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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 16 May 2023

Lauren Alex O′Hagan

This paper aims to investigate three promotional publications produced by the Postum Cereal Company – A Trip Through Postumville (1920), How I Make Postum (1924) and The Wonderful

15780

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate three promotional publications produced by the Postum Cereal Company – A Trip Through Postumville (1920), How I Make Postum (1924) and The Wonderful Lunch Boxes (1925) – with the aim of understanding how language and other semiotic resources are used to promote its products as good and healthy choices.

Design/methodology/approach

The three publications were collected from the HathiTrust Digital Library and University of South Florida Tampa Special Collections. They were subjected to multimodal critical discourse analysis to tease out their subtle characteristics and how a combination of language, image, colour, typography and composition are used to represent certain ideas and values related to health and well-being.

Findings

The publications subscribe to three distinct genres – “inside the factory”, “friendly spokesperson” and “fictional world” – each of which are aimed at different target audiences. The first seeks to promote Postum as an open and transparent company; the second to promote Postum as a company that cares about its consumers; and the third to promote the health benefits of Postum in a fun and accessible manner. Nonetheless, they are united in their overall objective to link the regular consumption of Postum as essential for good health.

Originality/value

To date, few studies have been conducted on the Postum Cereal Company, while the limited research conducted on promotional publications has tended to overlook discourses of health and well-being. The three genres outlined in this study, thus, have the potential to foster a reappraisal of promotional publications and showcase their ability to offer new understandings on historical approaches to marketing, particularly the link with health and science.

Details

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-750X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 September 2021

Lauren Alex O’ Hagan

This paper aims to use the advertisements of three major brands – Chymol, Formamint and Lifebuoy Soap – to examine how advertisers responded to the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in…

1815

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to use the advertisements of three major brands – Chymol, Formamint and Lifebuoy Soap – to examine how advertisers responded to the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic in Great Britain influenza pandemic. It looks particularly at the ways in which marketing strategies changed and how these strategies were enacted in the lexical and semiotic choices (e.g. language, image, colour, typography, texture, materiality, composition and layout) of advertisements.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 120 advertisements for the three brands were collected from the British Newspaper Archive and analysed using the theory and analytical tools of multimodal critical discourse analysis. The general themes and semiotic structures of the advertisements were identified, with the aim of deconstructing the meaning potentials of verbal and visual resources used to convey ideas about the pandemic, and how they work to shape public understanding of the products and make them appear as effective and credible.

Findings

Each brand rapidly changed their marketing strategy in response to the influenza pandemic, using such techniques as testimonials, hyperbole, scaremongering and pseudoscientific claims to persuade consumers that their products offered protection. Whilst these strategies may appear manipulative, they also had the function of fostering reassurance and sympathy amongst the general public in a moment of turmoil, indicating the important role of brands in building consumer trust and promoting a sense of authority in early twentieth-century Britain.

Originality/value

Exploring the way in which advertisers responded to the 1918‐1919 influenza pandemic reminds us of the challenges of distinguishing legitimate and illegitimate medical advice in a fast-moving pandemic and highlights the need to cast a critical eye to the public health information, particularly when it comes from unofficial sources with vested interests.

Details

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, vol. 13 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-750X

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 22 June 2012

Joyce M. Wolburg

369

Abstract

Details

Journal of Consumer Marketing, vol. 29 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0736-3761

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 July 2022

Lauren Alex O'Hagan

This paper aims to historicise the contemporary chlorophyll trend through the first academic study of its early marketing in Sweden (1950–1953). Using multimodal critical…

1142

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to historicise the contemporary chlorophyll trend through the first academic study of its early marketing in Sweden (1950–1953). Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, it demonstrates how brands used advertisements to convince female consumers of chlorophyll’s necessity to fulfil certain aspirational goals.

Design/methodology/approach

In all, 150 advertisements for chlorophyll products were collected from the Swedish Historical Newspaper Archive, as well as 600 additional advertisements for the three most popular products (toothpaste/mouthwash, sanitary towels and soap) from 1940 to 1950 and from 1954 to 1964. Then, multimodal critical discourse analysis was used to investigate how the products were marketed before, during and after the chlorophyll trend, identifying the general themes and linguistic/semiotic structures of the advertisements.

Findings

This paper shows how the commercial use of chlorophyll offered a lucrative opportunity for marketers, acting as a “tabula rasa” on which they could use discourses of science, nature, idealised femininity and luxury to draw connections with health, modernity and beauty, despite the product having no real purpose or value.

Originality/value

Viewing this fad from a historical perspective emphasises how brands, marketers and influencers continue to capitalise on the anxieties of female consumers with promises around beauty, hygiene and health. It, thus, offers us critical distance to reflect on contemporary claims about chlorophyll’s health benefits to make informed choices.

Details

Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1755-750X

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 23 June 2017

David Grayson

Abstract

Details

Take Care
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-292-3

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 19 November 2020

Anna Ross

Through the lens of critical drugs theory, which sees drug policy as an oppressive framework that seeks to de-legitimise and stigmatise behaviour that threatens dominant social…

Abstract

Through the lens of critical drugs theory, which sees drug policy as an oppressive framework that seeks to de-legitimise and stigmatise behaviour that threatens dominant social, cultural and gender norms, this contribution focusses on drug policy participation and governance. It focusses on the different ways women and drug-using women engage with drug policy debates and policy development in the case study of Scotland, and the activism that has enabled their recognition as legitimate participants in the policy process. The contribution calls attention to the generic challenges of civil society engagement in drug policy design, monitoring and evaluation; the particular silencing and marginalisation of drug user’s voices in national and international drug policy processes; and the multiple impediments but also opportunities for women to create stakeholder spaces.

Details

The Impact of Global Drug Policy on Women: Shifting the Needle
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-885-0

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 February 2001

Ian Rogerson

165

Abstract

Details

Library Review, vol. 50 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 22 February 2013

Amanda Cossham

338

Abstract

Details

Library Management, vol. 34 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0143-5124

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 1 June 2001

Brian Ellis

81

Abstract

Details

Circuit World, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0305-6120

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 29 January 2024

Fons Trompenaars and Peter Woolliams

Abstract

Details

New Approaches to Recruitment and Selection
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-762-8

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