Most important effect:
birth of a single national culture
Most important causes of consumerism?
1. Advertisements
The WAY advertisers sold their product
to consumers changed.
any medium that transmits information on a large scale, such as newspaper, film, or radio
What methods do the following advertisements use to convince consumers to purchase their products?
NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES
- double in number and circulation
- number of papers sold a day up 141%
- magazines for hobbies, gossip, etc. developed
- people read same events, see same advertisements
2. Creation of credit
- installment plans = buy now, pay later
- pay small fee every month until paid off cost of item
- Problems?
RADIO
- first commercial radio station: Pittsburgh’s KDKA in 1920
- by 1922, were over 500 radio stations
- by 1929, 2/3 of radio air time is jazz
- all of the country can listen to the same
programming, sports, religious
services and ads
FILM
- from silent movies to "talkies"
- synchronized sound
- The Jazz Singer = first movie with synchronized sound
Consumerism
buybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuybuy
preoccupation of society with the acquisition of goods
- too much is never enough!
- more, bigger, better!
Movie Industry
- by 1929, sell 80 million tickets a week (only 130 mil people in U.S.!)
- Hollywood becomes center of movie industry (4th biggest in U.S.)
- Paramount, MGM
- beginning of celebrity culture
Mass production makes many items cheaper for middle and lower class families.
Including...
- washing machines
- radios
- refrigerators
- vacuum cleaners
- "time saving
devices"
Henry Ford
- In 1914, Ford began paying his employees $5 a day
- cut the workday from nine to eight hours in order
- from Dearborn, Michigan
- perfected idea of assembly line & division of labor
- created Model T - cost
under $300
Model T every 24 seconds
- by 1927, built 15 mil. cars
- when a factory makes a product in large numbers, rather than one-by-one