Some memorable TV spots during this time period were for Alka-Seltzer, Ajax, and Frosted Flakes. This is reflected in current attitudes. In this era of staid gray flannel suits, advertisers developed motivational research, grappled with television, and cooperated with government to promote American enterprise. Unlike most dolls at the time, Barbie was a grown-upa teenage fashion model who could date, drive, and wear fabulous clothes. Jobs were secure and came with great benefits. The consumerism of the present day has roots that go back at least a century (Credit: Getty Images). Technological advancements led to economies of scale; these favored wealthier. Join one million Future fans by liking us onFacebook, or follow us onTwitterorInstagram. Innovations in technology, expansion of white-collar jobs, more credit, and new groups of consumers fueled prosperity. I Love Lucy, The Donna Reed Show, The Kramdens, The Honeymooners. Founded: 1950 in Quincy, Mass. Predicated on debt, it took place in an economy mired in speculation and risky borrowing. This is done by dangling the products before non-upper-class people as status symbols of a higher class. Predicated on debt, it took place in an economy mired in speculation and risky borrowing. But it ended with many Americans questioning the promises of consumer capitalism. Edward Cowdrick, an economist who advised corporations on their management and industrial relations policies, called it the new economic gospel of consumption, in which workers (people for whom durable possessions had rarely been a possibility) could be educated in the new skills of consumption.. Unless he could be persuaded to buy and buy lavishly, the whole stream of six-cylinder cars, super heterodynes, cigarettes, rouge compacts and electric ice boxes would be dammed up at its outlets. In his classic 1928 book Propaganda, Edward Bernays, one of the pioneers of the public relations industry, put it this way: Mass production is profitable only if its rhythm can be maintainedthat is if it can continue to sell its product in steady or increasing quantity. Today supply must actively seek to create its corresponding demand [and] cannot afford to wait until the public asks for its product; it must maintain constant touch, through advertising and propaganda to assure itself the continuous demand which alone will make its costly plant profitable. Motor car registration rose from eight million in 1920 to more than 28 million by 1929. If it continues its geometric course, will it not one day have to be restrained? However, automobiles like the Chevrolet, the Rambler and the Hudson Hornet were huge successes when it came to consumerism in the economy. Galbraith quotes the Presidents Materials Policy Commission setting out its premise that economic growth is sacrosanct. In context of the United States, the year 1950 was a revolutionary period. A national conversation about television and the common good fostered public broadcasting. Basically, it means that purchasing certain material goods is likely to increase the level of satisfaction with life. This era marked a high point of American productivity and a high standard of living. During the 1950s, the automobile industry saw growth and change, particularly in its design departments. At the same time he was well aware of the role of advertising: Goods are plentiful. In the United States in particular, economic growth had succeeded in providing basic security to the great majority of an entire population. Coontz explains that the sexism, As I mentioned previously, the sixties were a time of change. Consumerism further developed in the 20th century. In a little-known 1958 essay reflecting on the conservation implications of the conspicuously wasteful US consumer binge after WWII, John Kenneth Galbraith pointed to the possibility that this "gargantuan and growing appetite" might need to be curtailed. Plumb in their influential book on the commercialization of 18th-century England, when the pursuit of opulence and display first extended beyond the very rich. The difficult challenge posed by such a transvaluation is reflected in current attitudes. The notion of human beings as consumers first took shape before World War One, but became commonplace in America in the 1920s. At the start of the decade, there were about 3 million TV owners; by the end of it, there were 55 million, watching shows from 530 stations. For instance, young people, watching their friends and family drafted into the Vietnam War, began to question traditional society and the government. Franchises were also a good deal for parent companies, shifting much of the risk to proprietors while requiring them to adhere to certain standards for branding and service. The Vietnam War was widely seen as a controversial conflict and opened insight to Australians as to what was actually happening through music and television which in turn swayed the public opinion of Australias involvement with the war. Absolutely Ethical? Notwithstanding the panic and pessimism, a consumer solution was simultaneously emerging. Progress was about the endless replacement of old needs with new, old products with new. Although inflation has shown signs of peaking . The 1950s was a decade most do not pay much mind to due to it typically being seen as untroubled and quiet, although many things both good and bad, were growing under the surface. When it came to the fear of communism during the fifties the majority were in agreement. Surface Studio vs iMac - Which Should You Pick? Requiring no significant degree of literacy on the part of its audience, Ewen writes, radio gave interested corporations unprecedented access to the inner sanctums of the public mind. The advent of television greatly magnified the potential impact of advertisers messages, exploiting image and symbol far more adeptly than print and radio had been able to do. Over the course of the 20th century, capitalism preserved its momentum by molding the ordinary person into a consumer with an unquenchable thirst for more stuff. See how consumerism flourished through