Early advertisers explicitly targeted women as market subjects

Evidence

A 1929 advertisement in Printers’ Ink, the first U.S. trade publication dedicated to the ad industry, brought this gender division into stark relief. Reworking a line from poet Alexander Pope’s “An Essay on Man,” the text noted, “The proper study of mankind is man … but the proper study of market is women.” — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love, 57

Categorization

• CANDY: A witty pun workable as an elevator quip about gendering the marketplace.
• XREF: connects to: Calculated authenticity as promotion emerged in early twentieth-century America — Brooke Erin Duffy, (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love:…, 319; Advertising’s targeted appeal to women began when companies realized women did most household purchasing — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 208

Broader Connections

• Advertising’s targeted appeal to women began when companies realized women did most household purchasing #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 208