Vaseline (back)
1 2023-02-28T15:47:02-08:00 Jennifer Lay 4feff99011008b8053832f7c7668e5ed2753e835 40985 3 Original trade card forms part of: Collection no. 311, History & Special Collections for the Sciences, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA plain 2023-03-01T12:29:37-08:00 Jennifer Lay 4feff99011008b8053832f7c7668e5ed2753e835This page has annotations:
- 1 2023-03-13T10:45:22-07:00 Jennifer Lay 4feff99011008b8053832f7c7668e5ed2753e835 functional calendar Jennifer Lay 2 plain 2023-03-13T10:46:07-07:00 Jennifer Lay 4feff99011008b8053832f7c7668e5ed2753e835
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2023-02-27T12:18:46-08:00
The Utilization of Color and Art to Advertise Various At-Home Medication
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This page will explore how patent medicine trade cards of the twentieth century utilized color and art in order to promote their products accordingly towards over the counter remedies for the entire home. This abstract will further analyze and identify how these patent trade cards meticulously utilized artistic marketing in order to reach a larger audience for their advertised medicinal products - By Jennifer Lay
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2023-03-26T10:12:53-07:00
Patent Medicine Trade cards were essentially developed to become portable forms of advertisement to promote and introduce various forms of medicinal therapies and remedies. The quality and details included in these trade cards were often detailed in order to strategically advertise their products.
The three trade cards we will be examining in order to comprehend how patent medicine trade cards utilized various art forms and color in order to incite attention towards their products is “Vaseline”, “Allen's Root Beer Extract”, and “St. Jacob’s Oil Conquers Pain”. These three cards all essentially promote unconventional at-home remedies for the entire family and instead of promoting over-the-counter pills, these remedies advertise topical solutions to common ailments.
“Allen's Root Beer Extract” capitalizes on artwork in order to create a successful trade card. Like the other two patent trade cards, this card uses a child who is adorned with a bonnet and flowers to create a youthful theme to emphasize that this remedy is safe for the entire household. In the trade card, the young girl is made to be the counterpoint of the advertisement and her youthful features are emphasized through color, like her pink rosy cheeks and her pink bow; by utilizing the same color throughout the advertisement to emphasize youth and innocence, it creates an interesting and relatable advertisement for most households. By utilizing art and a picture of a young child, the card thoughtfully incites a homeopathic remedy that is geared towards all age groups.
Similarly, “St. Jacob’s Oil Conquers Pain” is also a patent medicine trade card that highlights its advertisement by heavily using the influence of color and size in order to draw attention. More specifically, the card contains a bright blue background and utilizes a stark red to contrast and highlight the Saint who is holding the oil in an angelic manner. This promotes an idea to the viewer that this product is a holy grail, and a solution that will cure most at-home illnesses.
Also, “Vaseline” essentially focuses on the coloring and shape of the trade card in order to draw attention to the advertisement of the product. For example, the Vaseline card is formatted in the shape of a Vaseline bottle and also meticulously painted in order to accurately represent the shading of the physical Vaseline bottle itself. Thus, this patent medicine trade card exemplifies how immense effort and funding was exemplified in order to create an eye-catching advertisement. Also, the card lists all the topical and medicinal remedies of the vaseline product itself to emphasize its diversity and usefulness.
Essentially, these images all come together to exemplify and accentuate the effect of utilizing color and art in order to create a successful and enticing advertisement. With the usage of children, saints, and starking color, these advertisements create an intense surge of attention. Thus, these cards are able to successfully monitor and convey the audience's attention and trust, as they now believe that these products will easily help them with their medical issues. These medical ephemera help for modern viewers to see the validity of these advertisements and how they convene with art and color to make enticing advertisements. Overall, these patent medicine trade cards cunningly take advantage of art in order to display eye-catching cards and ephemera.