The Roaring Twenties 1920-1929 The Booming Consumer Economy see photos/ads from 20s

Review previous lesson QUIZ

Prosperity -- Cars for Everybody -- Electricity - Radio - Chain Stores - Time to Shop - Spend! - Buy it on Credit -- Fun Times -- All that Jazz -Prohibition - Gangsters -Smoke-Smoke-Smoke

• see a 5 minute overview video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jc_mOdplk0
  
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• Ability to produce and distribute goods on a mass scale, aided by technological development and federal policies favoring industry, brought about a stabilization of the economy that led to wide prosperity in the 1920s
• Working people experienced a rise in their standard of living.
• By the end of the 1920s, nearly half of the American population owned automobiles, radios, and durable consumer goods such as vacuum cleaners and washing machines.
• By the end of the decade, 40 % of American families owned radios. The radio and the auto served to connect remote communities, especially in rural areas; automobiles brought mobility to both urban and rural consumers and radios provided access to information and opportunities.
• Chain stores and mail-order houses proliferated. New product offerings made their debut on the market each year, prompting companies to launch advertising and public-relations campaigns in an effort to stimulate consumption.
• Widespread electricity reduced manufacturing costs of existing products.
• Consumer credit enabled many people to make purchases even before they had enough money to do so.- a new affluent mass market
• By 1921 51% of population lived in urban areas
• 6 day work week collapsed to 5 days- people had more time to shop
• Fix your problems! Products like mouthwash, deodorant, vitamins and disposable tissue were staples
• Total ad expenditures went from $2.2 billion in 1919 to $3.4 million in 1929 with beverage, drug, toilet goods and automobiles leading the way

Prohibition

• 1920, the United States went dry. Breweries, distilleries, and saloons were forced to close their doors. The 18th Amendment banned the manufacture and sale (but not the possession, consumption, or transportation) of "intoxicating liquors." In 1927, there were 30,000 illegal speakeasies, twice the number of legal bars before Prohibition.
• Ontario instituted Prohibition measures from 1916 to 1927 but exempted Ontario's wineries, Many breweries and distilleries remained open to serve a booming export market because of Prohibition in the US. Shipment upon shipment left Ontario, with excise taxes paid, handled by residents who were not allowed to touch a drop of the stuff themselves
• Read about Ontario and Prohibition at the 1924 Ballot: Wet vs Dry
• During Prohibition, rumrunners and bootleggers known as the Purple gang used the Detroit river a smuggler's dream to get booze from Canada to the US. From Detroit liquor went to Chicago (where Al Capone sold it under his "Log Cabin" label), St. Louis, and points west. (http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/purple/1.html)
• Hear a sample of a popular song I wish I could shimmy like my Sister Kate

The Business of America is--Business

• After WWI there was a sense that it was the best of times- enjoyment was important
• Growth of Business-New industries grew to serve demand for consumer products
• Advances in technology meant more efficient manufacturing, increased output and economic boom
• Automobile impacted the economy -steel,glass, paint, rubber, oil, gas stations, tourist development, roads (creating millions of jobs)
• Henry Ford moving 1914 assembly line enabled workers to produce a car in 93 minutes vs 14 hours- by 1925 a new car rolled off every 10 second
• Mergers continued with single companies having virtual monopolies- 3 major car companies (Ford, GM,Chrysler); General Electric and Westinghouse were electrical
• Corporate Control- By 1929 200 corporations controlled country's wealth-with it an increase in corporate advertising
• see a 3 minute video clip at http://www.libraryvideo.com/streaming.asp?sku=D6777

Retailing- Chain Stores! Change the way people shop- Standardization and Self-Service

• Retail chains included groceries, general merchandise, apparel and drugs
• Chains were standardized in design, managed consumer research, advertising and human resources
• chains high volume, high turnover of goods and low prices became the norm
• A&Ps Economy store was a new type of self-service, located outside the high rent district, customers need not ask for products, they could pick them out

Piggly Wiggly was first major self-service chain where customers took purchase to checkout in Memphis 1916 see figure 4.2 page 146 1929 ad-Through the turnstile to Adventure! A unique plan of shopping that 2,500,000 women are using today In 2005 Piggy Wiggly was the first to intorduce Biometric Buying- Buying by fingerprint but had to stop in 2008 when the company that provided the fingerprint payment system went out of business. In 1919 at 511 Yonge St in Toronto Loblaws had the first self serve grocery store

