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Deanna Miller
HIST 490: Advertising in Modern America
Dr. Henold
Final Draft
Fall Semester 2013
Keeping Up With The Joneses:
An Analysis of Advertising Techniques in the 1950s
An advertisement for a Hoover vacuum depicts four well-dressed women circled
around the vacuum, gazing at it adoringly – almost worshiping the machine.
“Announcing the New Hoover,” is spelled out in large font on the page.1 When you put
together the image with the words, the advertisement seems almost like a baby
announcement and evokes the feeling of looking at a newborn; this advertisement is
portraying the inanimate object as a member of the family. Another advertisement for
a General Electric washer displays a young woman next to the appliance, smiling in
admiration of the machine, much like the women in the first advertisement. She states
that she knows the joy of “quick-clean washing,” thanks to her General Electric
washer.2 Interestingly, these two advertisements use the same advertising technique
but are published almost twenty years apart.
Introduction
1
2
See Fig. 1
See Fig. 2
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After World War II, Americans were experiencing an age of abundance that had
not been seen since the beginning of the 20th century and not ever to such an extent. In
the 19-teens, the world experienced its first major world war on a scale never before
imagined. Then, in the 1920s, the U.S. experienced an age of abundance that they
never had before, though not to the same degree as we see in the 1950s. During the
1930s, the United States was recovering from the impact of the Great Depression;
families were focused on finding work and affording the necessities during hard
economic times. In the early 1940s, Americans were concentrated on the war effort;
unnecessary spending was frowned upon and people were, instead, encouraged to
support the troops by buying war bonds.
Consumers, since the end of the 1920s, were taught not to participate in
extravagant spending and, after World War II, it had become so ingrained in their
behavior; advertisers faced a new challenge in finding another way to market their
products that would teach families it was okay to spend their money on things they
couldn’t before. During the 1950s, advertisers became masters at manipulating their
audience to encourage them to become “good consumers” by using different methods
like visual clichés, leisure, ensemble, trendsetting, and the parable of the first
impression. However, these methods weren’t new to the world of advertising. Roland
Marchand, author of Advertising the American Dream, has found extensive evidence
that these same methods were used in advertisements of the 1920s.
The goal of this paper is to understand how advertisers in the 1950s used ad
techniques from the 1920s to teach consumers how to buy in a time of prosperity that
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had not been occurred for roughly twenty years. This paper also plans to discuss what
exactly these advertisements say about consumers during this time. In my research, I
found that a lot of analysis available on advertisements concentrates on particular
decades, but does not look to see how that decade might have been affected by other
advertising techniques in earlier periods. I noticed this specifically in Roland
Marchand’s Advertising the American Dream, which focuses on the 1920 through the
1930s, and Thomas Hine’s book, Populuxe, which focuses on the 1950s and early 60s.
However, I have found that while both authors have compiled persuasive evidence for
their arguments, Thomas Hine fails to understand the history of the advertising
methods he discusses in his book. Hine looks at advertisements and consumer culture
of the 1950s by itself and does not look into the history of advertising or any earlier
instances of these techniques.
Lit Review and Historiography
The 1920s “actually began with an economic whimper; the transition back to
peacetime after World War I was a difficult adjustment…which caused a short but
sharp recession in 1920-21.”3 However, after an increase in wages the economy was
pulled out of the brief recession and experienced a growing economy by 1922. The
rise of corporate advertising and new mass-production industries helped to increase
the economy of the 20s. In fact, advertising increased from 2,480 million in 1920 to
Shmoop Editorial Team, "Economy in The 1920s,"Shmoop University, Inc.,11 November
2008, http://www.shmoop.com/1920s/economy.html
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2,600 million by 1925.4 Advertisers accomplished this by redefining “the source of
abundance from the fecund earth to the efficient factory” while the factories
themselves increased the amount of product they were selling.5 The consumer culture
the ad men promoted was the accumulation of items, not the possession itself, gave an
individual the appearance of abundance or high status.6
Roland Marchand, author of Advertising the American Dream, offers insight on
the marketing and advertising industries in the 1920s and 30s by analyzing the
advertisements of the time. Marchand makes a compelling argument for the different
methods used by the advertisers and the intended effect these ads were supposed to
have on the audience. The ad men used schemes like ensemble, trendsetting,
modernity, the fear of first impression, and visual clichés to entice their audience into
purchasing various goods and services. However, these manipulation tactics can also
be found in the advertisements of the 1950s, discussed in Thomas Hine’s book,
Populuxe, which will be analyzed below.
Another source of information on the 1920s comes from Stuart Ewen’s book,
Captains of Consciousness, which discusses the origins of the advertising industry and
consumer society in the early 20th century. The aspect of this book used for this paper
is Ewen’s argument on the impact advertisers and businesses had on the consumer
and how they tried to create new needs and ways of consumption in order to increase
Douglas Galbi. Think! Communications Economics and Industry Analysis Blog.
http://www.galbithink.org/ad-spending.htm.
