Ads Vs. Mom's Demand Action Advertisement

America’s public usage and advocacy of guns used to be associated with citizens having the right to hunt and protect yet since the 1980s, due to an incline in gun violence, safety concerns have prompted public advertisements aimed to lobby gun control legislations. To influence parents during the 1950s manufacturers such as Winchester would advertise guns as a fun hunting activity for children, whereas modern anti-gun organisations such as Moms Demand Action use children to promote the dangers of firearms. Hence, by comparing a 1958, Winchester advertisement with 2013, Moms Demand Action advertisement it is evident, that to promote their specific purposes to different eras of the audiences, there are differences and similarities in the two

The 1950s advert titled “Give him year ‘round fun…. for years to come,” uses imperative language ‘give’ to reinforce the adverts themes of long-lasting entertainment and family to persuade the parents to buy guns for their children. Whereas the 2013 advert titled “One child is holding something that’s been banned in America to protect them. Guess which one,” uses a rhetorical question to get the audience to consider the threat of each item, then conclude if guns are appropriate for children and if not, promoting the adverts purpose, calls action upon the audience. The 1950s advert also has a lot more informative text consisting of descriptive adjectives such as smoother, faster and flawless to create desirable connotations about the product. Whilst the 2013 advert has less text stating “We ban the game dodgeball because it’s viewed as being too violent. Why not guns,” the advert questions the justifiability of guns and the audience’s ethos to act in supporting anti-gun views. However, both adverts have larger bright logos near the bottom-right of the page to promote its brand. The 1950s advert’s text contains a lot of information relating to the gun’s models, price, cooperation’s name and the store's locations, “Winchester-Western division… New Haven 4, Connecticut”; whilst the 2013 advert is more visual only containing the website, as due to the era’s cyber-culture, the website is

America’s early setter’s used guns for hunting and protection, this then later in the 1850s founded a large hunting culture. Therefore, manufacturers, such as Winchester, in the 1950s used adverts to promote hunting as a sport. However, due to presidential assassinations, public shootings, and as social media’s popularity exploded in the 20th century, due to greater communication, the awareness of gun danger caused changes in social perception to push for anti-gun legislations. Due to societies large hunting culture, the 1950s adverts appealed to parents love for children through themes of companionship and entertainment. Whereas, due to an incline in firearm violence, particularly school shootings, the 2013 advert to promote its message used children to appeal to audience’s protective parental instincts. Hence, different eras contexts have influenced changes in societies attitude towards guns, and caused companies to, using different themes, promote contrastingly purposed adverts for different generation of