World War II, 1941-1940: Great Depression

In the 1929 and 1940 The Great Depression in history millions of people were out of work or they will soon to be out of one. It didn’t matter if you were Black , White HIspanic or Asian you will still would be unemployment even if you were really rich. Everything was crashing down there wasn’t jobs for people. Many banks failed then markets did as well.

Do you ever watch the Super Bowl for its commercials? Have you ever bought a more expensive product because you had seen its advertisement? If the answer is yes, then you might have been a victim of today’s marketers. Jean Kilbourne, the author of “Killing us Softly” stated in one of her lectures, “The influence of advertising is quick, cumulative and for the most part, subconscious, ads sell more products.” “Advertising has become much more widespread, powerful, and sophisticated.” According to Jean Kilbourne, “babies at six months can recognize corporate logos, and that is the age at which marketers are now starting to target our children.” Jean Kilbourne is a woman who grew up in the 1950s and worked in the media field in the 1960s. This paper will explain the methods used by marketers in today’s advertising. An advertisement contains one or more elements of aesthetics, humor, and sexual nature.

For the longest time now, advertising has played a huge role in how we identify ourselves in the United States with the American culture, and how others identify themselves with all the cultures of the rest of the world as well. It guides us in making everyday decisions, such as what items we definitely need to invest our money on, how to dress in-vogue, and what mindset we should have to prosper the most. Although advertising does help make life easier for most, at the same time it has negative affects on the people of society as well. Advertisement discreetly manipulates the beliefs, morals, and values of our culture, and it does so in a way that most of the time we don’t even realize it’s happened. In order to reach our main goal of

The Great Depression can be considered the true test of American resilience. Americans faced many adversities and struggled to make it through each day. The Great Depression did not begin on one single day, but was something that had been stirring for many months prior. The day of the stock market crash, October 29, 1929, everything came to head and from that day on America was thrust into a terrible economic depression which would take over 10 years to recover from (Gitlin 58). The economic depression did not occur overnight but was series of events which accumulated in the recession of the economy. Once America entered World War I, it was thrust into a time of prosperity, but as the end of war came closer so did an end to the good times (Gitlin 8). Soldiers were coming home expecting to collect the benefits of the war, which everybody else had received but instead were faced with the prospect of being unemployed and the start of the economy 's downfall. The problem was although the war was over, the mass productions still continued to flood the market. Producers continued to manufacture goods at wartime levels, leading to a surplus of products in circulation and thus forcing the prices to drop (George 14). The time after World War I became known as one of the most difficult times in American history. Many Americans were unemployed and struggled to provide for their families. But on September 1, 1939, Germany

The average United States Citizen views about 5000 advertisements a day (Johnson). Advertising is everywhere. Billboards on the way to work, ads on the internet, and paper products such as magazines or newspapers display a sale or a promotion of a good or service. Usually, the ad will give a brand or company name, and uses the product’s merits to draw the consumer closer. This has grown exponentially as advertisements in media in 1970 were estimated to be 500 a day, a ten percent increase in the last 48 years. (Johnson). This is due to the rise of technology, as the computer has become a household gadget within the new millenium. These advertisements are meant to give a synopsis of the product or service’s purpose, quality, and efficiency. If a consumer views 5000 advertisements in a single day and assuming the commercials do not repeat, 5000 goods or services are introduced. With more options to choose from in such little time, the consumer has a harder time differentiating the quality and perhaps necessity of the product. The marketers rely on the quick, impulsive decision making of consumers. With the misleading nature of many infomercials or radio broadcasts, the people of American society are bombarded with constant propaganda, thus making seemingly harmless promotions more potent to filling industries’ pockets and lessening the common population’s

The rise in advertisement played a key role in the rise of consumption. Thanks to well-developed advertisement campaigns, America redefined what a necessity is. Advertisers encouraged Americans to actively work towards maintaining a high social standing. “Advertisers made no secret of their intention to promote novelty for its own sake, in the hope that consumers would exchange perfectly serviceable goods for goods that conformed to the latest fashions” (Lasch, 2000). Consumers devoured this advertisement scheme and began to rapidly increase their spending. Many advertisements for common, household products made claim that they could make the normal appear comparable to the high end. For example, Lux, a soap company, ran an ad in 1920 that depicted two women talking - one of the women complemented on the other on the quantity of sweaters she owned, only to find out that it is not a new sweater, but rather her old sweater that Lux soap made it look brand new (Lux)! Men and women alike began to believe

In today’s mass media, it is quiet common for advertisers to assimilate class into their commercials. These advertisements portray a certain level of elegance because of the sophisticated choice to use classical background music and thick European accents. On the contrary, other advertisers take the common-folk approach by structure these commercials around the western concept. Both of these advertising tactics supports an American paradox. As argued in Jack Solomon’s “Master of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising”, the contradiction lies in the desire to strive above the crowd and the quest for social equality.