5 Jackson Lears. Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America. (New
York, New York: The Perseus Books Group, 1994), 18
6 Ibid. 20
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profits. Furthermore, Ewen describes how advertisements seemed to twist the reality
of how financially and socially inaccessible their products were to people and how they
shaped this reality to invent a new consumer culture that made the audience to feel
desire for products that they didn’t necessarily want or need.
Advertisers borrowed the methods of the 20s and reused them in the 1950s,
because they had to find ways of advertising their agenda in a period of abundance.
Reusing 1920 advertising methods alone would not accomplish this goal. The
economy of the 1950s was much bigger than that of the 1920s; spending on
advertising alone jumped from 2,480 million in 1920 to almost 12,000 million in
1960.7 There were more products to be sold, more consumer capital to tap into, and
more images of the American dream to project to the audience. However, advertisers
only knew the techniques that had been in the field since the 1920s. So they took this
knowledge and applied it to the 1950s, but had to adjust it to get the attention of the
consumers.
During the Second World War, the economy was receiving the relief it
needed. The employment rate decreased from 4.7% in 1942 to only 1.2% in the last
year of the war.8 This is due to the fact that men were joining the army and becoming
employed while women who did not join the war effort as nurses took the jobs they
Douglas Galbi. Think! Communications Economics and Industry Analysis Blog.
http://www.galbithink.org/ad-spending.htm.
8 Frank Hobs, and Nicole Stoops. Demographic Trends in the 20th Century. November
2002. http://www.census.gov/prod/2002/pubs/censr-4.pdf.
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left behind in the factories. For the first time in a long time, families had an increased
pay they didn’t have in the 1930s and early 40s. And when the soldiers returned, they
came to an improved economy and raised wages that would increase their purchasing
power. Suddenly, advertisers had a consumer base with so much potential they could
tap into and they took advantage of that. Advertisement funding increased from 2,840
million at the end of World War II in 1945, to 5,700 million in 1950, rising
continuously to 11,960 million by 1960.9 With the rise in money spent on advertising
and the increased interest in the topic, advertisers had to become more creative in
order to compete. The methods of the 1920s had worked so well but they couldn’t
directly apply them; this was a new era with new technologies and ideals to be
exploited.
Thomas Hine’s Populuxe discusses the consumer culture of the 1950s and how it
was shaped by advertisements, suburban neighborhoods, and societal standards. Hine
unknowingly takes the methods discussed by Marchand and applies them to the 1950s
culture, though he fails to mention that these various methods were used before. Hine
discusses many of the same techniques that Marchand also mentions, such as
ensemble, modernity, planned obsolescence, and style. However, this book combines
these techniques and analyzes them with social culture of planned economies,
otherwise known as suburbs.
Douglas Galbi. Think! Communications Economics and Industry Analysis Blog.
http://www.galbithink.org/ad-spending.htm.
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Advertisers began to market wants and needs differently in the 1950s; they tried
to illustrate the positives of consuming, instead of the negative aspects of not
purchasing new goods. The advertisers also had to combat the idea that consumption
was dangerous in the 1950s and that a new depression would not hit the United States
economy. The impact of the Great Depression was still fresh in Americans’ minds and
the fear of returning to that state must have been overwhelming. However, the
economy after WWII was booming; more people were employed, wages had been
increased, and more money was being spent on goods and services.
Advertisers in the 1950s were dealing with a new economy and so they required
new advertising methods. The post-war economy was booming and families were
earning more than ever before.10 Higher incomes gave consumers an increase in
spending power and they could afford more leisure items. Elaine May writes that
“rather than putting money aside for a rainy day, Americans were inclined to spend
it.11 ”However, advertisers had to teach consumers that, because the war was over,
they should now be focusing on spending their money on goods and not saving it as
they had been taught in the past. The advertisers wanted to create a conspicuous
consumer, meaning they would spend money on acquiring luxury goods and services
in order to display their socio-economic power. The majority of the target audience
grew up during the Great Depression and their families could not afford to spend their
Elaine Tyler May. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. (New
York, New York: Basic Book Inc., 1954), 165
11 Ibid.
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money on luxury items. Advertisers wanted them to feel that they should be
purchasing these goods during good economic times and show them off to their friends
and family. In fact, one major theme in the advertisements is that the owner of the
object, usually a woman, was showing off their brand new, top-of-the-line appliance
that they had the economic ability to purchase.
This need to show off wealth was intensified in planned economies, or the
suburbs. The population of those living in suburbs rose from 122.8 million at the end
of the 1930s to 179.3 million by the 1960s.12 Within these planned economies, houses
were almost identical, making it hard to stand out. Manufacturers capitalized on this
and gave their customers a new way to stand out by offering their appliances in
different colors and adding new technological aspects every year. These techniques
were assisted by the suburban neighborhoods. After World War II, men were
returning home to their lives before the war. With this rise in new married couples,
the demand for housing increased. With the passing of the GI Bill, soldiers were given
funds to attend college and purchase homes, and the increase in the amount and
quality of roads allowed for families to live outside the cities and commute to work.