• Packaging! Manufacturers recognized the trend to self-service and began packaging products to be sold on the shelf- the package colour, shape, size and texture, information, demonstrated use delivered the marketing message

• JC Penny stores were in operation from coast to coast under the slogan "A Nationwide Institution," with sales of $43 million. The 1920s were an era of spectacular growth. Between 1920 and 1930, JCPenney opened more than 1,250 new stores, mostly on Main Streets in small towns across America.
• mail order houses like Montgomery Ward (creators of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer ) and Sears Roebuck opened outlets near highways; Sears began supplying automotive supplies and do-it-yourself goods- by 1930 retail sales were higher than mail order

Welcome the Mall!

• The first shopping mall was the Country Club Plaza, founded by the JC Nichols Company and opened near Kansas City, Mo., in 1922

You've got cars-We've got Tires and more!

• In Toronto, Ontario in 1922, the Canadian Tire Corporationwas officially inaugurated in 1927 by brothers John W. and Alfred J. Billes in response to the growing number of automobiles that were hitting Canadian streets in the roaring twenties.

Candy Bars!

• Fully wrapped candy bars did not appear until 1920 when they were placed near the checkout
• See a short video on the History of Candy Bars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSD8u1YQcXc

Milton Hershey- no ads- just Word of Mouth!

• Hershey was called the "Henry Ford" of chocolate because he mass produced a quality chocolate bar at a price everyone could afford
• Hershey bars were priced at 5 cents and sold so well through Word of Mouth (WOM) that they did not run the first print ad until 1979
• Milton Hershey built a model town for employees including comfortable homes, an inexpensive public transportation system, a quality public school system and recreational and cultural opportunities.

  He and his wife Catherine established a school for orphan boys In 1918, three years after Catherine's premature death, Milton Hershey endowed the school with his entire fortune of Hershey Chocolate Company stock.

• read about Milton Hershey

Curtiss Candy - Baby Ruth

the competition; however did use advertising Otto Schnering of the Curtiss Candy company used many gimmicks- he had Baby Ruth bars dropped with tiny parachutes over 40 cities helping make Baby Ruth the top selling in 1926 (They claimed the bar was named after Ruth Cleveland daughter of President Grover Cleveland), not Babe Ruth. But of course the child had been long dead, and many would not have known her. and Babe Ruth was a star) other advertisers included Wrigley chewing gum- Juicy Fruit created in 1893 Life Savers and Oh Henry

Don't have the money? Never fear Credit is here!

Buying on Credit: Buy Now Pay Later

• Initially only a few items could be bought on credit; by the end of the 1920s consumer could buy automobiles, home appliances, powerboats, fur coats and furniture
• Over 60% of cars, radios and furniture bought on credit
• Ad strategies were developed to encourage buying not because things were needed but because items were wanted

Shaping Lifestyles- Scientific Advertising- Stanley Reesor and John B Watson

You don't believe us? We got Science!

• Agencies seeking credibility embraced research and scientific advertising
• J. Walter Thompson especially seemed obsessed with finding out the secrets of human nature
• Stanley Resor JWT president hired John B Watson to do research..Yes that Watson- the founder of Behaviourism
• Watson did research that showed that different brands of a product were indistinguishable to consumers; their buying decisions must be based on the product's image instead of the product itself. He arrived at the basic tenet of modern advertising: sell the image! He also realized that giving information wasn't enough - to sell, you had to create a need where none may have existed, then tell people how to satisfy that need with some product.
• A Watson bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Watson

Psychographics-It's about lifestyle and image Attitudes, Interests and opinions

• A common theme emerged- lifestyle and image -consumers were urged to buy the "right" car or the "right' vacuum to be acceptable you had to have a spotless bathroom, you needed the right look- smoking became part of that "look"

The Female Market

• In Canada women gained the right to vote between 1916-1925- in Ontario it was 1917; in US it was 1920. After the suffrage movement there were generally two groups one who was satisfied in the home and the other who believed they needed to find economic independence; by 1925 about 25% were working outside of the home
• This new affluence came with a concern for social acceptance and approval- marketers quickly exploited these concerns

