Summary: In Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin reveals how advertisements made in the past can be used today to examine the values of that era. She shows how the Coca-Cola ad appeals to the largest audience in America, how it shows the importance of the military, how it presents the white and blue collar workers, and how people of color and women were viewed during that time. The ad was very much geared towards the white working males of America, the people most likely to buy their product. In the front of the ad stands military men from all of its branches. This shows the importance of our military in a time shortly after WWII. On either side of the military men are the white and blue collar workers. It shows how the civilian workers are important to American society, but not as much as the military men. Finally, the ad only shows a few women, dressed casually, and appearing only to be there for the men. This shows how women were viewed as unimportant in society. Additionally, there are no people of color shown in this ad. This implies the racism of the general public is still quite strong at that time. The author concludes that ads like that of Coca-Colas show the values of society during that time, and that Coca-Cola was a powerful company that helped to empower, and unite the workers of America.
Paraphrase: English Major Melissa Rubin reveals the length of knowledge that is stored within advertisements of different time periods. We can use them to understand the cultures and societal views of those times.
Quote: When analyzing the Coca-Cola ad from the 1950s, Melissa observes that the crowd is "overwhelmingly male and apparently all white" (176). This shows the cultural views of advertisement companies at that time.
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