1950's and 1960's

Research task

Research Consumer culture in the 1950's and 1960's advertising.

Consumer culture is when a society is ran by money and what is bought (consumed) reflects in the economy. companies would advertise to sell their products. Many different advertisements were used and they would come in lots of different forms such as radio, poster and TV advertisements.

 Advertisement in the 1950's and 1960's would glorify situations to make them look better to make it look like your life would be improved if you had the product that was being sold to you. the messages portrayed in the posters were designed to make you feel like your life was bad if you didn't have or get a product for someone. it would also manipulate people and make them feel like if they didn't own or do a certain thing that they would be different to their friends and people all over the country. The advertisements would also make things that were bad for you sound like they were good. Sometimes this was taken to extreme for example there would be posters telling you that smoking was good for you as shown in (figure 1.) Some of the advertisements were shocking showing people in the medical field for example doctors and dentists saying that  smoking was good for you 

But how about doctors and other medical professionals, proclaiming the merits of various cigarette brands? Or politicians? What about cartoon characters in cigarette ads? Or children? Babies? Even Santa Claus?[1]

(Figure 1) Camel smoking advertisement, 1950's 

 Although there was a lot of advances for women's rights in the war there was also a lot of sexism going on within product advertisement posters. Most of these posters played on the themes of women cooking and making things for the men (figure 2) and (figure 3)

 In spite of significant changes in women's lives in the second half of the century, food advertisers focussed almost exclusively on women's traditional fender roles. [2]

(figure 3) sexist Kenwood advertisement, 1950's

(figure 3) sexist Chase and Sanborn Coffee advertisement, 1950's

[1] ELLIOTT S, When Doctors, and Even Santa, Endorsed Tobacco,  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/business/media/07adco.html?_r=0 (Accessed 12/03/2014)

[2] K J Parkin, Food is Love: Advertising and gender roles in modern America, University of Pennsylvania press, 2006, p.22