vuvlu8A
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