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8/13/2019 adv & myth
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Selling the Myth: Western Images in AdvertisingAuthor(s): Elliott WestReviewed work(s):Source: Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Vol. 46, No. 2 (Summer, 1996), pp. 36-49Published by: Montana Historical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4519878 .Accessed: 24/01/2013 11:38
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8/13/2019 adv & myth
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Whether t's a westernerfinding artlple pace on ajetliner, an Indian sendingsmoke signals with hisBenson & HedgesX heMarilzoro man riding at thehead of the herd, or a wotnanwith her long legs tuckedlnto western bootsXadvertisers arre ound theWest an alluring tratagem.
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8/13/2019 adv & myth
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I'S i 't . tIp'fn* t hl i toig t'thaIo l' I in n a iStvs I
FOOTWEAR
'..'
SURGEONENERALSARNING:uwnSmokrngNow reatlyeduceserius isksoYour ealth.
ACAdvertising is the rhetoric of de-mocracy." So writes Daniel Boorstin,
..L'- and he makes a good case.' Advertis-ing is the most highly developed of our per-suasive arts, made so from the continuousstruggle among businesses for the favor of
American consumers as they vote, economi-cally speaking, for their toothpastes, automo-biles, and breakfast cereals. Ads speak to usthrough the folk culture-from tall tales andhyperbole to horror fantasies and patrioticgas-that is the true common tongue of ourdisparate nation. This rhetoric shows the weak-nesses and excesses of democracy noted bycommentators from Alexis de Tocqueville toGeorge Will. "You must write your advertise-ments to catch damn fools-not
college pro-fessors," advised George P. Rowell, a
nineteenth-century entrepreneur of the busi-ness. If you do, he added, "you'll catch just asmany college professors as you will of any othersort. 1"2
Advertising is most democratic in its ubiq-
uity. An American is exposed on average to
fifteen hundred advertising appeals every day.A typical consumer pays attention to only
seventy-six ad tis ut of that barrage.s So we walk
through our days engaging in a largely uncon-scious conversation with hundreds of would-be persuaders. They pitch; we filter and
many ollege rofessors syouwill f nyother
choose. Here is an ongoing campaign withthousands of candidates, and it requires suc-
cessful advertisers to understand the Ameri-A pcal cnsum er pays matter tn tho
seventy-six ads out of that barrage: So we walk
office-seekers whooperate
in thecomparativelysimple marketplace of political democracy.
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8/13/2019 adv & myth
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MONTANA HE MAGAZINE F WESrERN HISTORY
Small wonder hen, that advertisers avedrawn eavily nd oftenon the westernmyth. fno medium as been n closer communion ith
the mass mind han advertising, o popular raditionis moredeeply ntrenched n American ulture han heWestern. Brought ogether, heyhavebeen a real ovematch.By the early 900S portraits f buffalo nd bron-coswerebeingused o sell iquor nd prunes.Today, asa new century ears, western mages an be seen n adsforeverything rom igarettes o stationwagons.
Modern advertising nd the Western have had acommon, nteractive istory. During he first hird ofthe present entury, he advertising usiness hangeddramaticallyn its goals and echniques. tsearlier dealwassimply o describe he goodsand services ffered.In a competitive ge, Horace Greeleywrote n 1850,every ensible businessmanmust et the public knowwhathe is selling. But n this work, he advised, "leaveclowns' ests to the circus, and et sober men speakastheyact, with directness nd decision."4 y the 920Suhowever, manufacturers ere making heir productsmore alluring y manipulating he consumer's spira-tionsand anxieties. hey weremoving oward hestrat-egy ater ummed p by Charles Revson: In he actorywe make osmetics. n the store we sell hope."5 Mean-while, the circulation f periodicals was expanding tan extraordinary lip. As ad executives eached ut tothat massmarket, t became part of their ob to gaugethe current Americanmood and to appeal o custom-ers through heir most deeply rooted values.
One of the best expressions f thosevalues, he Western, made ts appearanceduring he same years. The generation tnM
the irst modernwestern ovels, watched Ithe flourish and decline of Wild West :E_shows,and saw he earliestwestern ilmsand movie tars. Adsfor Buffalowhiskey v 0x9x^and Mohawk ires apped he samepopu-
lar fascination hat brought uccess and Xv *-7fortune o OwenWister nd BroncoBillyAnderson. From hen until now adver- _tising and the western myth have beenan enduring ombination. _ 1R
Indeed, the combination has been |" tboth enduring nd revealing, orwestern | z t3rcourse, they make or appallingly ad P^