Establishing the ModemAdvertising LanguagesPatent Medicine Newspaper Advertisements in Hong Kong,1945-1969

Wendy Siuyi Wong

This article traces the formation of modem advertising languages in Hong Kong when thissociety was developing into the industrialization stage and was experiencing steady economicgrowth in the period from 1945 through 1969. It argues that Hong Kong advertisingculture developed under the influma of Western advertising techniques, images andideology, which shaped the modem advertising languages cif Hong Kong. Newspaperadvertisements for patent medicines from Sing Tao Daily, one of the earliest newspapers inHong Kong, fonned the study sample. This artide also outlines the role and contribution cifpatent medicine advertisements in the history cif advertising in Hong Kong, where theyushered in a new era cif advertising sophistication and a new collection cif techniques that arestill in use as advertising strategies today. The role and content cif Hong Kong patentmedidne advertisements were similar in many ways to those cif the West, but Hong Kongdid not experience the growth necessary to establish advertising until after the end cif theSecond World War when the society finally achieved aonomic stability.

Keywords: patent medicmes--advertising-consumption-material culture studies­

Ideology-Hong Kong

Introduction and background

The period from the end of the Second World Warthrough 1969 saw significant economic and industrialdevelopment in Hong Kong. This period provided avery important foundation for Hong Kong todevelop its industries from its earlier entrepot status,and also for growth in advertising and its integrationwith the everyday life of Hong Kong people. Thedata for this study are based on a diachronic samplingstarting from December 1945, soon after the end ofthe Second World War when the newspaper resumedprinting, to December 1969. Patent medicine adver­tisements represent the largest category of advertise­ments in the study sample. Y. W. Chan'sl study alsofound that the best-represented product type innewspaper advertisements during this time period

was patent medicine. Advertisements for these pro­ducts will be the focus of this analysis, which willestablish the most common persuasive techniques andmessages used within them. The system of translationfrom Chinese to English used here is based on theromanization of Cantonese, the major spoken lan­guage of the people of Hong Kong.

The blooming of patent medicine advertisementssymbolizes prosperity at the dawn of an industrialsociety and an important step for a modem society,as studies have also found in the West. In the East,Hong Kong, a Chinese society, shows a similar patternof development reflected in patent medicine adver­tisements. Hong Kong consumers first learned thelanguage of advertising through patent medicineadvertisements. Very similar analyses of Westerncases have been conducted by Pasi FaIk2 and Thomas

Richards.3 This study closely follows these and otherworks that discuss patent medicine advertising and itstransfonning role in the history of Western societies,although the Hong Kong examples were less psycho­logically manipulative and made less exaggeratedclaims than those studied in the West. This articlefurther argues that, similar to early patent medicineadvertisements in the West, those III Hong Kongfocused on every conceivable problem, and addressedthe basic and internalized needs ofconsumers, therebyacculturating consumers to the idea that problems andeven potential problems could be remedied or pre­vented through the purchase and application of pro­ducts. Before analysing the subject matter of thisarticle, it is necessary to have a brief understanding ofthe historical background of Hong Kong.

The good natural harbour with its excellent geo­graphical advantages for trade was probably the mainreason why the British took over Hong Kong fromChina as a colony in 1841. & Yiu,4 an economistspecializing in Hong Kong industrial and economicdevelopment, observes, Hong Kong was mainly afree trade and entrep6t port from 1842 to 1941, aperiod characterized by the restricted development ofindustrialization. The pre-1947 period did not pro­vide Hong Kong with the environment for industrialgrowth, and advertising caIUlot flourish without theindustrialization of a society, as in the cases of Britainand America.s & Singer observes, for 'commercialadvertising to emerge, larger-scale societies had todevelop, with division of labor and specialists whosold their production. '6 Hong Kong advertising didnot experience full growth as did Shanghai before theSecond World War, since such scenarios as Singerperceives were not yet current. The incipient indus­trial development in the 1930s provided Hong Kongwith a foundation for economic recovery after thewar, and is also the reason why some studies regardthat period as one in whIch Hong Kong's 'industrialrevolution' took shape.7

The development of advertising in Hong Kongbefore the Japanese occupation during the SecondWorld War was very limited. Although early HongKong advertising benefited from talented artists suchas Kwan Wai-nung from Guangdong,8 Hong Kongheld a less important position both in industry and inadvertising than Shanghai. However, since HongKong was a free trade port, the penod before theSecond World War provided Hong Kong with a

basic economic structure as well as a political systemfor future development under British colonial rule. Inthe first two years after the Second World War, HongKong was recovering from the damage of the war.Then, during the period from 1947 to 1959, HongKong entered the industrialization stage.9 In thisperiod, Hong Kong faced two major internal changesill close connection with China which helped theterritory to develop its industry and economy. Theywere the changeover of power in mainland China in1949 and the embargo imposed upon China by theUnited Nations as a result of China's interference inthe Korean War in 1951. These two changes pushedHong Kong to develop its own industry in order tosurvive, rather than primarily relying on the entrep6tport trade. These changes also provided Hong Kongwith two important factors for its industrial develop­ment: capital and expertise from Shanghai's entrepre­neurs, and a mass population of cheap labourers.

