Ads and sensationalism: the irruption of mass advertising

Abstract

The 20th century is, among other readings, the century of advertising. And, of course, it is also the time of e sensationalism as a new way of understanding the communication addressed to the new mass audiences that are taking shape. However, while the journalistic sensationalism has been observed with some interest, as it witnessed some events of great significance at the end of the 19th century and it prepared the emergence of scientific propaganda that would later take place with the Great War, it hasn’t been the same with the strategies followed by the ads which wanted to achieve a similar purpose, that is, the mass sale of the product. And, from our point of view, sensationalistic journalism and advertising began to walk together much earlier than the information of events or Hearst’s sensationalism did. The best example provided to us are the announcements of electric belts, which leaded the first massive insertions of ads in media of different types, frequency, and nationality. Before car manufacturers, movies distributors and exhibitors and long before the arrival of home appliances, health ads, and especially the ones linked to electricity, marked the beginning of a massive publicity that made itself competitive for its usual provocative and sensational strategies of advertising.