Race & Gender in Magazine Ads

Paper Summary:

This paper compares magazine advertising of the 1920s and 1930s with magazine ads of the 1990s in the way each portrays contemporary views of race and gender in America. Advertising has always represented a mirror on society, sometimes reflecting the newest trends but more often showing the way that society sees itself at the time.

From the Paper:

"This paper compares magazine advertising of the 1920s and 1930s with magazine ads of the 1990s in the way each portrays contemporary views of race and gender in America. Advertising has always represented a mirror on society, sometimes reflecting the newest trends but more often showing the way that society sees itself at the time. During the 1920s, magazine advertising first became a major advertising tool, and its colorful pictures and even more colorful copy reflect the brash, loud confidence of a nation that had just won its first world war. The ads of the time reflect the growing independence women were experiencing, as they gained the right to vote and began to do in public what they had never before dared - smoking cigarettes, showing their legs, traveling on their own. The ads also reflect the continued subservience of blacks and other minorities; when they appeared.."

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