
F39 Job:09-26878 Title:RP-Brand Bible
#175 Dtp:204 Page:92
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001-320_26879.indd 92 10/6/11 6:33 PM
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B ranD BIBLe
of 1947, hundreds
of households across America received the same
special delivery: the Sears Christmas catalog.
Weighing in at 300 pages, it oered everything from
argyle socks to shing tackle to radios. In subsequent
years, the catalog’s page count would only grow,
reaching 436 pages by 1958.
1
The magnitude of the
catalog is evidence of a society that had started to
purchase out of want rather than need. Manufactur-
ers and advertisers had attained a newfound pro-
ciency in imbuing objects with v ...