HIST2227 Chap.9 Ads, the Media and Public Relations
Ads, the Media and Public Relations
Media as a political force
Week 10 asks how newspapers, cinema, radio, television and the internet have shaped Australian politics.
The tobacco case, from a Week 9 reading, shows a 1971 anti-smoking television campaign helping produce a ban on broadcast cigarette advertising, phased in from 1973 and completed in 1976.
Radio and advertising
The Liberal Party’s radio drama John Henry Austral, aired from 1947 to 1948, shows political persuasion through entertainment.
Why the media matter to political history
The tutorial ends by asking why historians must consider the media at all.
The tobacco case suggests three answers: the media carried persuasion, the media industry had money at stake in policy, and the media could become the arena where an argument was won.
Week 10 was also the week of Quiz 2, so its readings were offered as optional and suit essay preparation.
Evidence you can cite
The tobacco reading supplies precise figures: a cigarette advertisement every twelve minutes on Australian television by 1967, advertising spending up more than 2,200 per cent between 1954 and 1967, and anti-smoking spots aired 740 times in 1971. Numbers like these let you describe media influence exactly rather than in general terms.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Television and tobacco advertising
- 02
The 1971 anti-smoking campaign
- 03
The phased broadcast ban, 1973 to 1976
- 04
John Henry Austral on radio
- 05
Cartoons and the five-second life of a joke
- 06
The professional campaigner
Worked example · free
Working out the reach of a 1971 campaign
- 1740 multiplied by 0.18 = 133.2, so about 133 airings were in prime time.
- 1The spots turned public opinion into pressure on politicians, one of three prongs alongside scientific evidence and policies for growers and media firms.
Key terms
- Voluntary Code
- Industry self-regulation of cigarette advertising introduced in 1966, which critics found toothless.
- Knocking Copy
- Advertising industry jargon for an advertisement that disparages other advertising.
- Broadcast Advertising Ban
- The phased removal of cigarette advertising from radio and television, completed in 1976.
- Political Advertising
- Paid persuasion by parties or campaigners, the subject of the Week 10 lectorial.
Ads, the Media and Public Relations FAQ
Why did the anti-smoking campaign of 1971 succeed?
Holbrook, Westmore and Kehoe identify three prongs: scientific evidence for politicians, humorous television advertisements to move public opinion, and policies to ease the concerns of growers and media companies. Stations rejecting one advertisement also handed the campaign valuable publicity.
What was John Henry Austral?
It was a fifteen-minute dramatised radio program on station 2GN, financed by the Liberal Party, in which a friendly fictional character promoted the Liberal vision and attacked the Labor government. Two hundred programs went to air between April 1947 and December 1948.
Was the tobacco advertising ban a partisan policy?
Not simply. The authors find sympathies for the tobacco industry on both sides. Whitlam's government legislated the ban over objections within Labor, and Fraser's Coalition government kept it after 1975 despite internal dispute.
What does Ian Tyrrell argue about the tobacco ban?
Tyrrell judged that the legislation the campaign helped produce was diluted and served industry interests, leaving loopholes for other advertising and sports sponsorship that companies exploited in the 1980s and 1990s. Holbrook, Westmore and Kehoe reply that tobacco control is a medium- to long-term project.
Why did the Anti-Cancer Council turn to television?
Its 1970 film for schoolchildren had virtually no demonstrable effect on youth smoking, which convinced its leaders that occasional education could not compete with constant tobacco advertising. In 1971 it bought television airtime for satirical spots designed to undermine smoking's glamorous image.
How did television change cigarette advertising in Australia?
After television arrived in 1956 it became the preferred medium for cigarette advertising. Spending on tobacco advertising grew by more than 2,200 per cent between 1954 and 1967, and by the late 1960s television took about three quarters of the industry's advertising budget.
Assessment move
For any media question, name the medium, the audience and the mechanism, then add one limit, such as Tyrrell's view that the tobacco law left loopholes. Prepare one example for each medium the tutorial names, even where the readings say little, and note which claims you can support. Because the readings were optional in the Quiz 2 week, a short summary of each now will save time when you plan the Final Paper.
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