These soldiers were “in dire need of about five million houses, as ex-GIs and their
families were living with their parents or in rented attics, basements, or unheated
Hobbs, Frank, and Nicole Stoops. U.S Department of Commerce, "Demographic Trends
in the 20th Century." Last modified November 2002.
http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/censr-4.pdf.
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summer bungalows.”13 However, construction companies had found a cheap and
efficient way to build houses on the outskirts of cities. Thus, planned communities
were formed where houses were pre-planned and similar to each other.
Elaine Tyler May’s Homeward Bound, and offers more information on 1950s
suburban housing and culture by discussing the rise of the consumer-oriented
advertising based on the suburban home. Suburban housing was designed with lower
socio-economic families in mind, especially soldiers returning from the war. In fact,
the GI Bill of Rights created a program that guaranteed insurance for mortgages and
loans that helped soldiers and their families afford homes in the suburbs.14 Even the
Cold War pushed the popularity of housing in the suburbs through scientific
endorsement of the “defense through decentralization” rationale that “argued in favor
of depopulating the urban core to avoided a concentration of residences or industries
in a potential target area for a nuclear attack.”15 May also mentions the role that
suburban housing had in fostering “traditional gender roles in the home,” which
includes women being recognized as the main consumer in the family.16
The purpose of this paper is to connect and compare the works above, focusing
on Advertising the American Dream and Populuxe, as well as concepts from other
literature, to achieve a better understanding of the 1950s consumer culture. What
Peter Hales. Levittown: Documents of an Ideal American Suburb. University of Illinois at
Chicago. http://tigger.uic.edu/~pbhales/Levittown.html.
14 Elaine Tyler May. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. (New
York, New York: Basic Book Inc., 1954), 169
15 Ibid. 169
16 Ibid, 171.
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these books lack is a contribution to a bigger picture. Each of these books have
analyzed a small period of time but have made no attempt to understand how these
ideas fit into the 20th century as a whole. These books lack in mentioning how these
methods and techniques effected other eras or how they might have been inspired by
earlier times. I will apply the methods and information in each of these texts and apply
them to 1950s advertisements.
In the analysis portion of this paper, I will explain the advertising techniques in
three different ways. First, is how the method was portrayed in Roland Marchand’s
Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity. Second, I will discuss how
Thomas Hine discusses the technique in Populuxe: The look and life of America in the
‘50s and ‘60s, from tailfins and TV dinners to Barbie dolls and fallout shelters . And last, I
will add my analysis of the advertisements I collected from the 1950s. These
techniques include, planned obsolescence, the ensemble, style and trendsetting, visual
clichés, and the fear of first impression.
Planned Obsolescence
Planned obsolescence is something today’s consumers know very well.
Technology is just not built to last anymore; things tend to break or need replacing
after a short while. However, this concept has been around for quite a while.
Marchand discusses the concept of obsolescence through fashion and the use of color.
The fashion industry has been using obsolescence through trendsetting long before the
20th century, but Marchand argues that it increased in the 1920s when manufacturers
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and ad men picked up on this technique and applied it to the products they were
selling.17
According to the documentary The Light Bulb Conspiracy, planned obsolescence
is a concept that has been around since the early 20th century.18 In the early 1920s, a
group called Phoebus emerged. This group was the world’s first worldwide cartel; its
purpose was to control the production of light bulbs to make sure that they would have
a profitable market. Manufacturers from the United States and Europe had begun to
realize that their light bulbs, some of which were built to last at least 2,500 hours, were
lasting too long. These companies figured out that if they kept creating products that
lasted for so long, they were not going to make a sizeable profit. So, in 1925, Phoebus
met and decided to form the “The 1000 Hour Life Committee,” which was committed to
reducing the life of light bulbs.19 This committee pressured its members to create a
light bulb that lasted no more than 1000 hours by threatening fines. By 1932, the
cartel had succeeded; all member companies had created a light bulb that would not
last as long as its previous models. The light bulb stands for new ideas and innovation
but really was the start of planned obsolescence.
The idea of planned obsolescence may have begun in the 1920s, but it didn’t
become a popular method until the 1950s. In the 1920s, “mass-production made many
Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity.
(London: The Regents of the University of California, 1985), 132
18 Cosima Dannoritzer, The Light Bulb Conspiracy, Directed by Cosima Dannoritzer.
Performed by Mike Anane and Michael Braugnart. (2010)
19 Ibid.; Helmut Hodge, an historian in Berlin found proof of the cartel and the
committee, as well as a few of the companies involved.
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goods widely available, prices fell and many people started shopping for fun rather
than need.”20 This all came to a halt when the Stock Market crashed in 1929. People
no longer focused on buying luxurious goods, but more on food and work. The first
time the words “planned obsolescence” were used was actually during the Great
Depression.
Many economists tried to figure out how to get the United States economy back
to where it was before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and Bernard London, an
economist, suggested something radical. London proposed that making planned
obsolescence compulsory by law would end the Great Depression.21 London stated
that all products would be given a lease of life where they would be considered “legally
dead,” and at such a time consumers would turn them over to a government agency to
be destroyed. Of course, this proposal was never considered and, though the idea was
used in the 1930s during the Great Depression, the term was not used again until the
1950s.
