You NEED This Column

By Don Rittner

For the past couple of years, I have been shooting images of hand painted billboards throughout the Capital District. Not only do they tell you something about times past, but many are also works of art. Large billboards have been a form of public advertising for centuries. Even petroglyphs carved in rockshelters are a form of billboard advertising. During Greek and Roman times, there were outdoor posters, and by the Industrial Revolution, during the 19th century, they became a necessity.

Look at any 19th century picture of Troy and you will see hundreds of sidewalk signs, banners draped across streets, or kids wearing sandwich boards hawking a product. For years, one of Troy’s most famous banners was "Saves The Rub - The Cleaner That Made Troy’s Laundries Famous." It hung above River Street connected to two buildings in Franklin Square.

As early as 1835, Jared Bell in NYC printed outdoor posters more than 50 square feet for the circus. By 1850, exterior advertising was first used on street railways. In 1872, the International Bill Posters’ Association of North America was formed in St. Louis.

As immigrants poured into this country, manufacturers found that they needed to market specifically to these masses coming to live the American dream. And what was that dream? It wasn’t only being able to afford "Product X." It was having many types of "Product X" to choose from. And it was the products their manufacturers determined you needed.

Dictate and control what the immigrant read and you have a hooked consumer. Historians have pointed out that the American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers was simply an arm of corporations such as Standard Oil and American Tobacco that placed expensive ads in immigrant newspapers, especially start ups, to pitch their products. Edward Filene, a Boston department store merchant in the 1920s, was one of the first merchants to develop specific advertising to make the consumer think his way.

True that laws were passed to make advertisers speak the truth, but there are many ways to manipulate the truth and psychological advertising was born. You can see it every minute or two on television.

Advertisers have spent millions in thinking of ways to make you feel scared (taking the wrong aspirin for that headache?), inadequate (using the wrong deodorant?), hungry, or whatever emotion the advertiser wants to convey. You can’t simply buy a pair of sneakers anymore. Do you need them for running, work, aerobatics, hiking, comfort, oh yeah, how about sports? The bottom line is they make you feel the NEED for the product.

Around the Capital District you can find remnants of this past advertising age of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Remember when Coke was 5 cents and you bought it because it was "refreshing." How about ‘Uneeda Biscuit’? Nice play on words there. The National Biscuit Company, later known as Nabisco Foods, introduced Uneeda Biscuit in 1898. You can find both of these examples in Troy.

You can even age yourself by recognizing advertising jingles that for some reason remain fixed in your brain, no matter how many years ago you heard them. So here is a little quiz. Correctly identify the products or company from the following advertising jingles. I will put the correct ones in my hat and pull out a winner. You will get a signed copy of my new history book, "Troy, A Collar City History," to arrive in bookstores in a couple of months. You can send your answers to drittner@aol.com or send via snail mail.

1. "You’ll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with……….."

2. "I can’t believe I ate the whole thing."

3. "Ancient Chinese Secret, Huh?

4. "Where’s the beef?"

5. "M'm, M'm good!"

6. "See the USA in your ……."

7. "Double your pleasure, double your fun."

8. "…….. tastes good like a cigarette should."

9. "I wish I was an ….. ……. ……."

Finally, if you know this one, you’re a real Trojan!

10. "Don’t sign your name, it would be a shame, until you see your .........man!"

And remember this jingle from now on (to the tune of Yankee Doodle):

I read this column once a week,

Along with all good Trojans;

The contents make my interest peak.

It’s The Record I have chosen!