what was consumerism in the 1950s

2/10/2003 The rise of American consumerism has not come without hits to the social, political, and cultural landscape. As the popular historian of the time Frederick Allen wrote, "Business had learned as never before the importance of the ultimate consumer. Charles Kettering, general director of General Motors Research Laboratories, equated such perpetual change with progress. Dunkin' Donuts. In 1955, he opened KCOR-TV, expanding his broadcasting business and community-centered media vision to television. Want creation advertising is a ten billion dollar industry.. By 1951, regular TV programming reached the West Coast, establishing national coverage. It would not do if people were content because they felt they had enough. . In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there were several highly-publicized espionage trials that convicted leading scientists and government figures of espionage, culminating in the 1953 execution of scientist Julius Rosenberg and his wife Ethel for passing information about the atomic bomb to Russia. The historian Benjamin Hunnicutt, who examined the mainstream press of the 1920s, along with the publications of corporations, business organizations, and government inquiries, found extensive evidence that such fears were widespread in business circles during the 1920s. Consumerism is the theory that increased consumption of goods is beneficial for the economy. The 50s was a time of conformity while the 60s was a time of conflict and protest. Some messages were so strong that people were told they weren't patriotic if they chose to save money instead of spending it. The years of the 1950s and 60s was a time where many hardships occurred as global tension was high and as a result many wars occurred as well as movements. It became based on the idea of single-family ownership of a home filled with convenience items like. Nationwide, manufacturers efforts to expand consumption coincided civil rights activists goal to desegregate business. Innovations in technology, expansion of white-collar jobs, more credit, and new groups of consumers fueled prosperity. Thus, just as immense effort was being devoted to persuading people to buy things they did not actually need, manufacturers also began the intentional design of inferior items, which came to be known as planned obsolescence. In his second major critique of the culture of consumption, The Waste Makers, Packard identified both functional obsolescence, in which the product wears out quickly and psychological obsolescence, in which products are designed to become obsolete in the mind of the consumer, even sooner than the components used to make them will fail.. For instance, the development of the suburbs. TV marketing made it the worlds best-selling toy. Founded: 1950 in Quincy, Mass. The glove section at an early department store, which changed the way people shopped (Credit: Getty Images). The manufactures started to grow in numbers. In fact, the American consumer was praised as a patriotic citizen in the 1950s,. Absolutely Ethical? The traditional objective of making products for their self-evident usefulness was displaced by the goal of profit and the need for a machinery of enticement. In the 1920s, the target consumer market to be nourished lay at home in the industrialised world. 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. In the US, existing shops were rapidly extended through the 1890s, mail-order shopping surged, and the new century saw massive multi-storey department stores covering millions of acres of selling space. In 1930, the US cereal manufacturer Kellogg adopted a six-hour shift to help accommodate unemployed workers, and other forms of work-sharing became more widespread. Surely this is the ultimate source of the problem. During this Era there were more and more automobile companies popping up all around the United States. United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) The annual inflation rate in the US slowed only slightly to 6.4% in January of 2023 from 6.5% in December, less than market forecasts of 6.2%. One of the most present and critiqued societal phenomena of the time was the rise of American consumerism. This decade became a major influential time that brought many cultural and societal changes. He identified the beginnings of "a massive conservative reaction to the idea of enlarged social guidance and control of economic activity", a backlash against the state taking responsibility for social direction. Each decade had its own unique style of advertising, but one period of time really stands in stark contrast to what we're accustomed to today. Discrimination was widespread. Attempts to promote new fashions, harness the propulsive power of envy, and boost sales multiplied in Britain in the late 18th century. In accordance with Rule 1950.122.6 of the CRMLA (Cal. Consumerism In The 1950's. The 1950s was an exciting time for many, the war was over and the economy began to flourish once more. As the economic engine slowed in the 1970s, productivity waned, wages flattened, and Americans faced an energy crisis that reshaped consumer expectations. We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate, retail analyst Victor Lebow remarked in 1955. Consumer News More Consumer News. This is reflected in current attitudes. The 1920s and the 1950s were times of substantial growth and economic prosperity. throwaway. The front-line thinkers of the emerging advertising and public relations industries turned to the key insights of Sigmund Freud, Bernayss uncle. A steady-state economy capable of meeting the basic needs of all, foreshadowed by philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill as the stationary state, seemed well within reach and, in Mills words, likely to be an improvement on "the trampling, crushing, elbowing and treading on each others heels the disagreeable symptoms of one of the phases of industrial progress". "America at this moment," said the former British Prime. Consumerism is defined as "the buying and using of goods and services; the belief that it is good for a society or an individual person to buy and use a large quantity of goods and services" (Oxford Dictionary, 2022), with American . After working in a Spanish-language newspaper, he founded a radio station, which became the voice of the Spanish-speaking community in San Antonio. If profit and growth were lagging, the system needed new impetus. During this time period, goods became much less expensive and some products were able to sell on a very large scale due to effective marketing campaigns. ", Or, as retail analyst Victor Lebow remarked in 1955: "Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.". 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. This improvement in food variety did not extend durable items to the mass of people, however. Hours of work in the United States have been growing since 1950, along with a doubling of consumption per capita between 1950 and 1990. But there have been unexpected benefits, too. Television sets mirrored popular furniture styles. Driven by a thriving postwar economy, designers utilized bold styling to transform everyday objects into visually expressive items, and manufacturers unleashed an array of products to keep pace with demand. 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. She acknowledges that this fallacy is not insane. Consumerism for example, is an industrial society that is advanced, a . Though it is status that is being sold, it is endless material objects that are being consumed. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world. Teenagers as a consumer group - "SELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT" In both eras, borrowed money bought unprecedented quantities of material goods on time payment and (these days) credit cards. Here began the slow unleashing of the acquisitive instincts, write historians Neil McKendrick, John Brewer, and J.H. It was seen as the calm before the storm of social chaos that swept over the country in the more contentious 1960s. It was indeed a time we perceive as innocent, wholesome, and peaceful. 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. Birds of a Feather Shop Together: Conspicuous Consumption and the Imaging of the 1980's Essex Girl Rachel Rye 4. In researching his excellent history of the rise of PR, Ewen interviewed Bernays himself in 1990, not long before he turned 99. Those who create wants rank amongst our most talented and highly paid citizens. A steady-state economy capable of meeting the basic needs of all, foreshadowed by philosopher and political economist John Stuart Mill as the stationary state, seemed well within reach and, in Mills words, likely to be an improvement on the trampling, crushing, elbowing and treading on each others heels the disagreeable symptoms of one of the phases of industrial progress. It would be feasible to reduce hours of work further and release workers for the spiritual and pleasurable activities of free time with families and communities, and creative or educational pursuits. Americans purchased homes, cars (sometimes two), television sets, new home furnishings, modern refrigerators, clothes for work and their new found leisure time, barbeque grills, lawn mowersthe list is endless. Innovations in technology, expansion of white-collar jobs, more credit, and new groups of consumers fueled prosperity. planned obsolescence. Significantly, it was individual desire that was democratised, rather than wealth or political and economic power. After the stock market crashes in 1929, people were left jobless and hungry. Though it is status that is being sold, it is endless material objects that are being consumed. Categories such as the economy, where a boom in new products increased, the technology world which incorporated new medicines and computers, entertainment when the television became popular and the overall lifestyles that Americans adapted to. Technological advancements led to economies of scale; these favored wealthier. 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. Further, there was a rise in consumerism which resulted in a domino effect on the economy. That is when everything started to come into shape. The sixties was a decade unlike any other. Life. . A new wave of consumerism swept across much of the population of the United States during the 1950s. In the case of the Great Depression of the 1930s, a war economy followed, so it was almost 20 years before mass consumption resumed any role in economic life or in the way the economy was conceived. The proliferating shops and department stores of that period served only a restricted population of urban middle-class people in Europe, but the display of tempting products in shops in daily public view was greatly extended and display was a key element in the fostering of fashion and envy. The 1920s bonanza collapsed suddenly and catastrophically. US consumer credit rose to $7 billion in the 1920s, with banks engaged in reckless lending of all kinds. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, written by Todd Gitlin, explains the rebellious youth movement, highlighting activist group, Students for a Democratic Society, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement. In 1930 the U.S. cereal manufacturer Kellogg adopted a six-hour shift to help accommodate unemployed workers, and other forms of work-sharing became more widespread. Its a study of a love affair as much as anything else. The 1950s was the decade of change. She is the author of Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet, from which this article is adapted. A thing may be desired, not for its intrinsic worth or usefulness, but because he has unconsciously come to see in it a symbol of something else, the desire for which he is ashamed to admit to himself because it is a symbol of social position, an evidence of his success. The people became comfortable on how they were living their lives. TV became the driving force for advertising. According to Le Bon, A crowd thinks in images, and the image itself immediately calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection with the first; crowds can only comprehend rough-and-ready associations of ideas, leading to the utter powerlessness of reasoning when it has to fight against sentiment. Bernays and his PR colleagues believed ordinary people to be incapable of logical thought, let alone mastery of abstruse economic, political and ethical data, and saw the need to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it; PR could thus ensure the maintenance of order and corporate control in society. Conformity The game is to make them the necessities of all classes By striving to buy the product say, wall-to-wall carpeting on instalment the consumer is made to feel he is upgrading himself socially.". Its a study of a love affair as much as anything else.". Consumption is now frequently seen as our principal role in the world. The American home was at the center of post-war stability. Though the television sets that carried the advertising into peoples homes after World War II were new, and were far more powerful vehicles of persuasion than radio had been, the theory and methods were the same perfected in the 1920s by PR experts like Bernays. Consumerism - The 1950's: An age of affluence Consumer Demand Spurs Economic Growth Rising incomes, easy credit, and aggressive marketing helped create a culture of consumption in the 1950s. Thus, just as immense effort was being devoted to persuading people to buy things they did not actually need, manufacturers also began the intentional design of inferior items, which came to be known as "planned obsolescence". In a little-known 1958 essay reflecting on the conservation implications of the conspicuously wasteful U.S. consumer binge after World War II, John Kenneth Galbraith pointed to the possibility that this gargantuan and growing appetite might need to be curtailed. Basically, it means that purchasing certain material goods is likely to increase the level of satisfaction with life. In this era of staid gray flannel suits, advertisers developed motivational research, grappled with television, and cooperated with government to promote American enterprise. Firms began adding a few ethnic and racial minorities to their staffs. Architect and poet Paolo Belardi traces the many conditions and situations that have inspired extraordinary ideas across the arts and sciences. 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. Notwithstanding the panic and pessimism, a consumer solution was simultaneously emerging. 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. Kyrk argued for ever-increasing aspirations: a high standard of living must be dynamic, a progressive standard, where envy of those just above oneself in the social order incited consumption and fueled economic growth. . marketing strategy convincing American consumers they need new and better products. 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; the traditional objective of making products for their self-evident usefulness was displaced by the goal of profit and the need for a machinery of enticement.

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