Lesson 4: Money! Money! Money!

Unit 4 Lesson 4

MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!

Consumerism in the 1920s

LESSON TARGET

I can explain the economic boom and consumerism during the 1920s.

READ ABOUT IT!

Direction: The first thing you need to do is read about Consumerism and the Economic Boom of the 1920s. Make sure that you are looking for the way in which the economic boom and consumerism came to be during the reading.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!

Quote about consumerism from the movie, Fight Club staring Brad Pitt and Ed Norton

Consumerism

The 1920s were a decade of increasing conveniences. New products made household chores easier and led to more leisure time. Products that had been too expensive became affordable. New forms of financing allowed every family to spend beyond their current means. Advertisers made a great deal of money.

During the 1920s, the United States prospered. Mass production, new products, and better advertising changed the way Americans used their money. A new idea called consumerism soon took off in America. Consumerism is the belief that it is good for the economy when people spend a lot of money on goods and services.

How It Began

1914 Ford Highland Park Plant Assembly Line

It all started during World War I. To meet the needs of the nation and the soldiers fighting abroad, new manufacturing methods were created. The assembly line, using division of labor and standardized parts were combined with the use of machinery to increase the amount that could be produced in a shorter amount of time. After the war, Americans continued to use these methods of production for all consumer goods. This method was called mass-production.

Electricity also played a major part in making production more efficient. It provided light to industries. Light allowed industries to produce goods even at night so more goods could be produced. It also powered machines. Electrical power helped to produce more goods more quickly. By the 1920s, electricity not only powered and lit industries, but most homes as well.

Changing Housework

Woman using a rug beater to clean a carpet.

Before the 1920s, housewives spent all day doing many tedious chores. She moved all the furniture off the carpets, rolled them up, and dragged them outside to beat out the week's dirt and dust. She replaced the ice in the icebox and changed out the water pan that lay beneath. She scrubbed the clothes in a washing tub on a washboard. She heated the iron on the stove to smooth out the wrinkles in the family clothing. She spent the summer months canning food for the long winter. She made the family clothes using patterns. She made bread daily from scratch.

1920s Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Advertisement

By the end of the 1920s, housework had changed tremendously. Vacuum cleaners, electric refrigerators, washing machines, and electric irons saved hours of extra work. Department stores and mail order catalogues sold cheaply made, manufactured clothing and helped women avoid hours of sewing clothes. Supermarkets were built that sold a variety of foods in one place. Bakeries supplied bread to these supermarkets and saved women countless hours of baking. New methods of canning and freezing made store-bought food cheap and saved women from canning at home.

TOOLBOX

consumerism: is the belief that it is good for the economy when people spend a lot of money on goods and services

conveniences: something that makes you more comfortable or allows you to do things more easily

credit: money that a bank or business will allow a person to use and then pay back in the future

debt:  an amount of money that you owe to a person, bank, company, etc.

demand:  the amount of goods and services that consumers are willing to buy

financing: the way in which money is used and handled

installment plan: a way of paying for something by making a series of small payments over a long time

mass-production:  combining the assembly line, division of labor, and standardized parts with the use of machinery so that an item can be produced in greater amounts in a shorter amount of time

pop psychology:  popular ideas about the ways people think and beliefs people hold that seem to be true even though they cannot be proven by science Ex.) a red room makes people hungry or scientific words make people take things work seriously

retailers: stores that sell completed products to customers

Testimonial: a written or spoken statement in which you say that you used a product or service and liked it

Buying on Credit

General Motors Ad for Buying a Car on Credit

“Buy now, Pay Later” became the motto of many middle class Americans of the Roaring Twenties. For most middle class families, all these new conveniences were impossible to afford at once. But retailers wanted to sell their products and customers wanted everything all at once!

Department stores started providing customers with lines of credit for those who could not pay up front but could prove they would be able to pay in the future. Installment plans were offered to buyers who could not afford to pay for the item all at once, but could afford twelve monthly payments over a year.

Over half of the nation's automobiles were sold on credit by the end of the decade. America's consumers could indeed have it all, if they had an iron stomach for debt. Consumer debt more than doubled between 1920 and 1930.