A few years after the end of the Second World War, the United States was
experiencing an era of progress and prosperity. By this time, advertisers were getting
smarter. Instead of forcing planned obsolescence on their audience, they became
clever in their marketing and began to seduce consumers with it. Brooks Stevens,
whom the documentary The Light Bulb Conspiracy called the apostle of planned
20
21
Ibid.
Ibid.
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obsolescence, created many products with that method in mind.22 Stevens’ designs
contained speed and modernity and believed that these designs should inspire a
consumer to purchase the good.
The documentary argues that “design and marketing seduced consumers into
always craving the latest model,” and Stevens’ claimed purchasing a good was at the
discretion of the consumer. However, the psychological tactics used by advertisers
were manipulative and the actions taken by manufactures leave the consumers with
no choice but to comply with planned obsolescence. Advertisers played on their
audiences’ emotion to achieve this. The memory of the Great Depression is still
present and the tragedy of war a not so distant past. This manipulation, however, did
not just apply to technology. Many advertisers pulled from the idea of planned
obsolescence of technology and inserted it into advertisements for other goods.
Thomas Hine, like Marchand, looks at obsolescence through fashion and color.
Hine states that “the increased importance of colors [in the 1950s] meant everything
changed more often. Populuxe refers to many advertisements that incorporated color,
from ads about refrigerators and stoves, to ads on bathroom furnishings. You could
match all of your kitchen appliances, your furniture, and more. There were even
advertisements for colored toilet paper so that even that could match the color scheme
of your bathroom. Much of this is taken from the fashion industry; advertisers made
women the trendsetters of appliances and furniture. Women have been victim to
22
Ibid.
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fashion for much of history so applying trends and style to their appliances and
furniture seemed second nature to them.
The Ensemble
Planned obsolescence does not just apply to technology, but to the products’
style and fashion trends as well. Roland Marchand states that the “crowning
achievement of advertising’s emphasis on color, beauty, and style in the 1920s was its
popularization of the idea of the ensemble; a [harmony] of color and style among a
variety of accessories.”23 The addition of color in advertising during the 1920s allowed
for a new way for advertisers to attract consumers. Using color in advertising was and
new and efficient way to take practical goods and turning them into a fashionable item,
which Marchand explains by stating, “against the grayish blandness of such a
background, a colored product could immediately and ingeniously provide an eyecatching advertising advantage.”24
Marchand provides various advertisements from the 1920s that incorporate
color into their product, from pens and jackets, to bathroom accessories.25 Color
advertising was most productive with bathroom accessory advertisements, which
inspired its use in other products that manufacturers had never bothered to apply
color to before, such as bed sheets. One specific company, Pepperell Manufacturing
Company introduced a new line of colored sheets and pillowcases by announcing that,
Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity.
(London: The Regents of the University of California, 1985), 132
24 Ibid. 122
25 Ibid. 121 - 125
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“every woman’s sleeping-room should express her personality.”26 Color was no longer
used to grab a reader’s attention, but was beginning to be used as a way to personalize
products and provide a connection between the good being advertised and the
consumer.
While the ensemble is a marketing scheme of the 1920s, advertisers found it
very useful in the 1950s. With the growing number of families living in suburban
neighborhoods and the new techniques being employed by advertisers, the ensemble
approach has a large presence in the 1950s. Thomas Hine also discusses Marchand’s
concept of ensemble in Populuxe. The suburban house also brought new ways to use
color in products; advertisers expanded the use of color to be incorporated in every
room. Houses in suburban neighborhoods were so alike that “if your company moved
you from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to Anaheim, California, the vegetation would be
different, but you could probably move into much the same house.”27 Advertisers took
this uniformity and created a sense of competitiveness in their advertisements by
depicting the subject with the new and latest styles. Using an array of never before
seen colors, manufacturers incorporated fashion and style into their products, which
was then promoted by the advertisers.
Ibid. 127
Thomas Hine. Populuxe: The look and life of America in the '50s and '60s, from tailfins
and TV dinners to Barbie dolls and fallout shelters. (Toronto, Canada: Random House,
1986), 22.
26
27
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Continuing with the popularity of colored bathroom accessories, manufactures
carried this concept over to other rooms in the suburban home. Consumers now had
the ability match all of their kitchen appliances, bedroom furniture, living room
furniture, and even the office equipment. This was an easy method of advertising to
consumers, mostly women, because the idea comes from the fashion industry. Women
have been victim to fashion for much of history, so applying trends and style to their
appliances and furniture seemed second nature to them. In using the ensemble
approach, advertisers portrayed women as having the ability to become stylish
trendsetters in their own neighborhoods.
