Levittown: Dream Houses all in a row -Enter the suburbs

• In 1947 William J Levitt using federal funds created the ideal suburb- Levittown which opened in 1949."Massed-produced, single-family, tract housing that, at a cost of $7,000 or $60 a month, ordinary working people could afford." New York City it was a low-cost housing development for World War II veterans and their families.
• Levittown was the American dream for more than 17,000 families who bought the two-bedroom homes. Each home had an identical floor plan and was constructed using assembly-line techniques. Levittown was widely imitated and came to symbolize postwar suburbia.
• Ads promised homeowners that their happiness would be a sure thing, they offered no money down for vets
• homeowners found muddy lots with no trees
• By 1960 home ownership was the norm and now only 7% lived in rural areas
• Levitt was accused of homogenizing a bland America in bland housing
• Movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and songs like Little Boxes highlighted this
• Blacks were not allowed into the homes for 2 decades
• Great cultural shifts were taking place as families became less connected to relatives and women were isolated

see more on Levittown New York http://youtu.be/u6YuJuAMf_g

see a video athttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WJUVPoCP78

see also a video of how Levittown PA is a perfect, safe wonderful storybook place to live as long as you are "one of us"- Buy at home the "right way"
http://www.archive.org/details/OurHomeT1954_2

read a Feb 2006 memory of Levittown from the Globe Suburbia: from avant-garde to no place special

The Credit Card

• In 1950, Diners Club launched their charge cards in the USA, the first "plastic money". In 1951, Diners Club issued the first credit card to 200 customers who could use it at 27 restaurants in New York.
• American Express followed in 1958. Bank of America issued the BankAmericard (now Visa), the first bank credit card later in 1958. They were first promoted to traveling salesmen (more common in that era) for use on the road.
• By 1960s, more companies offered credit cards, advertising them as a time-saving device rather than a form of credit.
• credit cards made it easier to buy
• 10% down and $10 a month plans meant you could buy almost anything

Planned Obsolescence:

Planned obsolescence is the strategy of deliberately introducing obsolescence into a product strategy. Obsolescence is the process of passing out of usefulness. In a business this means the object is no longer perceived as having value. It is no longer wanted even though it is still in good working order. It is not deterioration, which is a process of disintegration or degeneration. The difference is that obsolescence is a perception about the usefulness of an object whereas deterioration is a physical process. The two concepts are highly correlated, but neither is a sufficient or necessary condition of the other. That is, you can have obsolescence without deterioration, and you can have deterioration without obsolescence.

Or simply a method of stimulating consumer demand by designing products that wear out or become outmoded after limited use. Also called built-in obsolescence.

Types of Planned Obsolescence

Functional Obsolescence

Planned functional obsolescence is a type of technical obsolescence in which companies introduce new technology which replaces the old. The old products do not have the same capabilities or functionality as the new ones. For example a company that sold video tape decks while they were developing DVDs were engaging in planned obsolescence. That is, they were actively planning to make their existing product (video tape) obsolete by developing a substitute product (DVDs) with greater functionality (better quality).

Systemic Obsolescence

Planned systemic obsolescence is the deliberate attempt to make a product obsolete by altering the system in which it is used in such a way as to make its continued use difficult. For example new software is frequently introduced that is not compatible with older software. This makes the older software largely obsolete. For example, even though an older version of a word processing program is operating correctly, it might not be able to read .doc files from newer versions. The lack of interoperability forces many users to purchase new programs prematurely.

Another way of introducing systemic obsolescence is to eliminate service and maintenance for a product. If a product fails, the user is forced to purchase a new one.

Style Obsolescence

Planned style obsolescence occurs when marketers change the styling of products so customers will purchase products more frequently. The style changes are designed to make owners of the old model feel 'out of date'. It is also designed to differentiate the product from the competition, thereby reducing price competition. Marketers also claim that style changes relieve peoples' boredom and allows for both self-expression and conformity at the same time.

One example of style obsolescence is the automobile industry in which manufacturers typically make style changes every year or two. As the former CEO of General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan, stated, "Today the appearance of a motor-car is a most important factor in the selling end of the business—perhaps the most important factor— because everyone knows the car will run."

