What makes a print ad effective is that it should be eye-catching. The advertiser only have very little time to capture the audiences attention. During the 1950s, when they had limited resources, this was a particularly hard thing to do. Comparing it to today's print ads, we have the liberty of splashing ads with dozens of bright colors to catch the audiences attention. Our society allows advertisement to be more liberal rather than conservative. Today, if you show some skin on the ad, people will surely pay attention. "Sex sells", as they say, but that's another blog post. Advertisements during the 1950s are very simple and straight to the point. There's not much of a fanfare. They have the product, and they have to sell it. That's it. 

As I said, due to the limited resources they had back then, they had to think of other ways to catch the audiences' attention. In this Coca-Cola ad, they use the mestiza beauty of movie star Gloria Romero. Her beauty was used to get the audiences' attention. There are a lot to be seen in this ad, underneath it's simple layout and design. We can see that time's beauty standard. Women all over the nation wanted to look as good as Gloria Romero. That's why it's a very effective ad. Another thing is the role of women to the society. Women back then were powerless. They are often pictured as housewives, there to serve their husband and family. This is what Gloria portrays in the ad. A mestiza housewife serving her family the best drink.

The ads back then were very simple and reflects how their society works. Just in that one ad, we were able to peek to the life during the 1950s. We were able to see their beauty standard and analyze gender roles. This just proves that advertisements are not here just to sell products. Advertisements also impacts our culture and can be used as artifacts for us to be able to see what life was before. This ad would not just let us study the history of marketing (marketing communications to be exact), but also our life. We can see the effect of colonization and American occupation and it's impact on our culture. In this simple Coca-Cola ad we were able to see our history. Using this advertisement we are able to find a piece of our identity.