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An Average Couple in the 1950's
First outdoor shopping mall: Shoppers World, Framingham MA.
One of the newly constructed shopping centers
"The reason we have such a high standard of living," Robert Sarnoff, president of the National Broadcasting Company, said in 1956, "is because advertising has created an American frame of mind that makes people want more things, better things, and newer things."
Consumerism was a part of family life as well. Shopping became a family affair. People thought that what they bought defined who they were. They began all trying to be the same. It was conformity. This became known as keeping up with the Jones.
The TV was a huge part of encouraging consumerism. Advertisements displayed many products available for purchase. Companies took full advantage of the TV, using the newly animated consumer-led economy advertisements were born. These new advertisements were the driving force behind consumerism.
Coming out of World war II Americans had
money to spend and products to buy. However, there was a more sinister undertone to their spending. With the constant threat of nuclear war held over their heads they thought that they could be alive one day and die the next.
A Family on an Outing to the Mall
They bought everything from poodleskirts
to houses. People began transitioning from buying for necessity to buying for luxury.
Consumerism is more than simply the economic state of the United States in the 1950's. It had become everything. Consumerism was what people were. It was in the media and in the magazines. Everything promoted Americans to spend.
Consumerism helped to advance the prosperity of new products. It built the middle-class of America and helped promote the advancement of many products such as the car and the TV.
The American society was very vulnerable. Because of its dependence on the consuming of goods recessions decimated the society.