1950s advertising: visual culture and consumer appeal

1950s Advertisment

One of the most important themes in Elaine Tyler May's work, "Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era," is the theme of feminism. Starting from the theme of domestic containment and going as far back as the 1930s and 1940s, she is keen to mark the existing split in the role in society between man and woman. There are a couple of significant examples in this sense, such as the fact that the New Deal targeted male unemployment while really doing nothing about female unemployment. The 1950s marked a return to the "domestic containment," where women primarily remained at home to take care of the household.

The advertisement presented here is very strange exactly from this point-of-view, because it promotes an unexpected role of the woman during this period of time. The ad presents a coffee vending machine (largely spelled), with a drawing of a woman apparently buying herself coffee from the machine. The strange thing about this is that the woman has a very business-like manner and, indeed, you would expect this scene to be happening in the workplace, where women would be present in fewer numbers. It is the type of advertisement where you would expect the male, the main provider for his family as a characteristic during the 1950s, to be in the office space, getting his coffee from the machine. We don't know whether on purpose or not, but this advertisement has a very feminist air to it.

The text is very suggestive as well for the society in the United States during the 1950s, especially two particular sentences that give a bit of the spirit in the U.S. At that time: "coffee break aids efficiency" and "eliminate time lost going out." There are several reasons why these sentences are significant. First of all, following the decrease in productivity that led to the Depression in the 1930s, the emphasis is now put on productivity and high efficiency. We see an incipient perspective that is very common in today's competitive global business environment: decrease production and administrative costs and increase productivity or be eliminated from the market. This goes even as far as installing a coffee vending machine to remove any lag times in the employee's activity in the workplace. The capitalist way is being more and more felt in terms of acting to increase company profits.

On the other hand, during the 1950s, right to the end of the decade and before information on the actual status of things leaked out, there was a common fear that the Soviet Union was more advanced in terms of its industrial and economic development, as well as, most importantly, its military development. This meant that the national effort had to concentrate on increasing productivity and catching up with the Soviet Union and this included increasing efficiency and productivity in factories and offices. The advertisement does emphasize somewhat on the urgency of things by repeating twice in a matter of just a couple of words the actual role of the vending machine: aid efficiency and eliminate time lost. There seems to be a certain anguish to it, specific of the 1950s when the world came to believe that a nuclear war would be inevitable.

As previously mentioned, one of the important elements in Elaine Tyler May's book is the suburban domesticity and the importance home played in the life of the American family during the 1950s. Most likely, home presented the optimal retreat as "the cold war took hold of the nation's consciousness." In a period of continuous changes and, further more, of constant danger and challenges, of threats such as the possibility of an atomic war starting, home appears a peace oasis. Home is a place where the dangers seem to not exist and where the passing of time seems to stop still, thus stopping progressive movement forward into the unknown.

The advertisement here shows exactly the importance of homes during that period as a retreat from the madding crowd. An advertisement for property insurance, without any pictures, the insurance company is named the HOME. I think that the name of the company is extremely important for the message it wants to convey. From this point-of-view, most likely, the advertisement could be made up just of the subject of the advertisements ("property insurance") and the name of the company ("home"), both suggestive for the message of the advertisement and as a direct reflection of the U.S. society in the 1950s.

The descriptive text below, however, further explains the role of the company as "America's leading insurance protector of American homes and the homes of the American industry." The word home appears twice in this one line description and obviously has several meanings. First of all, it wants to reflect the name of the company as often as possible and emphasize on the fact that the property insurance company is suggestively called "THE HOME."

On the other hand, it awakens a subconscious feeling about the importance of home in the American society during the 1950s. This is not only the home where the family meets, but also the homes of American industry, the numerous factories or production units. It is a wider notion of the concept of "home," meant to encompass its dimension from all points-of-view.

The third advertisement is perhaps most relevant for both the consumerist society that Elaine Tyler May describes in her work and the way that men and women seemed to be bound together during these times often as a singular entity. On the other hand, the way that this advertisement places the action outside the home rather than inside is intuitive in describing, at least in a subtle, tacit manner, a certain emancipation of women (somewhat similar to the advertisement for the coffee vendor machine, where a woman was expected to use this at work), in the sense that they were not simply confined to their home space as May seems to suggest in many of her passages.

The scene, in this case, is at a bowling alley. One of the images shows a woman bowling, while another shows a man and woman close together, the woman with a bowling ball in her hand and the man holding two glasses of beers (presumably Bud), in his hand. The image itself is full of an interesting sexuality: the woman seems to be whistling, most obviously at the beer, however, there is a slight impression that she is actually making a gesture towards the man.

I think this description comes to support the idea that sexuality during the 1950s began to move out of homes and manifest itself, in different, sometimes subtle forms, outside the home. While May insists in her work around sexuality within the home, an advertisement such as the one presented here moves it in a larger environment. This is a bit of a different message than the one we have previously seen related to the property insurance advertisement and to May's own perspective on the development of the home as a place of refuge. Indeed, we see here individuals enjoying themselves and having a good time outside their homes, at a bowling alley, benefiting from the perspective of spending a leisure evening together.