What Was The Cost Of Life In The 1950's

Furthermore, not only do these adverts show a more realistic picture of consumerism, but speaks directly to part of what the rebellions and counter- culturists are despiteful of; the artificial, conformist over packaged idea of ‘American dream’. Frank further expands this as “the acknowledgement of and even sympathy with the mass society critique” and mockery of “empty phrases and meaninglessness neologisms that characterised the style of the 1950’s”. (pg 54) The ‘creative revolution’ of advertising often parallels the 50’s ‘hard sell’ approaches, with the new hip 60’s technique of advertising, clearly downplaying and mocking the 50’s advertisement industry in the process of showing the new 60’s approach of advertising in a more desirable, superior

What does an ad say about a society? When viewing a product advertisement, many people never stop to think why the ad and product appeals to them. However, when a more critical look is taken, it’s easy to see precisely how ads are carefully tailored to appeal to trending values of a targeted demographic, and how that makes it easy to examine the society of those whom the ad is targeted at. In the analytic writing Advertisements R Us, Melissa Rubin provides an excellent example of this, as she crafts a logical and clear analysis of a 1950’s Coca-Cola magazine ad which thoroughly explains how advertisements can reveal quite a great deal about the society in which they were created.

“The Language of Advertising” written by Charles A. O’Neill is an excerpt arguing as well as supporting popular criticisms against the advertising language by William Lutz, and other known criticisms of advertising. The concept of advertising is not something that has only been popular over the recent decades, but has been used as far back as the World Wars. The use of propaganda attracted thousands of eyes to the War, and without knowing it, created what we call today as typical advertising. After WWII many people with good reason, were concerned over the topic of scientific success, due to the recent usage of the Nuclear Bomb by the United States. Many giant American corporations started creating new materials, fabrics, vaccines and machines (the most important being plastic), thus creating a new wave of marketing. Now this process never stopped and has not stopped all throughout the past decades, our own, and the ones to come. But as newer, bigger and better products or services are created nobody really understands the power of how they marketed or advertised. Well “how does advertising work? Why is it so powerful? Why does it raise such concern? What case can be made for and against the advertising business?” (O’Neill 369). For you to understand the concept of advertising, Charles O’Neill makes it clear that you must first understand that it’s not about truth, virtue, or positive social values, but money. The most popular “tool” that advertisement creators use is that

War is often misinterpreted as an exciting occurrence filled with glory and acts of terrific heroism. In reality, it is brutal and serves as an effective simulation of hell. Timothy Findley's The Wars depicts an inhumane world where individuals are taken out of their elements and are forced to struggle to hold onto their humanity amidst the horrors. The lack of rules in war targets and destroys every aspect of what it means to be human. It heavily interferes with one's motivations, desires and purpose of living. The war also targets one's innocence and brings about suffering both physically and mentally.

This highlights the effects of war, suggesting how war only causes destruction and suffering to the soldiers and innocent civilians. Finally, showing how war does not have positive consequences and it should not be glorified. Another example is Source C, where Savant mentions how “Even today we glorify the warrior and, despite our modern protestations to the contrary, war itself--its excitement and daring, and (alas) the fascination with horror and the unspeakable that it arouses” (Savant 21). This part of Source C highlights the glorification of war and warriors in contemporary society. This proves how if war is glorified, it not only affects soldiers, but it also affects civilians.

Some people think going to war is fun, getting to have guns and drive tanks. But logical kids know war isn’t all that exciting. You can get killed, your country can get bombed and you have to worry about new things like rationing money and food. In the historical fiction novel My Brother Sam Is Dead by the Collier brothers, we learn that war can divide and destroy individuals, families and communities.

1. The 1920’s were a time of great economic prosperity in the United States. Due to industrialization, standardization and the subsequent abundance of consumer goods of all types, this --as well as all future periods of american prosperity-- would be time of marked increase in consumerism. Perhaps due to this being the first indication of this proclivity, or perhaps due to the drastic amount of income inequality at the time, this was seen as one of the most dramatic periods of change in the realm of American ideals. Though there are many examples of this change, the two to be focused on here are goods and advertisements.

People say war changes people, molds them, changes the way they act, think, and behave. The true effect of war can never be measured, nor forgotten in the eyes of the changed. War is something you never want anyone to go through. It's a brutal thing that changes the softest of people into “Statues”. When people look back at wars and think how terrible it was to die there, Yet the people who survived may have the greatest wound.

