Brand Bible

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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 oered 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 values and attributes

that gave them relevance emotionally and psycholog-

ically, but had little to do with the objects’ functional

characteristics. This skill—an essential aspect of

branding—helped lead post–World War II society to

levels of consumption previously unimaginable.

07

ThE

GREATEST

GENERATIoN

of BRANDS



and



With the end of World War II and the reestablish-

ment of peacetime industry, the United States

began a transformation into one of the world’s

largest economies, primarily driven by the collec-

tive purchasing power of the burgeoning middle

class. The passage of the G.I. Bill in 1944 made

higher education and home ownership attain-

able for millions of servicemen as they returned

home to take on new jobs and start families. They

purchased split-level homes, ranches, and Cape

Cods in rapidly expanding suburbs like Naperville,

Illinois, and Levittown, New York, equipping their

residences with all the accoutrements of a newly

auent society: KitchenAid appliances, RCA tele-

visions, and Corning cookware.

As consumers eagerly indulged in the enjoyments

previously impossible during wartime austerity,

they also began forging a new national identity—

one that linked consumption with freedom and

contrasted American society with life behind the

Iron Curtain. In the book A Consumer’s Republic,

historian Lizabeth Cohen suggests that home

ownership, automobiles, and mass consumption

enabled Americans to eectively “beat the Soviets

at their own game of creating a classless society”;

this rendition of the American dream challenged

the assertion that “capitalism created extremes of

wealth and poverty.”

2

A Philip Morris

advertisement from

1953 featured the

actress Lucille Ball

F39 Job:09-26878 Title:RP-Brand Bible

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F39 Job:09-26878 Title:RP-Brand Bible

#175 Dtp:204 Page:93

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001-320_26879.indd 93 10/6/11 6:33 PM

(Text)

F39 Job:09-26878 Title:RP-Brand Bible

#175 Dtp:204 Page:93

(RAY)

001-320_26879.indd 93

10/6/11 6:17 PM