You don't want to buy? We'll use Fear, Sex and Emulation

• J Walter Thompson pioneered this shift using fear, sex, and emulation appeals to make women want products
• see the fear appeal in this lifebuoy ad and this lux soap ad that won't redden your hands

James Young of J Walter Thompson wrote in 1919 an ad under the headline, "Within the Curve of a Woman's Arm. A frank discussion of a subject too often avoided " In the Ladies Home Journal. The villain was sweat. The hero was Odorono. The result was shock-- and a 112 percent increase in sales. A whole new category had been born. It was also the first time that this delicate subject about ladies had been addressed. (see figure 4.6 page 159) Another agency wrote a series of ads to sell a Book of Etiquette with lines like "Has this ever happened to you?" with a guest spilling coffee at a dinner table Tabloids and confession magazines appeared at this time and gave insight into a woman's point of view Ads showed women whose breath, teeth or laundry didn't measure up; copy left women with guilt and anxiety would she find a man, lose her job...no not if she used a simple product

• Read the copy from this 1927 ad,
  • "You think I'm a flapper but I can keep house." A young woman with bobbed hair stands before her seated husband, throwing her head back and clenching her fists. "'If we get married, I'll keep my house better than my mother does hers. But I'm not going to turn into a slave. You MEN! You think drudgery is a sign of good housekeeping,' by Mary Dale Anthony [her photo is shown], Adviser on kitchen and household cleaning problems to thousands of women. 'Leave it to the modern girl to speak her mind. She's painfully frank, sometimes, but I've found that she's usually mighty capable, too...alert and eager to learn...looking for new time-savers. Girls today want more leisure, and they get it by using short-cuts. And that is why S.O.S. is so popular with the younger generation. It is quick and easy to use. In almost no time it keeps kitchenware looking bright and new - even hard-to-clean aluminum. Vegetable stains, burned-on food, and smoke black come off in a twinkling with S.O.S.'"
• These ads were primarily written by men

Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride Advertising fear/"Whisper Copy" Some of the best known words and phrases can be traced back to advertising campaigns. The phrase 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride,' was created as part of a 1925 ad campaign for Listerine mouthwash. Listerine also lays claim to the origins of the world 'halitosis' in 1921. Halitosis is actually a combination of the Latin halitus, meaning 'breath' and the Greek ending 'osis' often used to describe a medical condition, eg. 'cirrhosis of the liver'. Other advertisers invented new anxieties and fears all masked in sober medical sounding terms- Absorbine Jr treated Tinea trichophyton (athlete's foot), Pompeiian massage cream eliminated comedones (blackheads)

Selling the Cigarette Habit: Advertising's Triumph of the Decade?

• During and after WWI cigarettes gained acceptance ("more convenient and sanitary than chewing tobacco"..yuck)
• RJ Reynolds directed a national campaign for up-scale Camel and quickly became number one
• Three major brands, RJ Reynold's -Camel, George Washington Hill's American Tobacco Company-Lucky Strike and Chesterfield

Lucky Strike and Albert Lasker: Reach for a Lucky Instead of a Sweet

• American Tobacco's George Washington Hill in 1923 hired reason-why copy advocate, Albert Lasker to market Lucky Strike

Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet	When tempted reach for a Lucky instead
Lasker believed a headline was 90% of the ad and the art must illustrate the line. A key phrase would be repeated. They jumped on an untapped market-women. During the early and mid 1920's women smoking in public wasn't acceptable. Lasker's indignation over his wife being ordered not to smoke in a restaurant, led to a series of classic Lucky Strike magazine ads that directly targeted women. The notorious "Reach for a Lucky instead of a Sweet" campaign had the candy industry, among others, up in arms. The ads, which associated smoking with having a slim body, helped change America's attitude toward women feeling free to light up wherever they wanted to. The positioning of Lucky Strike as an aid to weight control led to a greater than 300% increase in sales for this brand in the first year of the advertising campaign. Lucky Strike used several innovations-Afraid that women were resisting the green package, they hired a public relations man to promote the colour as fashionable; they used celebrities; the women who smoked in the ads were stylish; actress testimonials told how Luckies were positive for their voices In 1930 The Federal Trade Commission stopped Lucky's from claiming cigarettes could control weight and stop using paid for testimonials by people who had not used the product.		Jean Harlow- Celebrity Testimonial
		In 1926 Chesterfield made shocking history by subtly inciting women to smoke: a flapper cuddled up to her smoke-puffing boy friend and whispered: "Blow some my way."
How much has changed? Well, in 2007 Camel Cigarettes introduced Camel No. 9 with a black and bright fuschia package to appeal to women

Sources

Johnston, Russell. Selling Themselves: The Emergence of Canadian Advertising,Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.

Silvulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex & Cigarettes. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth Publishing, 1998.

Reichert, Tom. The Erotic History of Advertising, New York: Prometheus Books , 2003.

Twitchell, James B. Twitchell. Adcult USA, New York:Columbia University Press, 1996.

Learn more about the Era at

The Scopes Monkey Trial
The early 1920s found social patterns in chaos. Traditionalists, the older Victorians, worried that everything valuable was ending. Younger modernists no longer asked whether society would approve of their behavior, only whether their behavior met the approval of their intellect. Intellectual experimentation flourished. Americans danced to the sound of the Jazz Age, showed their contempt for alcoholic prohibition, debated abstract art and Freudian theories. In a response to the new social patterns set in motion by modernism, a wave of revivalism developed, becoming especially strong in the American South.

Who would dominate American culture--the modernists or the traditionalists? Journalists were looking for a showdown, and they found one in a Dayton, Tennessee courtroom in the summer of 1925. There a jury was to decide the fate of John Scopes, a high school biology teacher charged with illegally teaching the theory of evolution. The guilt or innocence of John Scopes, and even the constitutionality of Tennessee's anti-evolution statute, mattered little. The meaning of the trial emerged through its interpretation as a conflict of social and intellectual values.
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/SCOPES.HTM

Illustrated Radio Ads and Cover Art http://www.grillecloth.com/radioart/radioart.html

On Prohibition from Digital History Website
At midnight, January 16, 1920, the United States went dry. Breweries, distilleries, and saloons were forced to close their doors. The wording of the 18th Amendment banned the manufacture and sale (but not the possession, consumption, or transportation) of "intoxicating liquors." Enforcing the law proved almost impossible. Prohibition quickly produced bootleggers, speakeasies, moonshine, bathtub gin, and rum runners smuggling supplies of alcohol across state lines. In 1927, there were an estimated 30,000 illegal speakeasies, twice the number of legal bars before Prohibition. Many people made beer and wine at home. Prohibition also fostered corruption and contempt for law and law enforcement among large segments of the population. Popular culture glamorized bootleggers like Chicago's Capone, who served as the model for the central characters in such films as Little Caesar and Scarface. In rural areas, moonshiners became folk heroes. The fashion of the flapper, dancing the Charleston in a short skirt, was incomplete without a hip flask. Read more about prohibition at Digital History http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=441

Read a bit about the short history of Prohibition in Canada in a webpage review of Samuel Bronfman: The Life and Times of Seagram's Mr. Sam at http://www.roizen.com/ron/marrus.htm

Read and Hear about the Cotton Club at PBS http://www.pbs.org/jazz/places/spaces_cotton_club.htm

http://www.lawlessdecade.net/
American Cultural History 1920 –1929
This site has short essays or links to other sites about the design art, architecture, literature, music, events, people, Stock Market Crash, of the 1920s

http://www.42explore2.com/harlem.htm
The Harlem Renaissance
the site defines the Harlem Renaissance as referring ‘to an era of written and artistic creativity among African-Americans that occurred after World War I and lasted until the middle of the 1930s Depression.’

http://www.42explore2.com/harlem2.htm
Harlem Renaissance
a site related to the one above which gives links to biographies of writers, poets, artists, photographers, actors, singers, musicians, composers, and activists of the Harlem Renaissance.

http://www.filmsite.org/20sintro.html
Film History of the 1920s
here you can see what films were playing in the decade.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/front.html
America in the 1930s
links to time-lines for the years 1929 – 1939

Temperance and Prohibition http://prohibition.osu.edu//default.cfm

The Politics of Prohibition http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture17.html

Al Capone http://www.chicagohs.org/history/capone.html

Baby Ruth History http://baseballhistoryblog.com/2110/the-story-of-the-baby-ruth-candy-bar/

Wrigley's Gum History http://www.wrigley.com/global/about-us/heritage-timeline.aspx

History of Candy Bars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSD8u1YQcXc

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