US Advertising

• Advertising

  • Critics of conformity argued that is was promoted by advertisement
  • Advertisement greatly increased- 1950's- $5.7 billion was spent on advertising in 1950 but $11.9 billion in 1960- due to the rise of television
  • The consumer society encouraged & was encouraged by the advertising industry which during the 1950's spent more money than was spent on education
• Yale historian David Potter argued advertising was socially influential as education & religion because it dominated the media, shaped popular standards & exercised social control


  1954
• Journalist Vance Packard's book "The Hidden Persuaders" argued that advertisements psychologically manipulated consumers


  1957
• Advertising techniques

  • Candy targeted at bored children at checkout
  • Movie theatre owners whose screens flashed images of Coca-Cola too fast to be seen consciously yet sufficient to remind moviegoers to buy it in the interval
  • Marlboro filter cigarettes were considered effeminate until ads associated the brand with Wild West cowboy masculinity & sale rocketed
• • Despite Packard-induced panic- research suggested that TV viewers often laughed at exaggerated product claims
  • Although cigarette manufacturing Philip Morris Company sponsored the most popular TV Show- I Love Lucy- sales suffered with increasing publicity about the perils of tobacco