Directions: Using the citation method you will use in your paper, correct all
documentation problems below.
According to Jackson Lears, Professor of History at Rutgers University, with the
stock market crash in October 1929, consumers began to reject the advertising industry,
blaming it for their problems and criticizing agencies for not delivering on their promises.
Advertising sales went from $3.4 billion in 1929 down to $1.3 billion in 1933, and the
general question “what was advertising good for?” arose (Goodrum 39). During this time,
advertisers went back to old, dishonest tactics from the 19th century that only made
matters worse. Consumers began to distrust these distasteful ads and the people making
them, and so they bought fewer goods (Lears).
World War II proved greatly beneficial to the advertising industry, as it was able
to portray a post-war American home for consumers to fight for. After the war, the
advertising industry was able to pick up where it left off in the 1920’s (Goodrum). The
economy was strong again; appliances were aggressively marketed after the war, and the
scarcity of goods ended, and according to Russell Belk and Richard Pollay, these goods
were portrayed as necessities for every “victory home” (Belk & Pollay 891). This
“peacetime consumer culture” focused on the promotion of these “creature comforts”
(Lears 252).
Belk, Russell W., and Richard W. Pollay. "Images of Ourselves: The Good Life In
Twentieth Century Advertising." Journal of Consumer Research 11.4 (1985): 887-97.
JSTOR. Web.12 Feb. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.vcu.edu/stable/2489215>.
Goodrum, Charles, and Helen Dalrymple. "A Short History - From World War I to the
Present." Advertising In America: The First 200 Years. New York: Harry N. Abrams,
Incorporated, 1990. 35-47. Print.
Lears, Jackson. "Trauma, Denial, Recovery." Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of
Advertising in America. New York: BasicBooks, 1994. 235-58. Print.
Pollay, Richard W. "The Subsiding Sizzle: A Descriptive History of Print Advertising,
1900-1980." The Journal of Marketing 49.3 (1985): 24-37. JSTOR. Web. 11 Feb.
2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.vcu.edu/stable/1251613>.