Some marketers go one step further: they attempt to initiate fashions or fads. Examples of successfully created fashions or fads include Beanie Babies, Ninja Turtles, Cabbage Patch Kids, Rubik's Cubes, pet rocks, acid wash jeans, Pokémon, and tank tops. Obsolescence is built into these products in the sense that marketers are aware of the shortness of their product life cycles so they work within that constraint. For example, when Beanie Babies sales revenue started to decline, company president Ty Warner astutely decided to go for one last Christmas marketing push and then drop the product.

Another strategy is to take advantage of fashion changes, often called the fashion cycle. The fashion cycle is the repeated introduction, rise, popular culmination, and decline of a style as it progresses through various social strata. Marketers can ride the fashion cycle by changing the mix of products that they direct at various market segments. This is very common in the clothing industry. A certain style of dress, for example, will initially be aimed at a very high income segment, then gradually be re-targeted to lower income segments. The fashion cycle can repeat itself, in which case a stylistically obsolete product may regain popularity and cease to be obsolete.

Obsolescence and Durability

If marketers expect a product to become obsolete they can design it to last for a specific lifetime. For example, if a product will be technically or stylistically obsolete in five years, many marketers will design the product so it will only last for that time. This is done through a technical process called value engineering. Home entertainment electronics tend to be designed and built with moving components like motors and gears that last until technical or stylistic innovations make them obsolete.

source:http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Planned_obsolescence_(business) (Link no longer active)

Read an article from the Toronto Star Feb 2007 about obsolescence Not For Keeps

• In the 50s kitchen planned obsolescence was used by introducing a range of colours that made the older versions look outdated
• Each year's refrigerator had new features that made the previous seem outdated

The Edsel - Anatomy of a Flop (1957-1960 R.I.P.)

• Hear an Edsel radio ad http://edsel.net/multimedia/eds.wav
• In September 1957 the Edsel debuted across the country. The launch followed an expensive and successful marketing campaign that had everyone talking about the mysterious new car. Months earlier ads began running with "The Edsel is Coming." Another ad depicted a covered car carrier with the same tag line. The car’s features and appearance were a secret. Consumers were intrigued
• People flocked to the dealers, but did not buy see Edsel Opening http://edsel.net/dealer/mcaintro.html
• It had more gadgets but it didn't live up to the hype
• The styling was criticized for the grill -Ford wanted a unique look but people didn't like it
• At the time big was in, but people's tastes were changing
• The technical innovations began to have problems that mechanics didn't know how to fix
• Today if you call something an Edsel, you are calling it a flop
• See the Edsel commercial http://edsel.net/multimedia/tv.html
• Read more athttp://www.edsel.com/reviews/failure.htm
• See Edsel lovers of today and clips of old Edsel ads http://edsel.net/multimedia/EdselsAmazingAmerica.mov

• The U.S. atomic bombings of Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought the end of WW II. But the arrival of the Atomic Age tainted the ensuing peace. People were left with a sense of uncertainty and fear- the future was obscure and survival was questionable.
• development of the Bomb became part of the public consciousness and people prepared for the possibility of Nuclear war
• Toronto had air raid sirens during this age of atomic anxiety. There is still one at the corner of Dundas West and Shaw. read more atCold War Toronto
• Russia beat Americans into space with Sputnik; the McCarthy witch hunt for supposed communists in America and spy technology fueled the "Cold War"
• bomb shelters with the molecular motif became fashionable for the modern home -see McCarthy era political cartoons at http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/fire.html
• NASA was created and massive expenditures in defense and space programs stimulated the economy
• read about the history of the Atomic Age at The Atomic Heritage Foundation
• Conelrad All Things Atomic A creepy look at cold war culture http://www.conelrad.com/
• see factoids from the 50s for an overview of what was popular
• Please view http://www.archive.org/details/DuckandC1951
• and see how in 1954 Americans were told that fixing up, cleaning up and painting up their houses would improve their homes chance of survival in an atom bomb attack http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t_5wthG0Wc or http://www.archive.org/details/Houseint1954