Hong Kong in the post-war decades also experi­enced a dramatic increase in population. The popula­tion in 1947 was around 1.8 million, but by 1959 thepopulation had already reached 3 million. The popu­lation continued to increase rapidly, and by 1976 ithad reached 4.4 million. The economy of HongKong in 1953 and 1954 was in the 'take-off'stage,lO according to the 'stages of economicgrowth' outlined by the American economist W. W.RostoW. 11 But sociologists such as W. S. Chowl2

observe that most of the families, apart from richentrepreneurs from Shanghai, were living a poor lifein the 19505. Families still depended on 'specialpackages' from social welfare groups because theycould not meet the basic material needs of life ontheir own. Studies13 found that Hong Kong workersoften associated their overall job satisfaction direcdywith their pay. Benjamin Leung offers a vividdescription of the motivation of the people ofHong Kong:

Hong Kong people are dedicated to work because theyare motivated by the strong deSIre for socio-economicadvancement, because they beheve that hard work andinvesting time and efforts in work through further studieswill one cUy bring rewards in tlus land of abundant op­ponunities. In other words, they believe in the 'rags-to­riches' Hong Kong Dream. 14

This '''rags-to-riches'' Hong Kong Dream' laid thefounclation for economic success. It is not difficult to

understand why Hong Kong has developed into oneof the 'world's most consumption-oriented societies'in the late 1980s, as Tse, Belk and ZhOU'SI5 study hasshown.

The increase in income indicates the accumula­tion of the consumption power of wage labourers,wmch was an important factor for the activities ofadvertising to take place. The wages of all threeworker categories (unskilled, semi-skilled andskilled) remained quite stable from the early 19505until 1962. Wages began to climb steadily and quiterapidly from 1963 onwards. By as early as 1963, theaverage semi-skilled labourer's daily income hadincreased by 46 per cent compared to a decadeearlier in 1953. Labourers benefited from the risein income with the low inflation rate throughoutthe 1960s. By 1971, the increase was already 110 percent over 1963 wages.16 Getting a job was no longera problem, and the public housing estate programmestarted in 195417 by the government effectivelyprovided a stable shelter for needy households. Insum, It can be claimed that the 'absolute poor' socialphenomenon was vanishing during the 19505 and19605, and Hong Kong reached the height of itsindustrial growth and diversification stage in the1970s. Advertising in newspapers, which were themost popular form of media and which had aconsistent everyday connection to the peopleduring the period from 1945 to 1969,18 capturesthe changes from 'rags-to-riches' in the everyday lifeof the people. Among them, patent medicine adver­tisements reflect the physiological needs and satisfac­tions of Hong Kong people at that time the best.

Advertising and the development ofnewspapers as a communicationmediumThe introduction ofnewspapers to China representedan important medium for advertising as it did in theWest, since advertising provided a major source offunds for the press. 19 The concepts and functions ofmodem newspapers never appeared in Chinese offi­cial gazettes before the establishment of the firstChinese language newspaper, the Chinese MonthlyMagazint published in Malacca in 1815 by a Britishmissionary, Robert Morrison. The first British-runEngli5h-language newspaper that took advertisements

was the Hong Kong Gazetu published in 1841, whichmerged with the Frirnd of China one year later andwas renamed the Frimd of China and Hong KongGazetu. The newly formed newspaper was publisheduntil 1859.20 Although a number ofChinese languagedailies operated from the late 1880s, the appearanceof Wah Kiu Yat Po and Kung Shrong Daily Newspublished in 1925 marked the real start of the era ofcommercial presses with the objective of serving thecommunity and commerce. The other two majorChinese language newspapers still published today areSing Tao ]ih Pao (Sing Tao Daily), established in 1938,and Sing Pao, established in 1939. Sing Tao Daily wasfounded by the Tiger Balm Oils boss, Wu Man-fu,with the promotion ofhis products as one ofthe mainobjectives.21 It acted as a pioneer in the establishmentof a new standard for the industry when it quicklygained a reputation in editorial achievement.

Sing Tao Daily has been a well-establishedChinese-language newspaper since 1938 and is stillpublished today. It is also the most preferred 'sample'adopted in advertising research studies such as thoseconducted by Chan,22 Tse, Belk and Zhou,23 andSze.24 Burma-born owner Wu Man-fu's idea ofcreating his own medIUm to promote the TigerBalm tie-in products was actually inspued by anotherSouth East Asia tycoon in Singapore, Chen Ga-kan,who established Nan Yang Shueng Po in 1923 andmade use of his newspaper to promote his ownproduct, Bell Plastics. The introduction of such anobjective in organizing a newspaper also contributedimportant innovations to the system ofadvertising innewspapers. 25 Newspapers were an important chan­nel for advertising before the establishment ofwirelessbroadcasting stations, Television Broadcasts Limited(TVB) in 1967. There is no doubt that Sing Tao Dailyplayed a significant role in newspaper history as acommunication and advertising medium in HongKong; moreover, it has gained a reputation as amodel case in most academic studies of newspaperadvertising in Hong Kong. Newspapers were theonly mass medium to enter into the daily life of thegeneral populace during these two decades, and SingTao Daily remained consistently one of the majorpapers throughout this lengthy period. Its readershipconsisted of common working men seeking news ofdaily events and practical information to help themcope with the harsh realities of daily life, rather thanpleasure or entertainment.

