advertising began to come into its own. In the process, this new breed of professional advertisers began to convince magazine editors that paid ads could not only subsidize printing costs but also boost circulation at the same time.
By the end of World War I, the profession had come into its own. James Playsted Wood writes, "Advertising came triumphantly out of World War I. It was better, it was bigger, it was reputable. It had proved its ability to sway people's opinions and govern their actions. It had sold ideas and regulated human conduct" (Wood 363). It had also become a staple in magazine publishing. Ezra Bowen notes, "By 1925 the magazines and newspapers owed 70 percent of their total income of $1.3 billion to ad revenues" (118).
These ads reflected the era in which they were created. As Bowen observes, "Marking the ads of the '20s were several traits that they shared with the decade itself, such as brashness and a lack of scruples" (118). The nation was confident and impulsive. Wood describes it:
The period from the end of World War I until the stock market crash of 1929 was a period of extremes, of cynicism and enthusiasm, of reckless optimism and romantic despair, of flaming youth and the lost generation, of impatience with everything that was old and a fever for what was new (364).
These contradictory impulses were reflected in many of the ads of the time, especially those that were for new produc
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