Mrs. Ruland's U.S. History Class Project
Advertising's Role in Consumerism
Consumerism is "the concept that an ever-expanding consumption of goods is advantageous to the economy." (Cite). How is the 'consumption of goods' increased? How can companies get more customers to pay more for their product? The key is mass advertising.
The roaring 20s decade is characterized by the period's booming economy. Higher wages for the common worker caused him to spend more. Businesses had to compete for customers through lowering prices and investing in advertising. Economic circulation was faster than it had ever been, or ever has been since. Advertising before had been fairly humble, stating only the factual details of the product: its material, size, durability, etc. But now in the 1920s, culture rewarded action from emotion, and this spirit infested in a new style of advertising. A stray from rationalism in culture reflected in advertising or vice versa. Now companies played on peoples' fears and hopes, connecting ideas to their product that really had no relation.
The following examples show the types of advertisements common before, during, and after the roaring twenties. Afterwards this site will recommend other helpful web sites in relation to the topic of the role of advertising in the area of consumerism. Links of the titles will take you to the web site. This page will describe each site's relations to this topic. Thanks for visiting!
Eyewitness to History: Advertising in the 1920s
This site is a brief description of the new techniques adopted by 1920s advertisement artists. "Advertising a product changed from simply announcing the existence of a product in a dull, dry fashion to persuading the public they needed and deserved to own the product." It would be an interesting subjective statement to argue that this new advertising drastically changed the motives and even moral system in common society as apparent today; did this new technique relate to a negative piece of human nature and thus induce the public to a self-centered logistic system? This site does not begin to argue this point, only giving neutral, somewhat generic information into sales techniques of the time period like the topic of customer loyalty. Eyewitness to History provides the reader with information as an advanced introductory to the subject, while also providing thought-provoking insights that, depending on individual perspective, may relate to life in a more general sense.
Under the Consumerism at Home path, a primary thesis is the measurement of advertisement success in respect to the consumption of the product by women. The statement: "Women's home-making became one of the most important yardsticks for measuring levels of consumer prosperity and subscription to the consumerist ethos. The home was the showplace of the individual family's membership in good standing in the consumer society, as manifested by home improvements and conveniences, home furnishing, and home decoration." adds a possible glimpse into the popular culture of the 1920s and the influence new styles of advertising had on its evolution.
Emergence of Advertising in America 1850-1920
This site has a description of the products advertised based on time period by decade under the link to 'Timeline'. This chronological analysis was the most helpful display of information. each product is described in detail and the time period as specific as the year of release. A short analysis of each product's impact on society also brings the time periods' commercial outlook into perspective. This site shows that advertisement style progression did not all happen over a decade or two, but insisted on the relation of long term society, as products are mapped starting at 1850. Its inclusion states its relevance.
The 1920s Economy: A Statistical Portrait
This site provides statistical information about U.S. spending in different areas including advertising. It went on to break down sources within general advertising and compared total spending to relative years. This site also included data relating to credit and debt in the country in the 1920s.
This site shows advertisements for various products during the 1920’s. It categorizes many advertisements by decade, so they are comparable to advertisements from the 1890’s to the 1990’s. It also organizes the individual advertisements into groups based on the products they are advertising and gives a description of when and where they were published.
This web site. begins by giving a brief description of how the late 1920’s were the peak in car advertising, when advertising was made better with color pictures instead of black and white. It then gives many examples of car advertisements. Along with each advertisement is a brief description or blurb on what the advertisement is. There are also links to other pages about the 1920’s in general, which help to give the big picture.
The World in Color- Color Images in Advertising
This site focuses on the influence of color in advertising. It described the “Advertising Boom” and how color effected it in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. It creates the argument that color was used to stimulate desire and one’s mood.
The 1920’s Entrepreneurial Spirit
This web site. looks at the advertising in the 1920’s involvement in the economic boom. It goes through the steps of how advertising would make people buy things, using the “keeping up with the Jones” strategy. It also touches on how the advertising innovations in the 1920’s shaped the advertising we have today.
This web site. analyzes ads from magazines in the 1920s. The site has multiple subheadings about the topic and contains a lot of interesting information on why people bought the advertised items. Advertising tactics used by 1920s businesses are also discussed.
Understanding Advertising: Decoding an Ad’s Appeal
This site provided additional information about ads in the 1920s. The articles it contains help the reader to understand why people may have bought the items advertised in the ads.
[this 1920's advertisement plays on emotion by introducing an irrelevant element, that may not be true, to convince consumers to buy their product] (original source)
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Jessica - Emily - Simone
Mrs. Ruland - PD 6 - US History
Last updated March 28, 2008
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