In Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes, Juliann Sivulka recounts the history of American advertising, tracing it from its antecedents and earliest origins to its recent developments in the digital age. In her final chapter, Sivulka acknowledges the slow death of the traditional publishing industry and cautions that “it is easy to imagine the same long downslide for advertising” (405). But ultimately, our author remains optimistic for the future, claiming, “Advertising is an old business. Agencies have been around for a long time. They have adapted… and they will adapt again.” (405).

The book is divided into five parts, each segment delving into the key developments of a particular timeframe in history. Part I briskly touches on origins of printing press in China and then moves on to the arrival of the first press in colonial America, then citing the earliest known “advertising agent” in America to be Volney B. Palmer in Philadelphia.  Part II describes the impact of advertising on the rise of packaged good sales as well as America’s early transitions from a agrarian-based into a consumer-centric economy. Part III and IV comprise the “meat” of the Sivulka’s book, carefully following developments of evermore sophisticated advertising methods alongside advances in communication technology and creative movement. The author saves the last 40 pages to review advertising since 2000, in what Sivulka calls the “Lost Decade”, briefly reviewing interactive and digital approaches like Twitter, Groupon and the iPad.

As a cultural history that takes into account various creative philosophies, criticisms of advertising and the under representation of minorities, I wouldn’t say there’s a wealth of content in this work to either to endorse or critique. Sivulka correlates the history of American advertising with the history of a young, fast-rising country, calling into account the variety of advertising approaches taken by early pioneers including copywriter John Rowell and mail order innovator Montgomery Ward and modern visionaries like Leo Burnett and DDB’s Bill Bernbach.

The author certainly sticks to the book’s premise of examining “how American advertising both mirrors society and creates it” (cover). Sivulka recounts how, in an effort to sell more oranges, orange growers consulted advertisers to introduce orange juice a popular breakfast idea. In the 50’s, in an effort to bring in greater revenue, manufacturers and marketers worked together to promote the concept of “newness” to increase frequency of purchase. This helped contribute to the era of “Keeping up with the Joneses”, as homemakers sought to update their kitchen’s colors as each season launched a new scheme.  A more recent example of how advertising has reflected the “times” is the increased prevalence of messages targeted at gay and lesbian segment of society, turning a lifestyle that had once been (and in many places still continues to be) considered socially unacceptable and turning it into a lucrative market.

One theme that I found particularly interesting was the alternating popularity of hard-sell and soft-sell approaches among the industry over time. Early hard-sell approaches played to a logical appeal, citing facts and outlining the features and benefits of particular products. As markets became more popular, more emotional appeals are employed to make a product stand out from a crowd similarly positioned competitors. What was interesting to see is that this trend generally correlates with high and low economic times – that is the hard, factual approach when consumers are pinching pennies and the softer, more creative and emotional approach when things being to pick up.

Technologically speaking, the progressive history of American advertising is characterized by the rapid ascent and subsequent fragmentation of mass media, leading marketers to face their most diverse and selective audience in modern times towards the end of the twentieth century. “In 1995,” describes Sivulka, “it took three well-place television commercials to reach 80 percent of women television viewers. By 2003, it took 97 spots to reach them. The probability of any one advertisement breaking through… had significantly diminished.” (331-2) In response to the fragmentation of media options, marketers have had to get even more creative and ensure that their “brands must resonate across all media” (404). As an aspiring digital marketer, I certainly endorse this position. One need to look no further than this year’s Super Bowl to see examples of how agencies and brand marketers are exerting efforts to extend the value of their ad buys well beyond the broadcast of the “big game” itself.

In her epilogue, Sivulka claims that “the Internet turned out to be an interactive revolution, as mass communications is evolving from controlling one-way messages into a real-time dialogue with millions of people” (407). Mindful that we shouldn’t be so quick to jump to the “r” word without the benefit of retrospect, there is at least a sea change taking place as far as the manner by which we consume content, and Sivulka admits as much. On the other hand, I wouldn’t go as far to say, as she does, that “advertising will be reaching us in new ways that we can’t comprehend” (407). I think our author is speaking in a bit of hyperbole here because I think we all know how advertising will reach us in the end. As history has shown and Sivulka so carefully documented, whether it’s our physical mailbox, our radios (after much hesitation), or our smartphones, advertising will follow wherever we will choose to give our attention and advertisers will seek to create the process and methods for delivering it there.

All in all, Soap, Sex and Cigarettes, is an encyclopedic whirlwind of American advertising history that I did not find as compelling as I had hoped its title implied (although this probably means I’ve been watching too much Mad Men). It’s beneficial to read such a comprehensive cultural history – especially one that pulls the thread of the past into the future and intelligently discusses contemporary innovations like tablet computers, Hulu and Burger King’s Subservient Chicken campaign in a broader historical context. But, in my opinion, this book is better served for the college undergraduate who is just getting acquainted with advertising industry. Many of the historical examples Sivulka includes may be common knowledge for digital marketers or advertisers who have already spent parts of their careers in the industry. My verdict? It’s been a nice re-cap of “advertising so far”, but Soap, Sex and Cigarettes fails to deliver any valuable prognostications for the future.  I may keep this book around for a bit, but it’ll probably end up back on the shelves at Half Priced Books in the not too distant future.

Sivulka, J. (2011). Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.