• Left-1950 Ford:
  "A Beauty on the boulevard-A Bearcat in the Bush"
  (with obvious sexual undertones)
• Right Frigidaire
  "Holiday from Apron Strings"
  ideal wife in heels with happy kids

Tupperware- Where women in heels and white gloves burp plastic bowls at home parties

In 1945 Earl Tupper invented the watertight, airtight seal for his plastic containers. His products were sitting on shelves unsold until Brownie Wise a self taught marketer took his product to him and told him how it should be sold. Brownie had been working in direct sales and believed that Tupper's product could be marketed by women to women in a home party setting. Women who had worked in factories during the war had been pushed back into the kitchen. Brownie offered these women the chance in the 1950s, to earn thousands -- even millions -- of dollars from bowls that burped. "Tupperware ladies" fanned out across the nation's living rooms, selling efficiency and convenience to their friends and neighbors through home parties. Bowl by bowl, they built an empire that circled the globe.

Brownie's sales force of women celebrated at yearly jubilees. Women were rewarded with minks, appliances, and European vacations. They had a chance to move up the ladder but once they got to the dealership level, their husband had to be involved. Although Brownie was in management all the rest were men.

In 1958 as sales reached $100 million Tupper fired Brownie and sold the company a year later. Brownie owned no part of the company and only received a $35,000 settlement. Today if you visit the Tupperware site, you will find no mention of the woman who made the company a marketing success copied by many.

See more on PBS at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tupperware/ and The Tupperware Film http://www.thetupperwarefilm.com/gallery.html

Despite traditional values of the time Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy in 1953 with photos of beautiful women, sales skyrocketed.
Hefner had drawn cartoons in the US army and later taken Art classes in university. He edited the campus newspaper where he introduced the Co-ed of the month. He worked as a copywriter at Esquire but left at 27 years of age to start his magazine.

The first issue had no date as he didn't know when the next issue would follow. The nude pictures in his magazines were the first nudes sent through mail in a commercial publication. He hired top writers. In March1960 Ian Fleming's character James Bond was introduced.

Ian Fleming had trained under William Stephenson -" The Man called Intrepid" at a secret allied spy training school -STS103- better known as Camp X, Today the camp's location is marked by a small memorial in the 17-acre, Lakefront West (Intrepid) Park on the Whitby/Oshawa border.

Read a history of the pin-up at Mutoworld.com

First Issue Playboy with Marilyn Monroe

In the 1940s, Springs Cotton Mills ran a legendary advertising campaign "Be protected," reads the copy of one that depicts a young woman caught in a leaf-strewn wind.

The 1949 "Buck well spent" ad raised the most eyebrows. A sleeping native American man is exhausted in a sheet stretched hammock-style between trees. A young woman is getting up from the hammock, one leg caught in the sheet. It reads "A buck well spent on Springmaid Sheet." (that's how much a sheet cost then)

"Elliott White Springs, the president of Spring Mills, was the slightly dirty mind behind a series of incredibly popular ads featuring sly puns and double-entendres that ran from 1947 until his death in 1959. Springs created the rules of advertising innuendo that remain relevant today

....Springs relied on four principles. First, the reader was considered an intelligent peer, not an easy-to-titillate sucker. Second, a product benefit had to be offered once the reader's attention was gained through pulchritudinous means. Next, racy images should combine humour and respect — Springs' ads objectified men and women, although both retained their dignity. The final principle was the most important: The Tease was the most effective method of leveraging sex in an ad. An inch of stocking top worked far better than a topless woman."

Springs relied on Cultural competencies to reward the solving of little visual mysteries, the ability to spot clues that others cannot see....the double entendre. (read more at inside link source: Cultural Competencies by Ryan Bigge July 2006)

Colonel Elliot White Springs, president of Springs Cotton Mill, ads gave Springmaid one of the highest brand recall ratings between 1947-1951

• see a later ad at http://www.pettipond.
  com/springmd.jpg

The term "teenagers" is said to have been popularized by a "Doo-Wop" group (the precursor to Boy Bands?) Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers in the 1950's -

To read about the them click The Teenagers to hear them sing Click I'm not a Juvenile Delinquent (outside link)