The meaning of patent medicines

Patent medicines were the dominant products adver­tised in the newspaper advertisement sample fromSing Tao Daily in Hong Kong in the early 1950s to1960s. This was also found in Western societies suchas England,26 only much earlier at the end of thenineteenth century. As Falk states in his article on thegenealogy of modem advertising '[p)atent medicineshave played a central role in the history of modemadvertising. '27 The practice of producing 'patentmedicines,' medical formulas registered in order toprotect their 'secret' recipes, started in eighteenth­century England.2ft Patent medicines represented awide range of remedies, most of which had littleactual curative or medicinal value. Thus, they reliedheavily on advertising claims and techniques for salesand popularity. As Richards states, 'patent medicines'could include:

pills, powders, unguents, salves, omtments, drops, 10tlOns,oils, spints, mouthwashes, medicated herbs, and healingwaters. Because so many of the makers of this babel ofarticles applied for the protection of government patentsto preserve their trade secrets, they were known as the'patent'medicine men.29

A wide variety ofpatent medicines listed by Richardscan also be found in the Hong Kong sample. Amongthe collected samples, we can categorize the HongKong patent medlcine produet5 advertised into babypharmaceutical products, cough and cold prepara­tions, eye care, Chinese medicated creams and oils,Chinese medicines, stomach-ache medicines, andtonics and vitamins. Among the advertisementsfound in the Chinese newspapers dating from thebeginning of the century, patent medicines were notonly products imported from the West but they alsoincluded traditional Chinese medicines.

Patent medicine advertisements began to see steadygrowth, as they had earlier in the West, with theprogressive economic and social environment after1945 in Hong Kong. As Hong Kong was in theindustrialization stage from 1947 until 1959, peoplewere generally still fighting for a hving and the basicneed of health. With limited income and almost nodaily medical welfare provided by the government,patent medicines were one of the alternative waysthat people could obtain inexpensive basic treatmentsfor daily health care. Hospitals and doctors' offices at

this time were mainly private and expensive, soworking people avoided them if at all possible.Patent medicines represented the least expensiveway to provide preventive health care and to cure,or attempt to cure, minor ailments of various types.They offered some competition for the traditionalChinese herbal remedies, which were also less expen­sive than Western medical treatment, but whichrequired a longer rime to prepare and to achieveresults compared to patent medicines.

During this period, the post-war era, patent med­icine advertising in Hong Kong newspapers was ineffect educating the consumers of Hong Kong aboutthe 'fundamental choice in consumption',JO meaningthat the advertising techniques were becoming moresophisticated and moving further away from present­ing factual and useful information about the productsadvertised. Both Chinese and Western patent medi­cines were mainly sold in stores which specialized inover-the-counter, 'ready to consume' remedies. Inaddition to gathering information from newspaperadvertising, people learned about patent medicinesthrough the recommendations of friends and throughpersonal experience.

Naming the nameless

Advertising is a form of information that is arguablyuseful or even necessary to a large number of peopleas potential consumers, and 'the standard Industrydefense, and indeed a powerful theoretical positioncan be constructed around it, based on the socialbenefits of information flow.')1 In Hong Kong's case,the words in advertisements in the first decade afterthe war are on the informational level, with productand brand names the most common information tobe found. As Baudrillard explains, brand is:

the principal concept of advertising, (and) suITlIlUrizeswell the possibilities of a 'language' of consumption . . .each product 'worthy of the name' has a brand name ...the function of the brand name is to sign2l the product;its secondary function is to mobIlize connotations ofaffect. J2

The period under examination here represents con­crete efforts on the part of the patent medicme sellersto improve further the association of their productswith brand name. Thus, the inclusion ofbrand namewas the most common advertising strategy during the

first phase discussed here. from 1945 to 1950. Forexample. Kwan Yick Health Water [1] and WatsonSafety Water [2] advertisements both contain wordsthat indicate the names of the products. The copy ofboth advertisements tells us that the function of bothmedicines is to keep children healthy and strong.Although these two similar kinds of baby pharma­ceutical products may not have much difference infunction. the different names or brands suggest thatthe two products seem different and may be pur­chased by different consumers for different reasons.