During the 1950’s art took a major turn in history from traditional styles depicting people and scenes of everyday life to abstract thoughts and ideas that were transformed onto a canvas to express emotions and ideals in society. People, events, and society have always impacted several styles of art, but the consumer culture in the 1950’s impacted art in a new completely unique way. Post WWII society was more industrialized and more focused on developing and selling new products. The postwar generation had more disposable income to spend on the latest and greatest products and the market turned to advertisements in mass media to get their products out there to consumers. With televisions and films increasing in popularity the market flooded these forms of media with catchy flashy ads that showed favorable people like movie stars using products. With the increasing use of mass media, the culture shifted to consumerism which effectively shifted art as well. Art was directly impacted by the consumer culture because of society’s use of advertisements, photographs, and films which artists like Richard Hamilton and Andy Warhol used those elements in their own works to portray the change of societal standards in a new modern style of art called pop art.

American culture in 1950s and today have numerous similarities “In the 50s, cars were flashier and more luxurious than ever...and used as a symbol of status. Similarly, today, upscale vehicles are still flashy and sleek…and upper-class consumers use them to show the status of their wealth.” Depending on the income that people earn, cars that contain more features are of better quality and class. Secondly, in the 1950s, ads had begun to seek out the attention on marketing for children. The products sold have cartoon characters and bright colors. In the modern era, citizens use similar tactics, using bright colors that are put at eye level. Children appeal to bright colors and characters when a company advertises on T.V. or in stores. Next, huge department stores became popular due to middle class’ increased power on spending. Now, the large chain department stores of Dillard’s and Macy’s are still very popular. People enjoy going out and just spending their money on the inventories that each department store has. “Then in the 50s, fast food became a

The traumatic way how the cost of living from the 1950’s and the cost of living know really allows people to see how much the world has changed over the years. In the 1950’s the dollar value was much different from it is known for example one dollar in the 1950’s is about 9.50 in our time period. Money really is a major effect of how the lives of those in the 1950’s and the life people live now in the 20th century. Could money really be a major effect of how people live know and how they use to live?

Kurt Vonnegut is able to put a man’s face on war in his short story, “All the King’s Horse ”, and he exemplifies that in a time of war, the most forgotten effect on nations is the amount of innocent lives lost in meaningless battle due to unjust rulers fighting each other against a nation’s will. As Americans, we are oblivious to the fact that we have people fighting every day for our country. In addition, we ignore the fact that we do a lot of collateral damage and hurt innocent people unintentionally in order to get what we want. Vonnegut shows the reader in Pi Ying’s own sadistic way of demonstrating how he feels about war brings attention to the point that war, while unruly and cruel, is nothing

Due to advances in technology, significant changes in advertising appeared in the 1920’s. In the latter half of the 1900’s ads were illustrated in color for the first time and the layout of most magazines changed. Advertisements, in the 1910 Ladies’ Home Journal, were mostly located in the back of the magazine. Though due to the popularization of name brands, ads moved to the front as competition between products produced more revenue.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, written by the talented author Chris Hedges, gives us provoking thoughts that are somewhat painful to read but at the same time are quite personal confessions. Chris Hedges, a talented journalist to say the least, brings nearly 15 years of being a foreign correspondent to this book and subjectively concludes how all of his world experiences tie together. Throughout his book, he unifies themes present in all wars he experienced first hand. The most important themes I was able to draw from this book were, war skews reality, dominates culture, seduces society with its heroic attributes, distorts memory, and supports a cause, and allures us by a

The new advertisements focused on creating unique slogan that consumers would remember and that cast products in an optimistic light (N.p. [Page 1]). By the 1880s, advertisement seems to take on a driving aspect of its own, and focused on the creation of “wants” and “needs” in the growing consumer population in order to create a market for certain items, clever businessmen would advertize products in careful language, designed to influence potential buyers into seeing the necessity of owing particular products. Economic effects on society, especially in Americans families, became apparent during the twentieth century. The place of women in the new economy was firmly cemented in the early decades of the twentieth century, with the rise of Progressivism and supply and demand economics (N.p. [Page #]). Progressive reformers and businessmen alike appealed to and propagated the idea of virtuous households, carrying a theme from the culture of sentimentalism in the 1850s that stressed the value of nuclear families with morally upright - if submissive - mothers. Many of the advertisements seen in this collection are clearly directed at women .The foundations of household economy were raised in the early twentieth century and during the World War I era. Home economy, in theory, allowed the housewife to make the most of finances, so that her family could purchase current