Not only does the ensemble method appear in appliances, but in other goods like
toilet paper. According to this ad from ScotTissue in Life magazine, consumers were
now able to purchase toilet paper that would match the color scheme of your
bathroom, at a higher price of course. Consumers who purchased a “mint green”
bathtub, sink and toilet now had the option of purchasing toilet paper to match. Not
only will this toilet paper “blend in gently with…your shower curtain with the gold
stars, or Dad’s new blue plaid towels,” but also “ScotTissue in color is such a big
money’s worth, and you’re not constantly putting in a new roll because this big color
roll lasts and lasts…your best color value for the whole family.”28 Manufacturers and
advertisers were getting smarter about their products; women had already been
taught the concept of trends through fashion; to apply this knowledge to a disposable
28
See Fig. 3
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item such as toilet paper is both ridiculous and clever at the same time. If these
consumers took a minute to think about what they were purchasing for a higher price
compared to the use value of the product then they would realize the absurdity of
buying the more expensive colored toilet paper. However, toilet paper wasn’t the only
good being sold in a variety of colors.
Many products, from refrigerators to bathtubs were also offered in different
colors so that customers could potentially match all of your appliances by brand and
color. However, color choices changed every year, just like with fashion; if an
appliances broke down, the consumer could not simply buy a replacement in the same
color because the color was most likely not offered any more, making it impossible to
find a balance between trends and technology. Thomas Hine discusses this idea in his
book, Populuxe, stating that this approach came “from both automobiles and clothing
fashions [which marketed] new colors and color combinations…[and] the major
decorating magazines initiated annual features on “this year’s colors.”29 And just as
fashion is divided into seasons, “the increased importance of colors meant everything
changed more often.”30 Advertisers portrayed the good consumer of the 1950s as
having the ability to keep up with the new seasons, colors, and styles. Good consumers
updated their bathrooms, kitchens, and bedroom so that they could appear modern
Thomas Hine. Populuxe: The look and life of America in the '50s and '60s, from tailfins
and TV dinners to Barbie dolls and fallout shelters. (Toronto, Canada: Random House,
1986), 20
30 Ibid. 20
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and stylish. Advertisers used new colors and styles as a way to teach women that they
could apply their knowledge of fashion trendsetting to the home.
Style and Trendsetting
One method advertisers used during this time was to make their consumers feel
like trendsetters when buying their goods, much like you would in fashion. When
applied to fashion, planned obsolescence is a synonym for trends. Fashion designs and
clothing go in and out of style in an effort to get consumers to continue to buy clothes
instead of hanging onto the clothing from the previous season. Manufacturers and
advertisers saw the fashion industry with their seasons and trends and found a way to
market their products to their audience so that they would want to update their
furniture or appliances with newer versions that came in different colors.31 The most
convenient part of this scheme was that advertisers didn’t have to find clever ways to
manipulate consumers; their main audience, women, were already used to this idea
from the fashion industry.
Marchand discusses this concept through colored plumbing fixtures in the
bathroom, describing it as a “color crusade to emancipate the bathroom from prim
utilitarianism.”32 He also gives to examples of ads that show the incorporation of color,
“style elements in line, pattern and decoration,” in bathroom furnishings.33 One ad in
particular incorporates fashion and furniture into one scene. The Montgomery Ward &
Ibid. 22-23
Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity.
(London: The Regents of the University of California, 1985), 124
33 Ibid. 125
31
32
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Co. advertisement depicts a color-coordinated bathroom, described as the “lake forest”
outfit, and “the lady of the house [being used like] a prop to contribute to the
bathroom’s larger harmony of color and pattern.”34 Advertisers were trying to create a
connection to fashion and appliances by incorporating both into the advertisements in
an effort to reach out to female consumers. This tactic saw a lot of success in the 1920s
and was incorporated into other products to “elevate consumption levels above those
of mere utilitarian serviceability” and soon “invaded the kitchen, bedroom, and even
the cellar.”35
Hine picks up on the trendsetting technique in advertisement in the 1950s.
However, he makes the mistake of claiming that appliances were “manufactured in
color for the first time, something that introduced a new fashion element” when
Marchand has provided extensive evidence in the use of colored appliances in the
1920s.36 The use of this tactic, however, is accelerated in the 1950s because due to the
popularity of the suburban neighborhood:
“home builders phased out the basic house and started coming up with new and
elaborate models which could be fitted and personalized with a series of options
and upgrades…the arrival of new materials, particularly new kinds of floor and
wall coverings, brought distinctly new looks…from both automobiles and
Ibid. 125
Ibid. 126
36 Thomas Hine. Populuxe: The look and life of America in the '50s and '60s, from tailfins
and TV dinners to Barbie dolls and fallout shelters. (Toronto, Canada: Random House,
1986), 21
34
35
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clothing fashions came new colors and color combinations that rendered old
rooms stodgy.”37
Marchand gives evidence of the use and popularity of colored appliances, but Hine gives
evidence of the expanded use of color in other aspects of design in the house. In
analyzing the collection of advertisements for this paper, I found that while color had
been used in the past, Hine is correct in his argument that advertisers began to use this
tactic outside of kitchen and bathroom appliances.
