The Big Picture: Match the Ad to the Year
What people sold—and how they were selling it—can tell you a lot about a society at any given time period. What do ads seem to want people to want? What needs or desires do the products sell themselves as fulfilling? Who do ads leave out? Who do they include? Select the year that the following advertisements were published.
1.
1941: Pan American Airways began in 1927 with a single engine aircraft and a single route between Key West and Havana. By 1941, the airline flew to 55 different countries, between North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Airline ads in the late 1930s advertised air travel similar to train travel, with sleeping berths and dining cars. When the U.S. entered World War II, the world’s only aircraft that could carry payloads across an ocean were nine Pan Am Boeing 314 flying Clippers, and three that Pan Am had sold to Britain. The U.S. government took over all of Pan Am’s over-ocean aircraft, crews, and operations. Pan American airplanes were used in overt operations by the War Department, and in 1942, 1,445 war planes were delivered to the British army. [1]
2.
1938: Hormel developed canned ham in 1926, and eleven years later produced the first canned meat product that did not require refrigeration, a distinctive chopped ham and pork shoulder mixture, marketed as “spiced ham.” A major advertising campaign started in mid-1937, promoting the product as “miracle meat” and “anytime meat.” SPAM proved effective for the military and because it wasn’t rationed like beef was, it became a major staple for American families during the war. [2]
3.
1956: While passenger service on the Union Pacific Railroad started in 1866, early accommodations were rough and often uncomfortable. The 1890 Overland Limited, a luxury train, ran between Omaha and San Francisco, and by 1921, passenger revenues reached an all-time high. As the Twenties progressed, the automobile became more accessible and necessary, and Union Pacific took some drastic marketing steps to increase business. Luxurious Steamliner passenger trains began operating in the 1930s with opulent furnishings, impeccable service, and total comfort, developing over the next decades with sleeping cars, coaches, diners and lounges, dome coaches, and dome diners, unique to Union Pacific. [3]
4.
1959: Pharmacist Dr. John Stith Pemberton produced the syrup for Coca Cola in Atlanta in 1886. Marketing for the drink began immediately with coupons and souvenir fans, calendars, clocks, urns, and other novelties depicting the trademark. Coca Cola’s first advertisement appeared in 1895, featuring Boston actress Hilda Clark. By World War II, Coke was bottled in 44 countries on both sides of the conflict. From the mid-1940s through 1960, the number of countries with bottling operations nearly doubled. In 1955, the company introduced varying sizes of bottles. Metal cans were not available until after 1960. Campaign slogans include the 1929 “Pause that Refreshes,” “It’s the Refreshing Thing to Do” in 1936, and 1944’s “Global High Sign.” The 1950s produced “Sign of Good Taste,” “Be Really Refreshed,” and “Go Better Refreshed.” [3]
5.
1969: Panasonic was founded in 1918, selling duplex lamp sockets in Japan, expanding rapidly to other areas. By 1961 the company began producing televisions for an American market. In 1962, television started transmitting via satellite, allowing for real-time images changing the industry. In the mid-1960s, television manufacturers competed to make the smallest set.
6.
1932: Parents started giving children pacifiers around 1800. Concern for the way thumbsucking and other such activities impacted physical and social development prompted adults to use such contraptions as the Baby Alice Thumb Guard.
Rubella
Diphtheria 
Smallpox 
Polio
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website provides resources on (largely present-day) health and health practices, but its 
1915
1925
1917 (Note the military accents.)
1905.
1935.
1910.
1940.
1895.
1955.
1960.
[Question 1] The first photograph of either a president or a first lady broadcasting from the White House is of Mrs. Hoover. She began national broadcasts in 1929, even setting up a practice room in the White House where she could "improve [her] talkie technique." Many of her broadcasts were made from President Hoover's country retreat, Camp Rapidan, where she often devoted her programs to speaking to young people, urging girls to contemplate independent careers and boys to help with the housework. Mrs. Hoover had a degree in geology from Stanford University, as did her husband. She had accompanied him to China for two years, where he hadsupervised the country's mining projects. She later used the Mandarin Chinese she learned then to communicate with her husband privately when they were in the presence of others.
[Question 4] Julia Grant, although it happened after her husband was no longer president. Mrs. Grant went down the Big Bonanza silver mine in Virginia City, Nevada with her husband after hearing that he had wagered that she would be afraid to go. The Grants, along with their son, Ulysses, Jr., visited the mine on October 28, 1879, more than two years after Grant had left office. The mine's fabulous production of silver during the Civil War had done much to undergird the Government's financial credit internationally. Lucy Hayes later descended into the same mine with her husband, President Rutherford Hayes. On May 21, 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt made the national news by visiting the Willow Grove coal mine in Bellaire, Ohio, to observe the working conditions of the miners.
[Question 7] Lyndon Johnson, with his wife Lady Bird on one side and Jackie on the other, was sworn in aboard Air Force One less than two hours after JFK's assassination. The ceremony was delayed to wait for Jackie to arrive. The most famous photograph of the event has Jackie in the foreground, standing in a pink suit still stained with her husband's blood, with LBJ in the center with his hand upraised taking the oath, and with Lady Bird in the background.
