Marketing products in 1930 commercials is my subject today. Why? It’s a blast from the past! Watching the promo below, it really made me think! Wow! Have we come a long way in the way we think about marketing a product! With the invention of the internet (Thanks, Al Gore! :)) and search engines, the manner we market to the public has changed tremendously! Instead of trying to sell a product to the viewer, we now help people find the product they are searching for. (And that of itself would be another topic on search engine optimization!)
Here is one of the 1930 commercials. Spanky McFarland (from Our Gang: The Little Rascals) is the star in this promo. Here are a few things to pay attention to while you watch this short clip.
- Note Spanky’s total disinterest in the bike and in the promotion.
- Spanky is being noticeably coached.
- After Spanky holds a brochure, he throws it on the ground!
- There doesn’t appear to be any editing in this promo! Remember what it was like before spell checker or Microsoft Word? Before picture editors or even before we could edit our blog posts after it’s published?
This promo was created for Speed-O Bikes!
Marketing has changed through the years! It’s been more then 50 years since 1930 commercials. If you still haven’t created a website for your small business, it’s time to get out of the past and hit the fast forward button!