When Advertising Became Culture

Exploring the moment brands stopped talking at consumers and started engaging with them

Photo from Red Bull

When did advertising stop being about products and start being about culture?

Of course, advertising has always been about products to an extent, and will always be. Companies have products to sell and people to talk to in order for their products to get sold. But when did brands stop talking at consumers and begin talking with them? 

Advertising has been around since ancient times, with painted flyers of woodworking shops and word-of-mouth shouting in medieval markets, but traditional advertising is often attributed to the creation of print media in the 17th-century. Another key turning point in the life of advertising came with the Broadcast Boom of the 1920s-1950s, when consumers started to be reached conversationally and persuasively over the radio rather than solely through text-heavy materials.

From Products to Identity

Once the 1960s arrived, so did the Creative Revolution. Companies began to see advertising as more than a way to educate consumers about product features and benefits. Instead, advertisements became increasingly connected to identity, lifestyle, and social values.

Campaigns, like Volkswagen’s “Think Small” campaign, strayed away from flashy excess and instead utilized storytelling, clever wit, and a tiny bit of self-depreciation by leaning into the car’s size and quirky looks to land with consumers. Around this time, marketers were elevated to cultural tastemakers. 

Photo from Volkswagen

The Age of Monoculture

This sort of traditional advertising reflected culture. 

Before the internet fragmented audiences into countless niches, much of society existed within a monoculture. People watched the same television shows, recognized the same cultural references, and participated in many of the same trends.

Think the 1950s - “American Dream,” nuclear family, and suburbia

Think the 1970s - The “Big Three” TV networks, Star Wars, and disco culture

Think the 1980s - MTV, blockbuster movies, and big hairdos

Brands would create advertisements they thought would appeal to the masses. But an evolution arrived once monoculture fragmented in the early 2000s. This marked the beginning of advertising operating within culture. 

The Internet Changes Everything

The disintegration of monoculture and massive strides in technology arrived at the same time - and they changed the game. New tech meant that campaigns were no longer a shot in the dark, but highly trackable and optimizable. Brands leaned into data-driven advertising and performance marketing with hyper-personalized advertisements. 

In the early 2000s, when the internet became mainstream, blogs, forums, and early social media sites like YouTube and Facebook produced niche communities. Advertisers quickly recognized the opportunity this presented. Instead of speaking to one broad audience, brands could now tailor messages to smaller groups, each with their own interests, values, and online communities. As a result, marketing became increasingly personalized, with content, recommendations, and algorithms designed to capture and hold consumer attention.

While sales increased, brands also lost their position as the sole creators of brand narratives as technology empowered consumers to shape narratives of their own. Purchase decisions became less about product features alone and more about values, lifestyles, and identity. In many cases, emotional connection became just as influential as product performance, pushing advertising further into the realm of culture.

The Relationship & Community Eras

Photo from Snobbish

As this shift unfolded, advertising entered what could be described as a relationship era. Brands began prioritizing storytelling, emotional resonance, and lifestyle association over straightforward product promotion. The objective was no longer simply to sell a product, but to cultivate loyalty and build lasting connections with consumers.

Most recently, a community era has begun to emerge. Brands now seek cultural relevance through creators, influencers, and online communities. Success is no longer determined solely by how many people see an advertisement, but by how many choose to engage with it, share it, and incorporate it into their own identities.

So when did advertising stop being about products and start being about culture? The answer is that it never completely did. Products remain at the center of each transaction, but what changed was the role of advertising itself. Over the years, the field evolved from communicating what a product is to helping consumers understand who a brand is and where they belong within it. Advertising is no longer only a tool of persuasion, but also a participant in culture.