1928/1929

Cadillac-1928

This is an example of ‘luxury’ and ‘status’ since a woman is looking at the reader, warmly inviting the audience in. Coupled with the advertisement, this tells the reader that they too can be the object of envy in contrast to their peers since it is “lavish”, “smooth”, and “quiet”. Despite a woman in the picture, the targeted audience can be assumed to be the male reader. This may be the initial societal constructs where provocative women entice men to buy cars since the advertisement attempts to combine luxury and appeal with the purchase of a specific car. 

Studebaker – 1928

This ad depicts the greatest gift of all: “Keys to Happiness”! As a Christmas gift to his wife and family, the jargin used in this advertisement depicts feelings of joy and luxury. It also includes a blurb about how buying a Studebaker would make “other families happy, too!” because it is a Canadian brand and the purchase of said car would help those Canadian workers. The target audience however, is for the breadwinners of this time which is clearly depicted as the male. Despite the audience being perceived of as male, the inclusion of the family image may provoke similar feelings to a female audience as well since she then could ask her husband to buy the car, but the purchasing power lay in the hands of the male. Despite both men and women reading these advertisement, this demonstrates how the inclusion of a family may attempt to engage with the female audience but ultimately the decision comes from the head of the household. 

Chevrolet - 1928

This demonstrates a more “middle class availability” with respect to the price from a male gender neutral lens. Despite the emphasis on affordability, it also depicts how “bigger and better” it is. As compared to what, it does not say, but this demonstrates how cars are not only a symbol of luxury and status for the elite few, but advertisements targeted different income levels even as early as 1928. Here the working-class as a driving force that producers and engineers had to attempt to accommodate may also be applied to the Windsor, Ontario region.