Using the product names was particularly import­ant for patent medicines since. as Richards3J pointsout. such 'medicines' were hardly any different fromone another and they often claimed to have a widerange of somewhat unrelated uses. Chinese patentmedicine advertisements in the Hong Kong sampleprovide some ofthe best examples to illustrate the use

Fig 1. Kwan Yick Health Water. Sing Tao Daily. 2fl December1945

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7kwzp.m1!L­BJZItMJ!/)''i"1ft

Fig 2. Watson Safety Water. Sing Tao Daily, 20 December 1945

of name in this context. Pills under different productand brand names such as Po Chai Yuen. Sap LingDan, Tang Sap Yee Cuo Soh Yuen and Tiger BalmPa Gwa Dan were for multiple purposes, from curingfever, coughing, headache, to general relief of physi­cal pain. Among these Chinese medicines, medicaloils and pastes were produced under a wide variety ofbrand names but with almost no difference from oneanother in the actual product and uses advertised.Although such pills or medical oils34 may not haveappeared much different from one other, most ofthem claimed some kind of secret family/businessrecipe or special formula that provided ample reasonas to why their brand name offered something specialto the consumer. In these advertisements. '[t]he brandname and frequently a picture of the package areprominent. The text is used primarily to describe theproduct and its benefits, characteristics, performance,or constrUction.'35

A number of patent medicine advertisements useda prominent brand name approach in the early stage,with a picture of the actual product becoming morecommon at a later stage after 1950. The 'textuallyoriented ads placed greatest emphasis upon lan­guage-description of the product, promises, andargument,'36 and these are easy to identify in theHong Kong sample. For example, in one of the PoChai Yuen advertisements [3] that appeared in 1946.there are twenty-two Chinese characters giving out

Fig 3. Po Chai Yuen. Sing Tao Daily, 20 December 1946

information including the name of the product, itsuse and effect, the manufacturer's name, Lee ChungShing Tong Medicine Manufacturer, and finally theclaim that it is essential for everyone. In such a smallarea of only approximately of 4.5 cm by 12.6 cm,almost every space is fully occupied.

The production method for this type of line-artadvertisement was mainly the same technology usedfor newspaper printing. There were two sources ofadvertising design--one whereby artists workeddirectly for the newspaper, the other where localadvertising agencies were employed by the advertiser.In either case the advertiser would pay for the designand production of the advertisements. Advertise­ments for Western products were most likely to bedesigned by advertising agencies, whereas those forlocal products such as Tiger Balm were usuallydesigned by artists employed by the newspapers.

From about 1950, the depiction of the actualproduct became more frequent. playing a centralrole in informing consumers. In patent medicineadvertisements, the picture of the product not onlydenoted it as a 'medicine', but also implied throughthe visual symbol a cure for a particular sickness. Thetechnique of showing a visual image was effective inhelping consumers to build up their own connotativeinterpretation and to recognize the product whenpurchasing. In combination with the other techni-

ques discussed below, the methods of brand andproduct identification began to build up a languageofadvertising in the way that it had first been createdin the West.

Identification of deficit'Naming the nameless' product with no exact func­tional difference from other products was an import­ant first step in the development ofmodem advertisingin simple text-oriented product-information adver­tisements. Historically, a shift from primarily wordstowards a more sophisticated combination of wordsand images 'made possible the transformation ofconcrete products into representations, into complexmeanings carried by words and images.•37 The adver­tisements from 1945 to the early 19505 containmainly 'words' that provide information such asbrand names, manufacturers' names, product descrip­tions. and usage and purchase details [4-6]. Size wasusually smaller compared with those of the later stage(from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s) as wordscould fit efficiently into a small space. Later on.however, patent medicine advertisements becamemore image-oriented. The images mainly showedthe product itself [7-9], but in some cases the prod­uct users were also depicted. As a consequence,advertisements became larger with a greater varietyof picture styles.

Once the element of product identification with abrand name had been achieved, the way was openedfor the brand name to be used in ever more sophistic­ated advertising techniques, one of which was theassociation of the product/brand with a problem or'deficit' that it could supposedly correct. Falk noteshere that the product advertisement must identifysome need or 'deficit' for the consumer, and thenexplain how the product will address or remedy thatproblem. He refers to the product as a 'complement'since it alleviates the problem or deficit and bringsabout 'wholeness' for the consumer.3

1! Falk points outthat consumers may not be aware of the deficit priorto seeing its description in the advertisement. Hence,the naming of the deficit can be seen as an importantstep as welL in effect creating a need for the productbeing advertised.

