As is expected in a capitalist world, there is an inherent contract between consumers and producers. This contract implies that consumers will purchase a items from a manufacturer for a price. In this world, not every consumer is going to buy or endorse every product. As a result, producers have to work their hardest to get their product out there, and prove that it is both worthy of purchase and attention. This comes in the form of advertisements, which can be a drawing, picture, video, or a combination of all of them. Ads are different, and all of them target certain audiences, and make assumptions and indirectly display a message about that audience. Some provide commentary on our society, and how we think or act, while others give us a good look into our past. One such example of looking into our past would be through newspapers. Newspaper success is measured by number of readers, so it isn’t farfetched to believe that they follow the same principles of advertising to sell their product. Take these two newspapers, “The New York Journal” and “The Morning Leader” and see how they both differ in audiences, messages, and themes in order to attract readers.

This first advertisement is from “The New York Journal” which began publishing in 1895 and flourished during the Spanish American War. This type of advertising, while not a traditional ad, still serves the same purpose with it’s front page. “The New York Journal” was one of the biggest examples of a sensationalist newspaper, or in other words, yellow journalism. The point of yellow journalism was to use shocking, sometimes exaggerated headlines, to get the attention of readers and attract more subscribers. It is similar to the magazines we refer to as “tabloids”

The audience in this ad is the average American in the early 20th century. Newspapers were probably cheap and accessible by anyone who lived in a city, so that made it easy to find and read. A lot of working class people passed by stands everyday, so it’s not hard to see why these newspapers would appeal to them. One reason that newspapers are intriguing to people around the world, especially Americans, is that it appeals to the addiction of gossip that has been a keystone in human nature. It gives people something to talk about, which can fill a person’s desire to be “in the know” or one step ahead of the discussion. The newspaper’s strategy of using shocking headlines give the reader a reason to read it, and give the feeling they are getting a good scoop on something, regardless if it is true or not. This alone gives us reason to believe that the writers of this newspaper see people as gullible, ready to take anything as factual just because it is interesting to us and gives us excitement. In a way, the implicit message of this is both negative and sad. On one hand, the message is negative in the fact that people will embellish or outright lie and use journalism as a way to elicit a shocking response and profit from it, and in the same vein, people will eat it right out of their hands, most of the time not questioning anything about the source material. “The New York Journal” knew exactly what it was doing, and used yellow journalism in a way that sold newspapers at the cost of trust and honesty. With this knowledge, it says a lot about it’s audience, believing them gullible or sensational themselves. The newspaper knows their audience, and how they will read anything if it gives a feeling of excitement.

The next advertisement comes from “The Morning Leader”, a newspaper that began publishing in the early 20th century during the yellow journalism era. Immediately, we notice how it’s drawing a comparison to two different people. One type of person, intelligent, open minded, and skeptical, reads “The Morning Leader”. The other one, credulous, thoughtless, sensational reads yellow journalism, which would include “The New York Journal”. This ad is criticising yellow journalism, and calling anyone who indulges in it gullible and ignorant. However, anyone who reads “The Morning Leader” is intelligent, bright, and alert. The audience they’re appealing to are people who feel they are intelligent, or above all that yellow journalism muck. Perhaps even wealthier people might be targeted by this ad, as they may feel like they are above the common man’s line of thinking. This is implied as it says that the “Good business man” reads their paper. The ad appeals to people’s mind. Their intellect, cleverness, and sharp mind will make them want to read a paper like theirs. The ad is constructed cleverly by using a handsome man as their “mascot” or average reader and using an ugly man to describe yellow journalism readers. The man is ugly based on his physical appearance, especially his face. This makes the audience feel either ugly by reading yellow journalism or attractive that they indulge in only the highest reading.

The ad uses tactics like comparison to make themselves appear superior both in intelligence and truthfulness. This may make a viewer feel guilty about yellow journalism and read their newspaper instead. It also uses a tone of “smart” to appear intelligent, and to appear as if they know what is best. The ad is saying that the intelligent people will avoid sensationalist headlines and shocking articles because they are skeptical and open-minded. The message of the ad is realistic, as a lot of gullible people will just read and accept anything yellow journalism would put out, but those who were smart enough to see through it would not have anything of it. The Morning Leader used yellow journalism as a way to critique gullible readers and make themselves seem superior by comparison.

While the two purposes of the ads are different, they both try to appeal to their audience and sway others to partake in their newspaper. While “The New York Journal” goes for a sensationalist approach, and looks to target the common man, “The Morning Leader” targets the smarter, perhaps upper class members of society. However, “The Morning Leader” goes a step further by criticising newspapers like “The New York Journal”. While “The New York Journal” uses just their shock and sensationalism to draw in readers, “The Morning Leader” uses an actual ad for their newspaper. As for effectiveness, one definitely outdoes the other. The main argument for why “The New York Journal” did better was because it appealed to more people. They didn’t need the traditional ad in order to effectively advertise their newspaper. As for the Morning Leader, they tried to attack yellow journalism, but it is rather ineffective as it just assumes that anyone who reads “The New York Journal” is ignorant. If it had shown that yellow journalism was mostly untrue, More people could have been targeted, and therefore, more people would have seen that yellow journalism is nonsense.