| Description |
Many American advertising cards in the nineteenth century displayed a variety of visual and rhetorical themes to foster the attention of potential consumers. The appealing elements these cards displayed convinced the public that these easily disposable ephemera pieces were worthy of preservation. In this card for Ayer's Cherry Pectoral, three advertising tropes which can be observed are scenes that inspire young American women, the inclusion of animals, and the imagery medical advertisers used to make their remedial products seem more trustworthy.
Advertising cards that featured children and young adults engaging in consumer lifestyles were appealing to young audiences. For young American girls, a demographic that often lived in constraining social environments, these cards were particularly endearing and relatable, especially when they featured girls of the same age group. The girls on the card participating in happy and even adventurous consumer activities were symbolic of what opportunities were available for young women in a new American industrialized era. This card features a girl in elaborate dress experiencing the outdoors, insinuating that a girl’s quality of life can improve with the advertised product.
American advertisers often included animals in their trade cards to charm and increase consumer patronage. Producers were particularly incentivized to make their advertisements visually appealing to children since younger audiences tended to collect and disseminate trade cards to their parents. This card demonstrates this trend by showing two birds picking cherries from a cherry tree, a wholesome image which helps to facilitate favorable attention from consumers.
As many Americans practiced self-medication and distrusted medical professionals, patent medicine companies were the largest distributors of domestic trade cards. Public ignorance of healthy habits and a lack of advertising regulations on trade cards allowed medical advertisers to make exaggerated and untruthful claims on the beneficial qualities of their products. This marketing approach resulted in great profits for the sellers, but also fostered the prevalence of disease and other illnesses. This card is an example of this trend because it includes the appealing and apt imagery of a girl standing under a cherry tree to convince consumers that the remedy advertised supposedly produces effects which are, overall, positive and healing.
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| Bibliography |
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