The goal \\'as to legitimate bodily problems as'deficits' that required the consumer to take action.This was accomplished through simple techniques

Figs ~. Words-only patent medicine advertisements, Sing Too Daily, mid-1950s

Figs 7-9. Advertisements displaying the products thenuelves, Sing Too Daily, mid-1950s

such as listing the variety of ailments that could beaddressed by the product, or expressing optimism thatany difficulty experienced by the consumer could befixed or eliminated by application of the right prod­uct. This 'naming ofthe deficit' advertising techniquecan be seen in an advertisement for Tiger BalmHeadache Powder from 1954, and another forAspro Panadol from t955. In the Tiger Balm Head-

ache Powder advertisement [10], the visual shows thehead ofa man wrinkling his forehead, a type of facialexpression associated with being in pain. A bird thatlooks like a woodpecker is facing his upper left-handside with arrows aiming towards the man. The head­line reads, 'Can you stand a headache?' and theanswer placed under the visual reads, 'Please takeTiger Balm Headache Powder'. Together the visual

Fig 10. Tiger Balm Headache Powder, Sing Tao Daily, 17

December 1954

and text provide a problem and solution at the sametime. Finally, the double-line border with 'Wing OnTong', the manufacturer's name and logo, in thebottom right-hand corner creates brand identificationand a corporate identity.

An Aspro Panadol advertisement from 1955 [11]takes the problem and solution presentation tech­nique a step further by depicting each stage of theprocess. Radiating beams shine around a man with asmiling face who is placed in an important positionin the top right-hand comer and in contrast, a manwith a sad face touching his forehead is beside him.This implies a 'before and after' situation. Under theblock of logo type, there is a series of eight small

Fig 11. Aspro Panadol, Sing Tao Daily, 23 December 1955

heads in two rows illustrating the occasions for takingthe pills. The radiating beams around the pills echothe smiling man at the top. At the top left-handcorner, detailed copy gives further information to thepotential consumer. This advertisement illustrates theproblem and solution technique that reminds con­sumers that they should buy Aspro to solve theproblem next time.

Patent medicine advertisements from the HongKong sample thus frequently adopted the strategy ofidentifying a 'deficit' and then offering the productadvertised as the solution to that deficit. This prob­lem-solution technique was a simple approach, butone that encouraged consumers to think of variousbodily experiences as problems that matched clearlywith purchasable remedies, thus training them tothink about acquiring products for any deficit orproblem they might experience. Added to this tech­nique were some more sophisticated associationsbetween products and the positive benefits that theycould bring, apart from simply alleviating a physicalcomplaint. Some of these associations were made incredible and legitimate terms, but most were eitheruntrue, unverifiable or at the level of symboliclinkage. The following section discusses the mostimportant of these techniques.

The empty promise strategyFalk and Richards both provide evidence that patentmedicine advertisements made outrageous claims thatcould not possibly be proven or corroborated (butthat were also very difficult for government regulatorsto disprove). Falk refers to unfounded claims as'empty promises,' and Richards notes that patentmedicine advertisers made 'absurd promises'. Adver­tisers wanted to make consumers believe that theirproducts could cure a wider range of ailments moreeffectively than other similar products, and the claimto have the 'best' cure became a standard strategy.Although there is no evidence ofoutright swindles inthe Hong Kong newspaper samples analysed here,there is some evidence ofother misleading techniquesof exaggeration and implication.

An advertisement from 1948 [12] selling powderedmilk for babies features a skinny baby reaching outtowards a can of 'whole milk' in an attempt to touchit, suggesting that he wants to get into the product. Asparkling light beams out from behind and gives the

Fig 12. Golden Aower Powdered Milk, Sing Tao Daily, 2 April1948

can a glorified connotation. The headline reads:'Turn the skinny kid into a plump child', implyingthe power of the product. On the left-hand side is afat happy baby sitting and playing, indicating that hehas been fed the whole-milk product.

Owing to the small size of advertisements in the1950s, there are not many in the sample that used thiskind of technique. Most of them were small, andindividual advertisers could not afford the luxury ofusing advertising space to demonstrate such claimsvisually. On a few occasions, the photographicdemonstration of a cure can be found, as in anadvertisement from 1949 for Tit Fai Guo [13], aChinese medicine 'invented' by Or Kong Pa Chiuclaiming it could cure tuberculosis. This shows the'before and after' pictures of a patient, Yeung Si (MrsYeung) and a letter from her thanking Or Kong forcuring her disease by giving her the medicine. Thecopy text claims to what extent the medicine cancure tuberculosis rather than describing its ingredi­ents. Typically, the advertisement did not provideany scientific evidence connecting its curative powerswith any known chemical agent or process, whichreflects the fact that these kinds of patent medicineadvertisements were not governed by the law at thattime.

As well as this straightforward approach, advertiserscreatively adapted some traditional Chinese stories todeliver their promise in a conceptual way. Thispresentation format is especially popular in advertise­ments for Chinese patent medicines, such as one from

Fig 13. Tit Fai Guo, Sing Tao Daily, 26 August 1949

a series of Tiger Balm products. This series of TigerBalm advertisements incorporates traditional Chinesestories that were familiar to the audience. One ex­ample from 1948 [14] shows three people in tradi­tional costume riding a horse-drawn wagon. The texttells the historical story about So Tong Po from theSung Dynasty. So Tong Po was a famous personworking for the government, but because of a polit­ical disagreement he was sent away by the emperor tothe southern part of China. The text goes on to say

...._ _ -- -'

Fig 14. Tiger Balm So Tong Po, Sing Tao Daily, 20 August1948

Fig 1:; T if,er Balm Monk,-,,' l\ "'s, \'''(' 1'"j 'J4~·;

Fig 16. Tiger Balm Eight Goddess Cross Sea, Sing Tao Daily, 24

December 1949

that the climate of the south was so poor in the past,and now even though the situation has beenimproved, one still needs to watch out. Finally, thetext says that the Tiger Balm product is the bestprevention for any sickness related to weather andenvironment today. In other Tiger Balm advertise­ments, traditional Chinese stories or characters such asthe Monkey King from 1948 [15] and Eight GoddessCross Sea also from 1948 [16] use similar techniquesas in the So Tong Po story, adapting to accommodatecontemporary product usage.

