My Experience With the History & Future of Advertising

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, and the need for advertising and graphic design spread like wildfire to the masses, it seems as if consumers of products have created a fascination with collecting advertising memorabilia from their favorite brands. Brands rooted in Americana like Coca-Cola and Ford have long had people searching for pieces of memorabilia. Artist Andy Warhol famously created masterpieces capturing consumer goods in his world famous screen printed masterpieces. It truly seems like people cannot get enough of remembering and preserving the “good old days” of their favorite brands.

This fascination is one that I witnessed first hand growing up with my own family. My father, a lover of classic cars, has spent years tracking down any and all Buick related print advertising he could get his hands on. From showroom catalogs to calendars he needed all of it. Through networking with other classic car lovers, his collection has become quite sizable over the years. My father’s fascination with collecting print advertisements from the brand was rooted in some of his favorite childhood memories of my great-grandparents' Buick, a 1937 Buick Special. He treats each piece as if it were gold and does his best to preserve and keep every item in impeccable shape, another true artform in itself.

I have also had the pleasure of watching other family members showcase their love of brands through collecting advertisements and memorabilia. My uncle has been collecting NAPA Automotive memorabilia since he was child. He eventually moved to California in his early twenties to further his career as an automotive salesman with the company. Through his time with the company, he was able to fill his entire large-scale, detached garage from floor to ceiling with NAPA advertising. Unlike my father, he chooses to display his collection like a large-scale, collage-based, immersive art gallery with each place you look showcasing different chapters in the brand's history.

As I sit and reflect, I wonder, what will eventually happen to people like my father and uncle due to the incredible detour away from print advertising into a totally new landscape of digital, social media, and search based media? What will happen to the extensive networks of strangers who bond over their love for collecting? How will we be able to conserve and showcase the history of brands in a physical form that is not through virtual reality or prints of digital campaigns? Collecting and conservation is truly an artform within itself and there is truly something beautiful about consumers showcasing their undying love for a brand. Hopefully brands and advertisers can see the importance of their diehard fans and can balance moving forward digitally with treating them to physical collectibles every once in a while.

Mary Corbin