An emotional reason to buy milk, curtesy of Carnation Milk.
By the 1950s, television sets were in half of all U.S. homes.
Which means almost everyone had a TV, but no one was ever really taught how to watch TV.
And it shows, especially in the ads that were created then.
Everyone wants to feel two things before they buy:
That they’re making the decision to buy and no one is telling them to buy.
And, whatever their reason is for buying needs to be validated by emotion.
And this Carnation Evaporated Milk ad from 1951 does both.
The girl in the ad has no interest or need for the product, but it’ll help her chances of impressing a boy from school.
And this turns her from ‘salesman, please go away,’ to ‘salesman, please tell me more.’
Fast forward 70 years, how often do we find ourselves buying things that’ll promise us something similar?
To make us feel like a child again...
To make us fit in with friends...
To make us feel attractive amongst pretty strangers…
People think they’re in control of their emotions.
Yet, if that were the case, we wouldn’t continue to use these dated selling techniques.
— George