Many Americans bought too many things on credit and spent a long time trying to pay it off.

Advertising

1920s Listerine Ad using the pop psychology idea of “scientific words make us take things more seriously.”

New techniques in advertising fueled customers’ demand for new products. Advertising was not a new business, but as the marketplace became crowded with competitors, manufacturers looked for advertising companies that could make their product look like the best product on the market. One major trend of the decade was to use pop psychology methods to convince Americans that the product was needed. The classic example was the campaign for Listerine. They used a seldom heard term for bad breath called halitosis in their advertising. By doing this, Listerine persuaded thousands of Americans to buy their product. Consumers might not have known what halitosis was, but they surely knew they did not want it.

Advertisers were no longer simply responding to demand; they were creating demand. Radio became an important new means of communicating a business message. Testimonials from Hollywood film stars sold products in record numbers. The advertising business created demand for the gadgets and appliances being manufactured by American factories and Americans were swept into the idea of consumerism before they even knew what hit them

Left: Constance Bennett was a famous actress in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Right: Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees, was the first to appear on a "Wheaties" cereal box in 1934.

EXPLAIN IT!

Directions: The second thing you need to do is show that you understand what you have just read. In your small groups, answer the questions below. We will discuss these as a whole group when you have completed these in your small groups.

1. What is consumerism?
2. How did consumerism begin?
3. What new inventions made life more convenient?
4. What is credit? In what ways did Americans use credit to purchase goods in the 1920s?
5. What is debt? Why did buying on credit put many Americans in debt?
6. How did advertising companies play a part in consumerism?
7. How did consumerism change the way in which Americans used their money?

ANALYZE IT!

Directions: The third thing you need to do is break down what you have read. In this activity, you will view the different advertisements below with your group. All of these advertisements use a different type of pop psychology in their advertisement. See if you can identify what type each advertisement is using. We will go over these as a whole group after each group has identified them all.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING USING POP PSYCHOLOGY

AVANTE GARDE
Buying this product will make you ahead of your time! You'll be the trend setter.

FACTS AND FIGURES
Research studies, statistics, and percentages are used to prove the product is better than all the others.

WEASEL WORDS
Wording an advertisement so it has a positive meaning without actually making any guarantees.

MAGIC INGREDIENTS
Suggesting that an incredible new discovery makes a product work better in someway than other products of its kind.

PATRIOTISM
Suggesting that purchasing a product shows your love of your country.

DIVERSION
Suggesting that there is a connection between a product and an event or situation and that buying the product will result in the event or situation for the customer too.

TRANSFER
Showing or talking about something positive and attempting to transfer the positive feelings about what you were discussing to the product that you are trying to sell.

PLAIN FOLKS
Suggesting that the product is a practical product of good value for ordinary people.

SNOB APPEAL
Suggesting that the use of the product makes the customer part of an elite group with a luxurious and glamorous life style.

BRIBERY
Offering something extra if the customer purchases the product.

TESTIMONIAL
Using a famous personality to sell the product.

WIT AND HUMOR
Entertaining or making a customer laugh using clever visuals.

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS
Offering multiple uses or advantages for using a product.

CARD STACKING
Stressing the positive qualities of a product and ignoring the negative qualities.

GLITTERING GENERALITIES
Using appealing words and images to sell a product. Indirectly saying that the product will change your life if you use it.

BANDWAGON
Suggesting that if you use a product you will be a part of the popular crowd or be on the winning side.

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CREATE IT!

Directions: The fourth thing you need to do is create something with what you learned. In this activity, you will create an advertisement for your favorite product using one of the different types of pop psychology. You will create this by opening a MacBook Pages Document on your Macbook Airs. You may use google images, create shapes, use the drawing feature, etc... to create your advertisement. Be creative! Just remember that the advertisement must use a type of pop psychology. When you have finished, you will save your advertisement to your name and airdrop it to me. See the following rubric so that you can make a 100/A+ on this assignment!

PROVE IT!

Directions: The last thing you need to do is to prove that you have met the lesson target. Click on the lesson target icon below to complete the Prove It Activity.

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

Congratulations!

You have completed Unit 4 Lesson 4 - Money! Money! Money!