Advertising - Overview
Advertising is meant to persuade, and the themes and techniques of that persuasion reveal a part of the nation's history. The Museum has preserved advertising campaigns for several familiar companies, such as Marlboro, Alka-Seltzer, Federal Express, Cover Girl, and Nike. It also holds the records of the NW Ayer Advertising Agency and business papers from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Carvel Ice Cream, and other companies. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana comprises thousands of trade cards, catalogs, labels, and other business papers and images dating back to the late 1700s.
Beyond advertising campaigns, the collections encompass thousands of examples of packaging, catalogs, and other literature from many crafts and trades, from engineering to hat making. The collections also contain an eclectic array of advertising objects, such as wooden cigar-store Indians, neon signs, and political campaign ads.
"Advertising - Overview" showing 4 items.
From the Far Corners of the Earth [catalogue]
- Summary
- Black, red, white, grey coloring. Various peoples of the world gathered in triangular shape, all behind Chinese man holding pole over shoulders. In background is giant telephone, globe
- Date
- 1935
- advertiser
- Western Electric Company
- Local number
- AC0060-0000186 (AC Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
La Posta Lodge, El Paso, Texas [postcard]
- Notes
- Series 1, Box 1, U.S.A.--Texas
- Summary
- Photo of the entrance to a motor lodge, built in a Southwestern adobe style, with an inset photograph of the motel interior, with throw rugs and wall decor in an Indian / Southwestern patterns. The postcard has an AAA (American Automobile Association) logo: "...on U.S. 80 West. 5 minutes to the center of city."
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, ca. 1880s-1970s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. [Collection 200.]
- Date
- 1900
- 1920
- 1900-1920
- collector
- Blenkle, Victor A. Dr (physician) 1900- 1978
- Creator
- AAA Associate Service, Pasadena, California
- Subject
- American Automobile Association
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Goya Foods, Inc. Collection, 1960-2000
- Notes
- Prudencio Unanue emigrated to Puerto Rico from northern Spain in 1902, but moved his family to New York in 1916. They opened Unanue, Inc., in 1936 to supply local bodegas. Over the next 30 years the business grew tremendously and eventually began its own food processing, canning, and packaging. In 1961 the company assumed the name Goya Foods, Inc., although it had used Goya as a product name since 1936. By sponsoring music festivals, sports teams, parades, and other activities, Goya Foods supported the cultural life of various communities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The company's current headquarters is in Secaucus, New Jersey
- Summary
- Photographs, calendars, sales promotional materials, cookbooks, packaging, and news clippings. Photographs depict primarily company sponsored events, but a few are family pictures
- Cite as
- Goya Foods, Inc. Collection, ca. 1960-2000, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1960
- 1960-2000
- 1950-2000
- 20th century
- donor
- Goya Foods, Inc
- creators
- Unanue family
- author
- Unanue, Prudencio
- Local number
- 1999.3017 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Cover Girl Advertising Oral History and Documentation Project, 1959-1990
- Notes
- This project is the result of a year-long study of advertising created for the Noxell Corporation's Cover Girl make-up products, 1959-1990. The effort was supported in part by a grant from the Noxell Corporation. The target audience was identified as women 18-54, and initially, the "glamour" ads were targeted at women's magazines, while the "medicated" claims were reserved for teen magazines. Television ads featured both elements. Cover Girl advertising has always featured beautiful women (especially Caucasian women), but the Cover Girl image evolved over time to conform with changing notions of beauty. In the late 1950s-1960s, the Cover Girl was refined and aloof, a fashion conscious sophisticate. By the 1970s, a new social emphasis on looking and dressing "naturally" and the introduction of the "Clean Make-up" campaign created a new advertising focus on the wholesome glamour of the "girl next door," a blue-eyed, blonde all-American image. Through the 1980s, the Cover Girl look was updated to include African-American and Hispanic models and images of women at work
- Summary
- Twenty-two oral history interviews (conducted by Dr. Scott Ellsworth for the Archives Center) and a variety of print and television advertisements, photographs, scrapbooks, personal papers, business records and related materials were gathered by the Center for Advertising History staff. The objective was to create a collection that provides documentation, in print and electronic media, of the history and development of advertising for Cover Girl make-up since its inception in 1959
- Collection also includes earlier material related to other Noxell products, including Noxzema, with no direct connection to the Cover Girl campaign
- Cite as
- Cover Girl Advertising Oral History & Documentation Project, 1959-1990, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1959
- 1990
- 1959-1990
- 1950-2000
- 1890-1900
- 1950-1990
- 20th century
- 1990-2000
- donor
- Noxell Corporation
- interviewee
- Bergin, John
- Brinkley, Christie
- Bunting, George L. Jr
- Colonel, Sheri
- Ford, Eileen
- Giordano, Lynn
- Grathwohl, Geraldine
- Hall, L. C. "Bates"
- Harrison, Fran
- Huebner, Dick
- Hunt, William D
- Lindsay, Robert
- MacDougall, Malcolm
- McIver, Karen
- Nash, Helen
- Noble, Stan
- Oelbaum, Carol
- O'Neill, Jennifer
- Pelligrino, Nick
- Roberts, F. Stone
- Tiegs, Cheryl
- Troup, Peter
- Witt, Norbert
- author
- Ellsworth, Scott Dr
- donor
- Poris, George
- Weithas, Art
- Subject
- Noxzema Chemical Company
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