In a Lincoln advertisement from Life in 1956, advertisers claimed that the first
thing consumers’ notice was the trendsetting style of their products.38 In fact, the
overall look and style of the vehicle is the first thing mentioned in the ad. The style
that the Lincoln brand is the first thing observed before they even consider the “other
qualities” the product offers.39 Many of the car advertisements during the 1950s
mention very little about anything else the car might have to offer. It is all about style
and how what you purchase makes you appear to others. In the Lincoln
advertisement, an older couple watch as a younger couple leave in their car, not even
paying attention to the older couple waving goodbye.40 Both couples appear to be part
of a higher class, though the man and woman in the Lincoln seem to be socially and
economically superior to the other pair. What Lincoln is trying to compel consumers
Ibid. 20
See Fig 4
39 See Fig. 4
40 See Fig. 4
37
38
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to feel when they see this ad is that buying a Lincoln will give you the appearance that
you are from the upper class and have the money to purchase luxurious items, such as
a car. In addition, the setting of the ad looks like it takes place in the South, which is a
play on the nostalgia associated with pre-Civil War South.
The appearance of consumers showing off their luxury goods does not just
appear in car advertisements but appliance ads as well. The Gas Range advertisement
from Good Housekeeping also boasts a modern style to its audience.41 The advertisers
promote that this particular range, made in 1948, is more advanced then the one made
in 1947 or any other competing model on the market. Not only that, but this brand
was the first to bring its customers “smokeless broiling, heat-controlled ovens, simmer
burners, [and] table-top designs!”42 This was not the only appliance company that
pushed this agenda. Hotpoint Appliances also claimed to offer the latest technology for
their customers. In fact, their dryer “outmodes all previous dryers” as well as asserting
that it is the “first” and the “new[est]” in the field of technology. 43 This kind of
marketing is targeted to their customers’ competitive natures; who wouldn’t want to
be the first in the neighborhood to have the latest appliance technology has to offer?
Especially when they could get it in the latest “in season” colors.
Colors weren’t the only thing that went in and out of style. Every year car
companies would find something different to add to their cars that the previous year
See Fig. 5
See Fig. 5
43 See Fig. 6
41
42
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did not have and base their marketing on those changes. The previous car is no longer
acceptable in the eyes of advertisers and they wanted consumers to feel the same way.
Cars were a good that you could show off not just in your driveway but also on the
road and at the market; they are the quintessential example of a consumers buying
power. Thomas Hine explains it well in his book, Populuxe:
“In 1954, general Motors unveiled something called the Firebird, an
experimental show car meant for display in the very popular “Motoramas” the
company held periodically in various American cities.
These were exercises in
marketing, not technology, and the cars shown were often simply versions of current
models with heightened symbolic content, or trials of features that were a year or two
away…in 1955, however…the dull little car, which had been available in colors like
dark blue, dark green and deep violet, all of which seemed only to be gradations of
basic black, came forth in color combinations like coral and charcoal gray.
And
Chevrolet was not alone…all of Chrysler Corporation’s models… were restyled that
year.”44
Both manufacturers and advertisers realized that their audience would fall for simple
changes, like the color of the car, as an improvement and used that to market their
cars. Good consumers should be willing to buy the new and latest model because they
should want to be the first to have the new gadget to show off.
Thomas Hine. Populuxe: The look and life of America in the '50s and '60s, from tailfins
and TV dinners to Barbie dolls and fallout shelters. (Toronto, Canada: Random House,
1986), 90
44
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Luxury and Leisure
Marchand also mentions the concept of leisure and how it was applied to the
home. The image of housework was transformed from a chore to something else;
advertisers and manufacturers of home appliances “promised that their labor-saving
products and services would bring women the most fulfilling reward – leisure time.”45
This was depicted in ads by showing the housewife enjoying her leisure by either
minimizing the product or removing it all together.46 Marchand gives an example of
this in The Laundry Machinery Company’s advertisement, titled “”Might-have-been
hours”…how many of them are YOURS?”47 This ad depicts a woman with an iron
staring at the clock that shows images of leisure activities she could be involved in if
she weren’t still doing her chores.48 The emphasis is not placed on the product itself
but of the benefit of leisure the product would bring to the consumer.
Hine doesn’t discuss how advertisements depicted leisure or luxury but he does
discuss a new form of it that incorporated leisure, consumerism, and social interaction.
Tupperware parties were very popular in 1950s suburban neighborhoods. Women, in
return for hosting a party, received free Tupperware products. These parties were
Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity.
(London: The Regents of the University of California, 1985), 171
46 Ibid. 171
47 Ibid. 173
48 Ibid. 173
45
Miller 24
successful as well; “nobody would leave without at least one piece of Tupperware.”49
There were many other ways to spend leisure time, such as watching TV shows like
The Life of Riley, and I Love Lucy, which eventually moved the main characters from
their Manhattan apartment to a suburban neighborhood in Connecticut. Food
preparation also became easier, like TV dinners and Lipton’s onion dip mix.50 These
easy to prepare foods were supposed to allow more leisure time for housewives.
Leisure and luxury were not easy to advertise in the 1950s, however; they had two
decades of financial insecurity to overcome.
Luxury is yet another theme found in these 1950s advertisements in many ways;
the luxury of technology, time, and money. The majority of Americans at this time
were not used to luxury; the economy had become slow, due to the Great Depression.