The use of false claims is less common in the HongKong sample than is described in the studies from theWest. This may be in part because the competitionwas not so fierce in the Hong Kong context, orbecause Chinese values mitigated against outright liesin this context. Whatever the reason, a strategy lessobviously misleading than 'empty promises' wasfound more commonly in the Hong Kong sample.This strategy, known as 'positive register', involvesmaking unverifiable but not explicitly stated sugges­tions about the product's effectiveness.

The positive registerAdvertisers sought to move beyond the matching of aremedv to a specific deficit. and they did so by

attributing various positive qualities to their productsand to a life lived with such products. By simplymaking vague claims about emotions and physicalstates that could be achieved by their products,advertisers avoided making specific and falsifiableclaims about their ability to address specific deficitsor symptoms. Patent medicine advertising turnedeveryday needs and problems into reasons to purchaseand apply products, holding out 'immediate gratifica­tion followed by the desire for more immediategratification.'39 Further, in some advertisements thepurchase and use ofpatent medicines was offered as amark of affluence.

For example, Falk40 cites a product that used theslogan 'For a better tomorrow' and claimed to bebeneficial for the healthy as well as the sick.Richards41 even quotes examples showing howadvertisers selected ordinary phenomena and madethem seem like problems or signs of the early stages ofsickness. Because of their use of ordinary 'symptoms'to sell preventive medicines, Richards notes thatthese advertisers had made an important new step inadvertising history in that they had found a way to sellmedically oriented products to people who werecompletely disease-free by convincing them thatproducts were needed if they were to maintaintheir health. Falk makes the same important observa­tion, placing emphasis on the shift from negative(deficit) to positive (well-being) in patent medicineadvertising. Instead of having a sickness (deficit) thatis overcome, the consumer prevents a sickness andmaintains health (well-being). Thus, advertisingclaims to bring these attributes to consumers whouse the specified products, and consumers candevelop relationships of identification with thegoods promised. Once the Hong Kong productshad established brand-name recognition in the earlytext-based advertisements, they quickly became moreelaborate in their visual strategies and in their associa­tions with 'well-being' that could be obtained by theconsumer through the advertised product.

Many such advertisements were for products forchildren and babies. The images of children areidealized, suggesting that the medicine will makechildren healthy and happy. An advertisement forBayer cough syrup from 1963 [17] shows an illus­tration of a girl with her hair nicely combed andwearing a pretty dress, holding her favourite fashion­able (at the time) black doll and consuming the cough

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Fig 17. Bayer Cough Syrup, Sing Tao Daily, 22 December 1963

syrup. The way this little girl is dressed can beclassified as affluent. The advertisement presents akind of <good' image in which the girl is not onlyconsuming the product happily but also by implica­tion enjoys the good life (with nice clothes andtoys)-a way of life scarcely known to most of thereaders of the newspaper who were still struggling toearn a living.

Unlike most of the Chinese medicine advertise­ments described above that focused primarily onproduct identification and filled up every inch withtype and a picture of the product, this advertisementis more sophisticated and focuses the reader's atten­tion on the affluence associated with the product.This technique was common in Western patent

Fig 18. Scott's Emulsion. Sing Tao Daily. 22 December 1963

medicine advertisements found in the Hong Kongsample. An advertisement for Scott's Emulsion from1963 (18] shows a boy holding a big bottle of theproduct and the headline says: 'Protect your childrenfrom the harm of disease.'

A number of advertisements from the sample alsouse the positive register in associating the productwith certain values not related to the context ofusage. The most prominent of these are the 'demon­stration advertisements' in which the visual inclusionof <scientific apparatus'42 was fairly common. Anadvertisement for the Tiger Balm product Ching FaShui from 1949 [19] provides the best example of the'aid of scientific apparatus' technique in the HongKong sample. It depicts a factory scene and illustratesthe production process for the product being adver­tised. Prominently featured are the machines thatproduce the product, including an assembly-linebelt covered with a line of products that have justbeen completed. Similarly, an advertisement for BatGwa Dahn [20] also reveals the production process,with an enormous set of machine rollers dominatingthe foreground. A third example depicts a scientistsurrounded by test tubes, funnels and beakers filledwith chemicals, and the viewer can actually see thescientific process beginning with this apparatusmoving left and linking with the product name,Man Gam Yau [21] as a series of tubes spells outthe characters. These advertisements borrow from theWestern technique of creating a scientific image to

Fig 19. Tiger Balm Ching Fa Shui. Sing Tao Daily. 27 March1949

Fig 20. Tiger Balm Bat GW;I Dahn, Sing Tao Daily, 1 April 1949

promote the traditional Chinese medicine products.In a way, the advertisements educate the viewer toaccept Western standards, that scientific productioncreates a valuable and reliable product.

