The American shopping tradition circa 1950. It’s legacy lives on today in the most extravagant forms.

“Goods fall into two classes: those that we use, such as motor cars or safety razors, and those that we use up, such as toothpaste or soda biscuits. Consumer engineering must see to it that we use up the kind of goods we now merely use.”

-Earnest Elmo Calkins, author of Modern Marketing

In June Cleaver’s era, Americans shifted from scraping and saving everything they could during depression and war times to consuming as much as possible. Government saw consumerism as a need to build the economy, and Calkins’ call for convenience and consumption reigned high. Marketers worked to send the message that the way to solve problems in life was to consume. June and other television housewives worked as models in what were effectively half hour long infomercials to display the new role of the woman and all the things she needed to do and have to fulfill that persona. Today, America’s consumer culture continues, building and refining Calkins’ message. Continue reading →