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What stands out to me about this ad for American Airlines in 1947, is the fact that it is so informative. Its purpose is not to necessarily only gain more customers, but to also engage and educate the current ones. The list of flight times works to appeal to the public that is not fully aware of how often American Airlines send planes to Washington. For those who were not aware of how many flights go out that way each day, it may open up their understanding of flying and decide to purchase a ticket since there are so many different times to choose from. Not only is this informing those who are already flying, but also drawing more people in- at least that demographic of people who would be going to or from Washington. However, even if Washington would not be a potential new customer's required destination, it can offer the info that AA offers many options for times and different cities.
Additionally, this ad was created and circulated during a time when commercial flying was first getting off the ground. From this article I found on the history of commercial flight and aviation in America, it says about how far American Airlines has come, "American Airlines offers first domestic jetliner flights with routes from New York to Los Angeles." (Burns) This shows that commercial flight was just getting started I the U.S. during this time, and so it would make sense to advertise the times each plane will take off. The design of the ad is also streamlined to center-justification and it clear and concise. There is not a lot of words, but just enough to catch your attention, inform, and walk away with a brand image. Of course, at this time, branding was still emerging in terms of consistency, so the AA logo has evolved quite a bit since then.
A contemporary example from the same company:
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This much more recent advertisement from American Airlines was created and released in 2018; and it is depicting the back of one of their airplanes, and discusses in a paragraph about their new fleets. This one is similar to the older one from the 40s because instead of listing out all the flight times, which can now be looked up online anyway, it is listing out the new plane fleet. This shows how constantly evolving and changing companies like AA are. Always looking to solve future problems or advertise new releases/ideas/plans. Ultimately, both of these ads did well with the negative space balance, and also the visual aspect has definitely increased quite a bit since the 40s.
In terms of attention and capturing the audience, it is clear that the newer advertisement has more color, more engagement, and more transparent reality in its imagery. I think both ads have the purpose of inspiring a drive to fly- to get a way and head out into the sky on a big adventure or event- the ad screams "American Airlines is the perfect airline for all of your travel needs and times." The ads make it consistent that it has multiple flights headed to DC, and also that new fleets are coming in which will be more comfortable, larger perhaps, better for the environment, or whatever the cases may be. The purpose of analyzing these two photos indicate that the advertising from the 40s has certainly changed an incredible amount of times and we know incorporate a lot of visual elements that we do not see in older magazines, news, or TV.
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