Comparing Australian household advertisements from the 1950s and 1970s

Compare two advertisements to investigate how advertisers presented household products and domestic work. Support interpretations with specific details and distinguish advertised promises from evidence of everyday experience.

Prepare your source pair

This worksheet requires two teacher-selected advertisements; reproductions and an answer key are not supplied. Choose one advertisement published in Australia during 1950–1959 (A) and one during 1970–1979 (B). Prefer the same product category, such as refrigerators, laundry products or cooking equipment, and comparable publication audiences. Identify differences in medium, audience or product before attributing differences to the decade.

Provide legible copies or accessible source records with the publication title, issue date, page number and stable URL or archive identifier. Confirm dates from the original issue or catalogue record, not the apparent style. Record an uncertain attribution explicitly. Identify the publication location and any market named in the advertisement; do not assume national circulation. Check applicable reproduction permissions before distributing copies.

The aim is to compare evidence, not to establish a predetermined story of progress. Assess students on accurate observations, traceable evidence, qualified interpretations and recognition of limitations.

Australian household advertisements: 1950s and 1970s

Name: ____________________ Class: ____________________ Date: ____________________

Use advertisement A from 1950–1959 and advertisement B from 1970–1979. For every interpretation, identify a word, image detail or other feature that supports it. Write “not stated” or “uncertain” where appropriate.

1. Identify the evidence

For each advertisement record the product and brand, advertiser if identified, publication title, full issue date, page number, publication location, named market, holding institution and stable URL or catalogue identifier. Explain how you verified the date.

A — source details and date evidence: ______________________________________________________________

B — source details and date evidence: ______________________________________________________________

2. Observe before interpreting

Evidence to record	A: 1950s	B: 1970s
Product and household task; what action is shown or described?	____________________	____________________
People and setting; who works, chooses, pays or benefits, if shown?	____________________	____________________
Main promise; copy a short phrase accurately and identify its location.	____________________	____________________
Price, currency, payment terms and conditions, if stated.	____________________	____________________
Assumed resources: space, power, water, money or time. Separate explicit statements from inference.	____________________	____________________

3. Interpret and compare

Who appears to be the intended buyer of each product? Use wording, setting and publication context. What expectations about domestic work or family roles are suggested? Do not infer a person's identity solely from appearance.

A — interpretation and evidence: ____________________ B — interpretation and evidence: ____________________

Identify one similarity and one difference in how the advertisements present household tasks. Cite a specific detail from each source. Could the difference reflect the product, advertiser or readership as well as the decade?

Similarity: ____________________ Difference: ____________________ Alternative explanation: ____________________

4. Test the limits

Does either advertisement establish how many households owned the product, whether it saved work, or who actually used it? Explain what remains unknown. If prices appear, explain why the printed amounts alone cannot establish relative affordability.

What these sources cannot establish: ______________________________________________________________

Whose household experiences are absent or unclear? Identify one additional source you would seek, such as a household account, oral history or ownership survey. State the place and period it should cover and the claim it could test. A proposed source is not evidence until located and examined.

Missing perspective: ____________________ Further source and claim to test: ____________________

5. Write a qualified conclusion

Write four to six sentences answering: How do these two advertisements present Australian household life differently or similarly? Name both publications and dates, use one detail from each, and distinguish the advertised ideal from actual household experience. Limit your conclusion to the sources and markets identified.

Conclusion: ________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Check: Have I identified both sources, separated observation from inference, supported the comparison, considered another explanation and stated a limitation?