Advertisers were desperate to continue their success from the 1920s. They were
focused on booting morale, inspiring consumers, and reassuring their audience that
spending would, in fact, save the economy.51 Advertisers also had to combat the
discouragement of luxury and leisure during the 1940s when all efforts were focused
on the war. Luxury and leisure were still portrayed throughout these two decades but
never to the extent that is seen in the 1950s. One interesting difference I’ve found in
my advertisements is that, unlike Marchand’s ads from the 1920s that minimized or
Thomas Hine. Populuxe: The look and life of America in the '50s and '60s, from tailfins
and TV dinners to Barbie dolls and fallout shelters. (Toronto, Canada: Random House,
1986), 35
50 Ibid. 25-27
51 Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity.
(London: The Regents of the University of California, 1985), Chapter 9
49
Miller 25
removed the product, the 1950s ads always depict the product and have either
removed the person or minimized them.
In just about every advertisement analyzed for this paper, luxury and leisure are
present, if not the main aspect. In the Lincoln advertisement found in Life luxury is a
main theme. Just looking at the extravagant vehicle taking up the majority of the
illustration, one can almost feel the luxury exuding from it. If that isn’t enough, the
audience can also take in the wealth and opulence from the rich clothing and jewelry
the couple in the Lincoln is wearing, or the large Southern-style plantation in the
background. The mansion itself brings the consumer back to the romanticized preCivil War era with large white columns and manicured landscaping. Not to mention
the dominating presence of the affluent white upper class. In the description below
the picture, the subtitle reads, “people who know fine cars are changing to Lincoln.”
The use of the word “fine” also suggests the luxuriousness of the car.
Luxury isn’t just implied through pictures, but through words as well. In an
overwhelming amount of advertisements, particularly about home appliances, the
words “quick,” “easy,” and “automatic” can be found. Purchasing a new automatic
dryer, or the new advanced gas range, would not only hint to your economic ability to
purchase such advanced technology, but allow you leisure time that was never
available before. No more spending time hanging your clothes out on the line or
worrying about rainy weather ruining your freshly cleaned linens. You could now
through your clothes into the automatic dryer, press a few buttons, then walk away
Miller 26
without a worry until the buzz indicated that your clothes are now dry. The General
Electric washer will make your clothes sparkling clean “without a bit of effort.”52
These appliances became part of a family’s every day life. These goods weren’t just
purchased for their ability to provide luxury and leisure; in the popular suburban
neighborhoods, good consumers should want to show off their financial ability to
purchase these household appliances and luxurious cars.
Visual Clichés
Another theme Marchand discusses in his book is that of the visual clichés.
Marchand has referenced many advertisements that take the product and increase its
size to the point where “huge refrigerators towered above tiny towns of consumers
[or] immense cars straddled the rivers and towns of miniaturized countryside below.
One example that sums up this “heroic proportions” technique is an ad that shows a
gigantic air-conditioned refrigerator that is towering over a crowd of miniature people.
This method was meant to point out “the “kolossal” image was not only “almost
overpowering in its demand upon reader attention” but also commanded “confidence
and respect”” as well as to allude to the objects dominance and transcendence.53
Hine fails to mention this advertising technique but I have found this theme in
many of my advertisements, especially home appliance ads. One interesting difference
I’ve found in my advertisements is that, unlike Marchand’s ads from the 1920s that
See Fig. 2
Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity.
(London: The Regents of the University of California, 1985), 266-267; *spelled “kolossal”
52
53
Miller 27
minimized or removed the product, the 1950s ads always depict the product and have
either removed the person or minimized them. In the Hotpoint advertisement, the
woman showing off their newest dryer has been reduced to a smaller size than that of
the appliance. This also appears in the Gas Range ad, in which the woman is not even
half the size of the range. It is almost as if the advertisers are belittling the importance
of the women in the ads; they no longer play a huge role in cooking or doing the
laundry because the appliance is advertised to do everything for them. The
advertisements are trying to portray the fact that women, after purchasing that
particular good, will not have to spend as much time on household chores and would
have more time for their families and social lives.
This belittlement of women played to the popular notion that a woman’s work in
the home is not work at all. The wife gets to stay home and take care of the chores and
children while the husband has to go off into the public sphere and “bring home the
bacon” to provide for his family. Most of the women in advertisements like this appear
happy that they no longer have to put as much effort into those household chores. In
fact, the woman at the bottom of the Hotpoint ad looks blissful.54 Another common
expression held by the women is a look of adoration and love, such as the woman in
the other woman in the Hotpoint ad.55 According to these advertisements, a good
consumer should feel love for the appliances, almost as if they were a member of the
54
55
See Fig. 6
See Fig. 2 and 6
Miller 28
family. Though these women may appear miniscule in comparison to the home
appliances, their size speaks volumes.
