Thomas Frank:
Challenging myths about advertising and
the counterculture
Myth #1: Counterculture as
catastrophe
[R]ebel youth culture remains
the cultural mode of the
corporate moment, used to
promote not only specific
products but the general idea of
life in the cyber-revolution.
Commercial fantasies of
rebellion, liberation, and
outright "revolution" against the
stultifying demands of mass
society are commonplace
almost to the point of invisibility
in advertising, movies, and
television programming.
Myth #2: Counterculture as authentic
rebellion, later co-opted
[T]he revolt of the young against [mainstream culture] was a joyous and even a
glorious cultural flowering, though it quickly became mainstream itself.
Rick Perlstein: "declension hypothesis"
The story ends with the noble idealism of the New Left in ruins and the
counterculture sold out to Hollywood and the television networks.
The Merry
Pranksters and
their bus,
“Further.”
Both
myths assume that the
counterculture was:
“a fundamental opponent of the capitalist
order”
“the appropriate symbol….for the big cultural
shifts that transformed the United States”
“constituted a radical break or rupture with
existing American mores”
[A]ll sixties narratives place the stories of
the groups that are believed to have
been so transgressive and revolutionary
at their center; American business
culture is thought to have been
peripheral, if it's mentioned at all.
(Frank, 6)
How
does Frank complicate this?

“cultural changes … identified as
‘counterculture’ began well before 1960”

“the world of business and of middleclass mores—was itself changing during
the 1960s”
(Frank, 6)
[T]he counterculture, as a mass movement distinct from the bohemias that preceded
it, was triggered at least as much by developments in mass culture (particularly the
arrival of The Beatles in 1964) as changes at the grass roots. Its heroes were rock
stars and rebel celebrities, millionaire performers and employees of the culture
industry; its greatest moments occurred on television, on the radio, at rock concerts,
and in movies. (Frank, 8)
George Hanson: You know, this used to be a
helluva good country. I can't understand what's
gone wrong with it.
Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that's what
happened. Hey, we can't even get into like, a
second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel,
you dig? They think we're gonna cut their throat
or somethin'. They're scared, man.
George Hanson: They're not scared of you.
They're scared of what you represent to 'em.
Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man,
is somebody who needs a haircut.
George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to
them is freedom.
Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom?
That's what it's all about.
George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that's right. That's
what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it
and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean,
it's real hard to be free when you are bought and
sold in the marketplace.
Frank vs. Adorno and
Horkheimer
[T]he prosperity of a consumer
society depends not on a rigid
control of people's leisure-time
behavior, but exactly its
opposite: unrestraint in
spending, the willingness to
enjoy formerly forbidden
pleasures, an abandonment of
the values of thrift and the
suspicion of leisure that
characterized an earlier variety
of capitalism. . . . (Frank, 19)
Bill Bernbach



"I warn you against
believing that
advertising is a
science.“
"Rules are what the
artist breaks; the
memorable never
emerged from a
formula.“
"Research can trap
you into the past.“
Alka Seltzer, “Poached Oysters”
American Tourister, “Gorilla,” 1970
Creativity merges with the
Counterculture, 1967
Mass society was now the target of a
generalized revolt, but, provided it stayed on its
toes and embraced the mass society critique,
Madison Avenue could ride the waves of unrest
to new heights of prosperity. The
counterculture was, ultimately, just a branch of
the same revolution that had swept the criticalcreative style to prominence and that many
believed was demolishing Theory X hierarchy
everywhere, from Vietnam to the boardroom.
(Frank, 118)
“The Now Generation”
“desire for
immediate
gratification”
 “craving for the
new”
 “intolerance for the
slow-moving, the
penurious, the
thrifty” (Frank, 121)

1964
1959 ad
1971 Pepsi commercial:“”You‘ve got a lot to live and Pesi’s got a lot to give.”
See Frank, 181.
Coca Cola Company, “I’d Like To Buy the World a
Coke” 1971
Volkswagon, Volvo, and the Critique of
Planned Obsolescence
“Thus did the consumer revolt against mass
society, which had begun with the selling of
a sturdy car that defied obsolescence, come
into its own as a movement of accelerated
obsolescence” (Frank, 123)
Advertising feminism
1969
U.S. Car
Companies
Change
Course: The
Dodge
Rebellion
Dodge promotional campaign, 1966
Where Volkswagon and Volvo emphasized authenticity and durability, Detroit
stressed escape, excitement, carnival, nonconformity, and individualism. (Frank,
157)
The “Youngmobile” by
Oldsmobile, 1968
“Madison Avenue was more interested in speaking like the rebel young
than speaking to them.” (Frank, 121)
The Cola Wars
The Peacock
Revolution
**rapid stylistic change
**transgression of established
modes (Frank, 204)
Two members of British Psychedelic band John's
Children are modeling kaftans designed by John
Stephen in 1967.
After Six Formals Nehru Jacket Fashion Photo (1968)
Our celebrities are not just
glamorous, they are
insurrectionaries; our police and
soldiers are not just good guys,
they break the rules for a higher
purpose. And through them and
our imagined participation in
whatever is the latest permutation
of the rebel Pepsi Generation, we
have not solved, but we have
defused the problems of mass
society. Impervious to criticism of
any kind, and virtually without
historical memory, hip has become
what Norman Mailer predictedL the
public philosophy in the age of
flexible accumulation. (Frank, 233)