Understanding postwar American consumer culture through advertising agency material / author, Vicki Howard (University of Essex, UK).

Format:

Website/Database

Author/Creator:

Howard, Vicki, 1965- author.

Contributor:

Adam Matthew Digital (Firm), contributor, commissioning body, digitiser.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Research.

Methodology.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Marlborough, Wiltshire : Adam Matthew Digital, 2021.

Summary:

Advertising industry publications provide a unique insight into the expansion of American consumer culture in the twentieth century. This case study draws on the well-known advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson's in-house newsletters from 1953 and a research company's 1989 publication on consumer trends. The two documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at the making of American consumerism. The documents reveal the marketing strategies and advertising campaigns behind postwar America's national and international expansion of markets. Both publications reflect the concerns of the advertising industry of their day but in different ways related to the time in which they were written. Taken together, they evidence a sea change in American consumer culture driven, in part, by the advertising industry and the campaigns they produced. These primary sources can be used to track the shift from the 1950s celebratory embrace of mass consumption to the highly segmented market niches of the 1980s. They also provide evidence of the narrowing, but persistent, gender, class, and racial divisions within that consumer culture. The case study can be used to engage with the rich historiography on American consumer culture.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on August 17, 2022).

Publisher Number:

10.47594/RMPS_0164

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.