Clearly, positive register advertisements thatplaced emphasis on the goods and positive connota­tions that could be acquired by the consumerthrough the product were common, and theywere used in advertisements for both Western andChinese products in the Hong Kong sample.Although the positive register advertisements usuallyfocused on everyday life scenes and suggested anaffluent family life or 'good life', others evokedconnotations of Western values such as scientificefficacy through their use of both visual and text.In general, the positive register advertisements usemore imagery than the ads that are simple product­identification examples. Their composition and per­suasive appeal is more complex than those describedin earlier sections.

Fig 21. MM! KM! Yau, SillR Ta" Daily. 14 March 1949

ConclusionPatent medicine advertising called attention to andsuccessfully made real a wide range of deficits, thusopening them to the possibility of being treated orsolved with patent medicine commodities. InRichards' terms, patent medicine advertising madethe first important step towards 'a re-orientation ofrepresentation [of the body] around the fundamentaleconomic dictates of capitalism. '43 It became. aboveall else, a reason to purchase products and a site onwhich to apply those products. Patent medicineadvertisements were particularly important in thehistory of advertising in Hong Kong, as they werein the West. because they represented the primary siteon which the techniques ofmodern advertising weredeveloped and first tried out.

In this study, I have emphasized the ways inwhich Western teclmiques were borrowed andused, not only when the products advertised wereWestern, but also in the case of Chinese remedies. Iargue that during this period consumers in HongKong were being trained through various advertise­ment types to understand the Western modemadvertising language. Patent medicine advertisingin particular contributed elements related to theinternal. physical and direct needs of the people.The advertisements used the techniques of product­identification and brand association, naming ofdeficits, assertion of false claims, and finally theimplicit or explicit attribution of goods as thenatural benefits of product use, which was achievedthrough the volume and variety of patent medicineadvertisements focusing consumer attention on posi­tive images and values.

Thus. these patent medicines mark the beginningof the concept of consumption for the purpose ofretaining the basic need of health and gaining phy­siological satisfaction when Hong Kong entered theindustrial phase in the 1950s. In this study, attentionhas heen drawn to the ways in which products couldenhance productivity or reduce unpleasantness.heightening individual consciousness of products asa means towards personal satisfaction. This accultura­tion to the modem language of advertising preparedthe ground for consumers to accept Western con­sumer cultural values in the future. Investigations oftextual analysis of advertising should be continued inorder to document further the relationship between

the history ofadvertising and the cultural transfonna­cion of Hong Kong.

Wendy Siuyi WongHong Kong Baptist UllIversityHong Kong, Chuu

Notes'Thi5 article 15 the revised version of a paper gIVen at the FourthAnnual Conference of the David C. Wm InstlllIte on 'Asw!Cultures at the Crossroads: An Ea.!t-West Dulogue in the NewWorld Order', held at the Hong Kong BaptUt University, HongKong in November 1998.

1 Y. W. Chan, 'The advertIS1Jlg Industry in Hong Kong In thelast quarter century' (m Crnnese), in S. N. Lee & W. Y. Leung(eds.), Stud~ on Hong Kong Joumalism, Joumalmn and Com­munication Department, Chinese Uruversity of Hong Kong,1994, pp. 98-127

2 P. Falk, Tht Consuming Body, S4ge, 1994.

3 T. Riclurds, The CommodIty Culturt IJ/ Vrctorian England:Advtrtising and Sp«tarhJ 181~1914, Verso, 1990.

4 M. K. Yiu, 'The hmory of indwtna.l development In HongKong', In Wang Kw-mu (ed.), Hong Kong History: NwPmpmiws (in Chmese), vol. 2, Joint Publislung, 1997,pp. 593--615.

5 See R. Marchand, AdPCrlising the Amerit4n Dmtm: Making Wayfor Modanity, 1920-1940, Univemty ofCahfonua Press, 1985;RJchards, op. Cll.; J. Lean, Fahks of Abundana: A CulturalHistory IJ/Adl'Crlisilfg in Amuica, B:lSIC &ob, 1994.

6 B. Singer, AdPCrlising and SoCIt/y, AddUon-Wesley, 1986, p. 18.

7 See Yiu, op. cit.; M. Turner, Made in Hong Kong: A History IJ/Export Design In Hong Kong, 1900-1960, Urban Council, 1988.

