Tobacco Ads

Advertising is emerged with the development of market economy. It is the link between manufacture, transportation, promotion and consumers. It also plays an important role in guiding the market and consumer psychology.Thanks to the industrial and commercial development in modern Shanghai, advertising as a way of promoting products, was much welcomed, and many people would like to pay special attention to it. By1930s, the advertising industry in Shanghai was in full feather. Newspaper advertising was the most influential form of advertising at that time. Shenbao, as a commercial newspaper, advertising was a crucial part of it. We can find many forms of ads in Shenbao.Shenbao advertising is a very important media through with we can look into the political situation, national mood and social culture in old Shanghai. Soon after the outbreak of the Mukden Incident of September18, many advertising which focused on "fighting the Japanese"(kangri) and "saving the nation"(jiuwang) appeared on Shenbao. On7July1937shots fired around Lugouqiao (Marco Polo Bridge) west of Beijing heralded the eruption of the Sino-Japanese War. During the war, the Chinese nation rose to fight for national salvation. Advertising, like the media of social communications in general, acts as a mirror, reflecting attitudes and values of the surrounding culture. Shenbao advertising during the first stage of the Sino-Japanese war, was one of the forms to reflect the Chinese nation’s fight against foreign aggression. During that time, many companies jumped on the patriotic bandwagon, adapting their advertising to confer with the spirit of the times. This thesis classifies these ads into three categories in terms of content:The first type contains many war-related words and phrases, such as "enemy"(diren),"saving the nation"(jiuwang),"attack"(jingong),"weapon"(wuqi),"invincible army"(tiejun),"fighting the enemy"(kangdi),"annihilate"(jianchu).The second type of ads is packaged as news or news commentary to draw readers’attention.The third type focuses on the health of soldiers and common people, relating it with the prospects of the ongoing Sino-Japanese war. Thus, a close connection between advertised items and the future of nation is established.Through Shenbao advertising during the first stage of the Sino-Japanese war, we can see that merchants knew how to use advertising properly. They endowed ads with some additional meaning to make them outstanding and influential. We can also find that merchants understood how people felt during wartime, and what ads they would most likely to see. That was the reason why we could find so many patriotic ads which aimed at fighting the enemy and saving the nation. Those ads assisted merchants in making a great fortune, and also helped to boost the morale and cheer people up. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal how advertising responded to national crisis. All these great ads showed that advertising industry during the1930s had reached a high level.