At the end of World War II, about seventy-two million people died. As tragic as this fact sounds, peace was still kept during and after the war. After the war, the formation of the United Nations helped negotiate and maintain peace, and during the war more jobs helped get the United States out of its biggest economic crisis, the Great Depression. Although, some economists argue that by creating more jobs during World War II, put America into even more debt than the country was already in. Standards of living lessened during the end of the Depression and the start of the war, but people understood the changed lifestyle was for a good cause. During World War II, The Great Depression and the United Nations helped create peace of mind in the

Recently I heard a story about a mother and child walking through a retail store when the child says to her mother “I want those shoes!” The mother asks “Why do you want those shoes?” to which her daughter responds “Because everyone else is wearing them.” The Mother asks, “Wouldn’t you want to get something different and be more original?” and the child says “No, then I wouldn’t be original like everyone else!” Between the 1920’s and the era of World War II America saw some of its most dramatic cultural shifts since the country’s beginnings. This story of a mother and child expresses the changes that took place in the early half of the 1900’s which made a lasting effect in creating the consumer society we know today. This consumer-centered society that we know was developed by multiple shifts in the American economy and lifestyle. In this essay I will discuss how each the “Roaring Twenties,” the “Great Depression” and the World War II Era each contributed in the way of accelerating or stalling the process of creating an American consumer society.

From 1929 to 1945, two catastrophes occurred: the Great Depression and World War II. American political leaders established a cause-effect relationship between economic collapse and total war, based on these two events, which defined their policy approach in the post-war period. In the 1930s, American leadership, and most importantly, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, came to view economic decline, political radicalization, and instability as forming a vicious cycle that led to utter chaos and war. Although FDR did not know the future consequences of the economic fallout, he did know that breaking the cycle was of systemic importance. FDR’s policy platform, known as the New Deal, disregarded the historical wariness for government intervention and boldly connected economic security to freedom. Essentially, he attempted to push the American system to its limit in order to save it. Even with conservative elements constantly attempting to restrain his initiatives, FDR expanded his focus in the latter years of the 1930s to include international affairs as war broke out in Europe, Africa, and Asia. FDR and other government elites openly talked about the responsibility America had to build a new world order.

After World War II, men came home from war ready to fall back into the normalcy of everyday life, which meant to get married and to have children. Furthermore, before WWII was the Great Depression, where fewer people were getting married and having children. After WWII, there was more economic stability, and there was a greater presence of men in the country. There was a desire to continue life the way it was before the years of struggle and war. Thus, the baby boomers arose. In the classical, traditional, American family, there is a father who works and is the main breadwinner and supporter of the family. Then, there is the housewife who takes care of the children and the household. In addition, there are children. This family typically

The Great Depression was a terrible time for people in the United States. With the stock market crash, there were many people without jobs, homes, or they didn’t have anything. Many Americans were left with nothing more than the clothes on their back and their family. Many banks and businesses had to close because on the stock market crash. Even though these times in the thirties seemed to be hard for most people, the American people did not just sit around and do nothing. Many new fads and activities were made up in this time and many of these fads are around today. The times were hard, but not everything was bad for the American people and, in the end, everything would be better than it was before the Great Depression happened. The Great Depression was and is a huge part of history and a great one to learn about. This paper will talk about what the Great Depression is and how it happened, how life was for people of the Great Depression including in the dust bowl, and life after the Great Depression.

After the Great War (1914-1919) came the “Roaring Twenties” followed by the Great Depression (1929-1939). After World War I America experienced the greatest economic growth in its history. Its economic expansion was due to how undamaged it was after the war. It became the richest country in the world at that time. The people enjoyed life as it were back then until the US experienced the largest economic downturn in history when the Stock Market crashed on 29th October 1929. It began in the summer months of 1929 when the US economy began experiencing a small recession where consumers began spending less and unsold goods began piling up, thereby slowing down production. While this was happening stock prices continues to rise reaching levels that could not be justified by anticipated potential earnings. This occurred for a few months until October 24th 1929 when the stock market crashed and America faced the Great Depression a few days after on October 29th 1929 . So what were the contributing factors of the Great Depression? These include:

In America, the period between the Great Depression and World War II was rife with uncertainty. The struggles of the Great Depression were over, but their lasting effects shed doubt on America’s future. Persephone, was an attempt by Thomas Hart Benton in 1939 to cement regionalism as the official American art style during this era. However, despite his attempt to promote hope in America’s future, while still acknowledging the despair of the Great Depression, Persephone was regarded as obscene.

Every day, companies present the people with advertisements everywhere they go. Advertisements have become very prevalent in today’s society nowadays focusing in on a negative connotation. Advertisement has become an effective way for producers to display their new products. In present day, they come in forms of billboards, flyers, e-mails, and even text messages. It is widely known that companies create advertisements to persuade people to buy specific products or goods; however, it is not widely known that advertisements can make a negative impact on today’s society. The companies manipulate people’s mind and emotions, swaying people by new promotions and therefore generating a strong desire to fit into the society, that causes them to make inessential expenditures. Advertisements pose a critical impact on the American culture.