Got Recession? Come on Down!

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We still like our two-for deals. Can't get enough of two-for-$10 items, even when the gizmo is one-for-$5. We still like the ads that make us feel like we're smart guys, or that we're doing our part. Ads that "make buyers feel like they are responsive to a historic event," says Stuart Vyse who studies consumer psychology at Connecticut College. It's one of the most successful ad ploys out there: buy for your country.

But the truest examples of recession advertising are the ones that we don't even realize are related to the economy, says Juliann Sivulka, author of "Soap, Sex and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising."

She points to a 1932 advertisement for Scott toilet paper, in which a nurse bends over a sick child. The copy reads: "Two-thirds of the so-called 'brands' of toilet tissue . . . contain impurities which are an actual menace to health. Strong acids, mercury, sand, chlorine -- and even arsenic were found."

How's that for nasty bathroom un-humor?

"It was a hard sell during a hard time," Sivulka says. Ad budgets were down, but companies still needed to sell, so they resorted to alarmist messages or pseudoscience. "They tapped into emotions like guilt, fear, shame and blame" -- emotions that run high in poor economies.

The hard sell repeats itself in various recessions throughout the century, says Sivulka. In the economic downturn of the 1970s, the creative advertising that had ruled the two previous decades was replaced by science. Tylenol marketed itself as a safe alternative "for the millions who should not take aspirin."

It's selling the recession without ever mentioning the recession.

It's a strategy that works even now. The best recession campaigns "don't mention the economy," says Jon Bond, co-founder of Kirshenbaum Bond, a New York ad agency with clients including Wendy's and Panasonic. "That's like, 'Pardon me, your strategy is showing.' People realize they're being manipulated."

Which is the last thing the currently wigged-out consumer needs right now.

"What's different about this [recession] is that everyone is saying, 'It's the worst time since the Depression,' " Bond says. Since most of us can't personally recall the Depression, "we're all out of our comfort zone for what to do," and we'll respond well to advertising that makes us feel empowered, normal, not freaked out.

Bond once worked on what he describes as a particularly successful ad for a retail chain during an earlier period of economic instability. In it, a guy bought a ton of toilet paper, then used it to insulate his apartment so he could rock out on guitar.

"The ad wasn't just about buying toilet paper," says Bond. "It was about being resourceful."

It was about one guy taking the recession by the horns, being the hero of his own hardship story.

That's a nice way to look at things.

Bond even offers a way to give this entire mess a positive spin: "You could just say, 'Stocks are on sale.' "