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America and Mass Consumerism


              In the mid 1700's, the popularity of wood engraving advertisements was spreading. A block of wood was carved to make a raised design that was inked and printed allowing advertisers to introduce pictures to the consumer; however, images were minimal considering the difficulty of wood engraving and the fact that wood engravings allowed minimal detail (Linton, 1880). In 1820, the first illustrated ad was published. These illustrations allowed advertisers to incorporate a substantial amount of detail consequently causing advertising to almost exclusively be classified ads.  At the time, America had about 600 newspapers, and this new form of advertisement began to fill the columns. "For instance, the New York Gazette had 538 ads, which took up 25 of the 28 columns" (Hallock, 2001). At the time, advertisements, greatly differing from what we have to day, displayed lot of detail and explanations on what the product was and what it did. It was common to include the dimensions and variations of the product along with how one would use the product (Bradley, 1896). This was the most prominent form of advertising until after The Great War.
             Although advertising had gained such a substantial presence in the media, consumerism of the time was just a fraction of what it is today. This is primarily due to the massive economic disparity of the era. Corporations were able to maintain low stagnant wages due to the disposable amount of laborers (Mintz, 2007). The lower class made up the largest social group in America and was comprised primarily of unskilled laborers. America did not have much of a middle class at the time because the market allowed little room for educated people and skilled workers. The upper class had such a stranglehold on the economy that there were members of the group that would contribute more than one percent of the nations GDP as an individual (Forbes, 2012). As a result there was only a hand-full of people who were able to spend money on luxuries.


Essays Related to America and Mass Consumerism

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2. World War I and 1920s Consumerism

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6. Changing America

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7. A Changing America

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8. The Massive Media: Postwar and Beyond

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9. An In-Depth Analysis of the Media and Culture Issues

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