8 Turner, op. cit.

9 YIU, op. Clt.

10 I1m!.

11 W. W. R~tow, The Prows of EcolWmit Growth, 2nd edn.,Clarendon Press, 1960.

12 W. S. Chow, Witnw the Frfty Year! in Hong Kong (in Chinese),Ming Pao Publ15rnng. 1997.

13 See R. E. MJtchell, Family l.Jft in Urban Hong Kong, Project ofthe Urban Family Life Survey, 1%9, D. Chaney, 'Job sawfac­tion and unionization', in K. Hoplcins (ed.), Hong Kong: TheIndU.ltrial Colony, Oxford Umvenlty Press, 1971, pp. 261-70;T. Tmg Chau & S. H. Ng, 'Labour mobility· a study ofgarment-making and electronio worken', m S. H. Ng &D. LevIn (eels.), Contmrporary WIltS in Hong Kong UlbourR.tlati01lS, Centre of &ian Studies, University of Hong Kong,1983, pp. 103-15.

14 B. K. P. Leung, PmpMllIa on Hong Kong SoCIety, OxfordUniversity Press, 1996, p. 60.

15 D. T~, R. W. Belk & N. Zhou, 'Becoming a consumersociety; a longitudinal and cross-roJtural content analysis ofprint ads from Hong Kong. the People's Republic of China,and T:uW:lD', Journal of Consumer Ruearrh, 15 March 1989,pp. 457-72.

16 YIU, op. cit.

17 The Shek: Kip Mei fire on Christl11aS day of 1953 cawed60,000 people to become homeless overnight. The incidentforced the Hong Kong govenunent to change its non-inter­ference poltcy over hoUSIng issues. The lint 'Iow-<:ost hoWlngestate' was bwlt in 1954 in Shep Kel Mel and also rruuked thebeguuung of the long-tenn publtc housing pbn of thegovernment.

18 TelevISion was fim: available for household use in 1957 throughwired tr:lJ1SII1isston servJce by Rechffimon TelevisIon Limited(RTV), but did not gain much popularity for 5eVenl years.During the lint few years, television was av:ubble only throughsubscnption. wluch required monthly payment for the service.Wired subscriptions grew steadily through the early years.TelevtS10n only reached an a.fIluent class of people who couldafford to pay for the subscnption. The lint wrreles1 station,Hong Kong TelevISIon Broadcasts (TVB), was est:Ibluhed mNovember 1967, and its popuhnty grew so rapidly thatteleV15ion took over the role of dominant adverwing mediumby 1970, when household penetranon of televiSIOn reachednearly 50 per cem.

19 W. Leiss, S. Kline l!ol S. jhally, Sccial Communialtion in Advm­ising: PmOtl5, Products and Imaga ofWtll-Mng, Routiedge, 1990,2nd edn'

20 See G. Z. Ge, History IJ/Chi~ NtlVSJ'flptrS (m Crnnese), JointPubhshlng, 1955, 3rd edn.; S. N. Lee, 'English and Chinesenewspapen m Hong Kong,' In Wang Kw-mu (ed.), Hong KongHIStory. Nw Ptrsp«tiws (m Chmese), vol. 2, joint Pubhshing,1997, pp. 493-533.

21 See Lee, op. cit.; Chan, op. Clt.

22 Chan, op. Clt.

23 T~,Be~&Zhou, op. ciL

24 M. H. Sze, 'M:l.S3 culture and coruumptlon life,' In Wang Kw-mu (ed.), op. Clt., pp 593--615.

25 Chan, op. cit.

26 Richards, op. Clt; Lean, op. Clt.

27 Falk, op. Clt, p. 162.

28 RJchards, op. Clt.

29 Ibid., p. 170.

30 R. Willums, 'Advertismg: the magic system', in Probltms inMattriaJisrn and Culturr!' &I«ttd Essays, Verso, 1980, pp. 170­95

31 Le15S, Kline l!ol jhally, op. cit., p. 40.

32 J. Baudnllard, Jt41I &udriUard: Stlmed Writings, Polity Press.1988, p 17.

33 Richards, op. cit.

34 According to some stucUes on the history of Chinese mecUClnemanufileturen, some, such as Chan Lee Chat's MedietneManu&etory, the oldest of Its kind, can be traced back atleast 300 yean. The production of ready-to-use Chinesemed.tcine pills and oils was staned for the convenience ofpeople when travelling. It became more popular from therrud-nineteenth century, and Chinese patent medicine adver­tisements were also the oWn advertising category in newspapenin the Chinese nuinland before the Second World War. Brandnames such as Wong La Kat Medical Tea were initially~ upin 1840 in Guangzhou, and Pun Ko Sau started as a trademarkin 1929. So the irutUl production cbte ofsome Chinese patentmedicines can be traced back: before the Second World War.

35 Leiss, Khne & Jhally. op. Clt. p. 240.

36 Ibid.

37 F21k, op. cit., p. 151.

38 Ibid.

39 Riclurcb, op. Clt., p. 203.

40 Fa1k, op. cit.

41 Rtchards, op. Clt.

42 Ibid., p. 240.

43 Ibid., p. 195.