From Rationing To Prosperity
By Willy R. Wilkerson III. Excerpt from the book 'All-American Ads of the 40s', edited by Jim Heimann
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Camel boldly advertised "More Doctors Smoke Camels", a statement that would definitely attract the attention of the Surgeon General today. But cigarette manufacturers, especially Philip Morris, had something to smile about. Throughout the 1940s they sold a steady 300 million cigarettes a year. Their aggregate sales total was $357.3 million by the end of the decade.
Consumer products abounded after the war as companies again switched from manufacturing war equipment to consumer products. General Electric sold 100-watt light bulbs for fifteen cents a piece. Kodak film, which had captured the atrocities of war, now documented the pleasures of peacetime in summer backyard barbecues and Christmas gatherings. "Keep Family History" read their ads.
For the home, no one could be without a refrigerator. "Only Philco gives you both Dry Cold and Moist Cold..." Philco boasted in their ads. If any toaster was destined to be remembered from the forties, Proctor made sure through their advertising that their toaster would be etched upon the annals of human memory.
The end of the decade saw enormous economic prosperity in America spurred on by the wondrous advances in technology. But the end of one war only saw the beginning of another. The Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States ignited the decades-long cat and mouse game between the two superpowers that became a reality when Russia acquired the A-Bomb. The fear of nuclear war was ever present, even in school classrooms. In the 1950s, children practiced air raid drills hiding under their desks and ordinary citizens dug bomb shelters in their backyards.
Page 1 2 3 4 5
Page 1 2 3 4 5
Camel boldly advertised "More Doctors Smoke Camels", a statement that would definitely attract the attention of the Surgeon General today. But cigarette manufacturers, especially Philip Morris, had something to smile about. Throughout the 1940s they sold a steady 300 million cigarettes a year. Their aggregate sales total was $357.3 million by the end of the decade.
Consumer products abounded after the war as companies again switched from manufacturing war equipment to consumer products. General Electric sold 100-watt light bulbs for fifteen cents a piece. Kodak film, which had captured the atrocities of war, now documented the pleasures of peacetime in summer backyard barbecues and Christmas gatherings. "Keep Family History" read their ads.
For the home, no one could be without a refrigerator. "Only Philco gives you both Dry Cold and Moist Cold..." Philco boasted in their ads. If any toaster was destined to be remembered from the forties, Proctor made sure through their advertising that their toaster would be etched upon the annals of human memory.
The end of the decade saw enormous economic prosperity in America spurred on by the wondrous advances in technology. But the end of one war only saw the beginning of another. The Cold War between Soviet Russia and the United States ignited the decades-long cat and mouse game between the two superpowers that became a reality when Russia acquired the A-Bomb. The fear of nuclear war was ever present, even in school classrooms. In the 1950s, children practiced air raid drills hiding under their desks and ordinary citizens dug bomb shelters in their backyards.
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