advertising, higher. Notwithstanding the panic and pessimism, a consumer solution was simultaneously emerging. throwaway. Key events across the decade and the world include the beginning of the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the first ever Organ Transplant and the introduction of Coloured TV. By striving to buy the productsay, wall-to-wall carpeting on instalmentthe consumer is made to feel he is upgrading himself socially. The 1920s and the 1950s were times of substantial growth and economic prosperity. In a 1929 article called Keep the Consumer Dissatisfied, he stated that there is no place anyone can sit and rest in an industrial situation. Quite the reverse: frugality and thrift were more appropriate to situations where survival rations were not guaranteed. This department store took window shopping to a new level with a machine called the "Tell-it-to." Consumerism in the 1950s Susan Nacey 2. Stuart Ewen, in his history of the public relations industry, saw the birth of commercial radio in 1921 as a vital tool in the great wave of debt-financed consumption in the 1920s "a privately owned utility, pumping information and entertainment into peoples homes". Retailing was already passing decisively from small shopkeepers to corporate giants who had access to investment bankers and drew on assembly-line production of commodities, powered by fossil fuels. For instance, the development of the suburbs. Workers voted for it by three-to-one in both 1945 and 1946, suggesting that, at the time, they still found life in their communities more attractive than consumer goods. Furthermore, new synthetic fabrics offered fresh possibilities for mass-produced clothing. In the 1950's, they were usually office jobs. One of the most popular products in the 1950s was the TV. The capitalist system, dependent on a logic of never-ending growth from its earliest inception, confronted the plenty it created in its home states, especially the US, as a threat to its very existence. Its a study of a love affair as much as anything else. Notions of meeting everyones needs with an adequate level of production did not feature. We publish thought-provoking excerpts, interviews, and original essays written for a general reader but backed by academic rigor. In 1930, Kellogg adopted a six-hour shift to help accommodate unemployed workers. Although the period after World War II is often identified as the beginning of the immense eruption of consumption across the industrialized world, the historian William Leach locates its roots in the United States around the turn of the century. 3. Once World War II was over, consumer culture took off again throughout the developed world, partly fueled by the deprivation of the Great Depression and the rationing of the wartime years and incited with renewed zeal by corporate advertisers using debt facilities and the new medium of television. Cars were. The 1950s was an exciting time for many, the war was over and the economy began to flourish once more. The stage was set for the democratization of luxury on a scale hitherto unimagined. Consumerism In The 1950's Essay. Conformity was common, as young and old alike followed group norms rather than striking out on their own. Consumerism increased after World War II, when the nation stopped prioritizing the military needs, consumer goods became popular as Americans established lives. critics claimed americans were becoming a ----- society. From fashion to politics, this period is known as one of the most explosive decades in American history. . Baby boomers came of age and entered colleges in huge numbers. Observing her daughter, Barbara, playing with paper dolls, Ruth Handler (19162002) had the idea that dolls could be styled as adults. Workers voted for it by three-to-one in both 1945 and 1946, suggesting that, at the time, they still found life in their communities more attractive than consumer goods. In 1949, total TV billing from. She acknowledges that this fallacy is not insane. The 1920s bonanza collapsed suddenly and catastrophically. While the society got rid of their miseries; sciences, arts, and businesses renewed themselves by evolving. The sixties was a decade unlike any other. President Herbert Hoovers 1929 Committee on Recent Economic Changes welcomed the demonstration on a grand scale [of] the expansibility of human wants and desires, hailed an almost insatiable appetite for goods and services, and envisaged a boundless field before us new wants that make way endlessly for newer wants, as fast as they are satisfied. In this paradigm, people are encouraged to board an escalator of desires (a stairway to heaven, perhaps) and progressively ascend to what were once the luxuries of the affluent. such as the early civil rights movement's demand for access to public accommodations in the 1940s and 1950s and the consumer and environmental movements of the 1960s and 1970s . Madison Avenue was $12.3m, in 1950, $40.8m, and in 1951, $128m. They were regular consumers of food, music, and of course - TV. The Australian comedian Wendy Harmer in her 2008 ABC TV series called Stuff expressed irritation at suggestions that consumption is simply generated out of greed or lack of awareness: I am very proud to have made a documentary about consumption that does not contain the usual footage of factory smokestacks, landfill tips and bulging supermarket trolleys. World War II was ending, and men were returning unemployed. . Families had 30% more spending power in 1959 compared to 1950 figures. For instance, the Australian comedian Wendy Harmer in her ABC TV series called "Stuff" expressed irritation at suggestions that consumption is simply generated out of greed or lack of awareness: "I am very proud to have made a documentary about consumption that does not contain the usual footage of factory smokestacks, landfill tips and bulging supermarket trolleys. . It would not do if people were content because they felt they had enough. America was at peace once the conflict in Korea (1950-53) ended. 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