Advertising was still a growing industry in the 1960's and its full advantages had not yet been exploited. The Sixties started the age of mass-communication. US agency Doyle Dane Bernach’s "Think Small" ad for the Volkswagen Beetle in 1960 showed a new style of advertising that used stimulating images and thoughtful copy rather than the ‘hard-sell’. The late Sixties was a time of great slogans such as ‘Beanz meanz Heinz’, Esso’s (Exxon’s) ‘Put a Tiger in Your Tank’ and ‘High Speed Gas.’

Advertising could be seen on posters and in magazines and heard on radio, but the most significant post-war development and influence on advertising was television. This forced the advertising industry to reinvent new ways of selling by the use of visual and aural methods.

Not only has advertising been used to promote goods and services but also, since the early 1960's, to raise the awareness of social matters, such as anti-drug abuse campaigns. A young Charles Saatchi created a striking newspaper ad showing the tar collected in a smoker’s lungs for the Health Education Council.

Advertising is an important part of our urban civilisation because it mirrors the best and worst of our contemporary life. Focusing on a particular era of advertising gives an amazing insight into the life of that period.

Last updated: June 01, 2003

Sixties Central, Copyright 1998-2003 by Mandy Hoeymakers.
Information may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes if attribution is given.