On Sat, 05 Feb 2011 11:11:12 -0600, Mitchell Holman wrote:

pt five of ten

These advertisements from the 1940's all contain substantial
textual material. One has to actually *read* through several
paragraphs to obtain the intended message.

Compare these with contemporary ads where images, with very
little accompanying text, dominate.

Does this indicate a loss of literacy over the intervening
generations?

I would answer: "Yes!"