First Impressions
Roland Marchand discusses the parable of the first impression in the
1920s and states that “first impressions brought immediate success or failure” to a
person and a fear of offending or committing a faux pas became a realistic fear
invented and maintained by advertisements. In the 1920s, ad men capitalized on the
importance of the first impression by being very direct. Marchand cites many
advertisements with very direct ways of promoting this parable, but one in particular
explains it perfectly:
“Suddenly, she sensed, as a knowledgeable mother would have been able to
advise, that her chance of being invited to such an affair again – in fact, her whole
future popularity – would be determined by this crucial first impression of her
presence… her social destiny hung in the balance.”56
The woman and her husband in this advertisement worked tirelessly on the dinner
menu and conversation topics that were appropriate for such an important party.
However, her “dreary and out-of-date” furniture gave the “impression of dowdy
tastelessness and lack of modernity ruined her plans for a flawless first impression.”57
Roland Marchand. Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity.
(London: The Regents of the University of California, 1985), 208
57 Ibid.
56
Miller 29
This couple, because of this failed first impression among influential people, ruined
their future and the husband remained in his sales job for the next twenty years.
The parable of the first impression had already become ingrained in society by
the 1950s. Thomas Hine argues that the design of suburban neighborhoods helped
keep this parable alive; “the picture windows through which it was possible to view
your neighbor’s furniture and family activities [and] the lack of effective fences”
allowed the feeling of being watched by your neighbors. The pressure to “keep up with
the Joneses” was amplified in the suburbs. Neighbors could peak inside your houses
through these large “picture windows” and see your furniture and style but this wasn’t
the only way for neighbors to judge you based off of your possessions. Tupperware
parties became popular social interactions between suburban neighbors. In fact, one
of the few things “nearly all suburbanites had in common was that they were
consumers.” Tupperware parties were social gatherings a woman would host at her
house and invite all her neighbors. Not only could she flaunt her ability to buy the
Tupperware, but she could also show off her modern and stylish home.
This parable of the first impression is also used in 1950s advertisements,
though not presented so obviously as it was in the 1920s. This tactic was so ingrained
in advertisements form the 1920s and on that it became unnecessary to be as visible in
the 1950s. The theme of first impression can also be found in many of the
advertisements I found on the 1950s. There tends to be a presence of an onlooker or
neighbor that is admiring the subject’s new gadget. In the Caloric advertisement, the
Miller 30
subject, a woman, is seen showing off her new “Ultramatic” Caloric gas stove to
another woman.58 The owner of the stove is smiling wide at her neighbor who is
looking on at the stove with a look of adoration. The subject of this advertisement is
successful in making a good impression. She doesn’t own some outdated wood stove –
she has a new Caloric gas stove! She is showing off her financial stability and her new
stove that can end the “endless hours of range-tending” and gives her “more time to
[her]self.”59
The Lincoln ad also offers a 1950s perspective on the parable of the first
impression. As discussed earlier, there are two couples featured in this advertisement,
the young couple in the Lincoln and the admiring older couple off to the side.60 No
matter where you lived, in the city, the suburbs, or in a rural town, this car would be a
perfect way to show off! In fact, this ad claims that people who know fine cars are
purchasing Lincolns: so why not portray your self as one of these educated consumers
that appreciate fine cars? In the 1950s, it became popular to trade in your car from the
previous year and purchase the new model. Thomas Hine discusses this trend in detail
in Populuxe. Harley Earl, a former Hollywood car customizer, worked for General
Motors in the ‘50s to design new models.61 Earl’s designs were inspired by airplanes
See Fig. 6
See Fig. 6
60 See Fig. 7
61 Thomas Hine. Populuxe: The look and life of America in the '50s and '60s, from tailfins
and TV dinners to Barbie dolls and fallout shelters. (Toronto, Canada: Random House,
1986), 83
58
59
Miller 31
and other modern technology and created the popular tailfin.62 In suburban
neighborhoods, houses were identical looking but the car sitting in your driveway
could say a lot about your financial stability, as well as style. A good consumer should
always be prepared to make a good first impression, and they can accomplish this by
keeping up with the fashion trends and purchasing the latest technological invention.
Conclusion
In a time that was so new for the consumers, advertisers in the 1950s capitalized
on the consumers’ uncertainty to force an agenda they had had since their rise in the
1920s. Their goal was to promote spending to new levels that had never been seen
before. Consumer culture, up to that point had forced consumers to err on the side of
caution; save, don’t spend. Fear of another depression, like that of the 1930s, was still
very real and sincere. But with the rise of wages and the decrease unemployment,
manufacturers realized there was a potential for higher consumer spending. So they
took ideas from methods they had already been using and found new ways to seduce
consumers into spending by presenting them with new feelings associated with
purchasing goods.
Thomas Hine argues in his book, Populuxe, that many of these concepts were a
product of the post-World War II consumer culture. However, I have found that this
argument is flawed; Roland Marchand’s book, Advertising the American Dream, shows
evidence of these techniques were not new to the 1950s, in fact they were first being
62
Ibid.
Miller 32
used in the 1920s. Methods such as the parable of the first impression, visual clichés,
impressions of luxury and leisure, and ensemble were initially used in the 1920s.
What separates 1950s advertising from 1920s advertising is the amplified production
and supply of goods, increased wages, a decrease in unemployment, and the popularity
of the suburban neighborhood. The combination of these created a consumer culture
that had never before been experienced.
Miller 33
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