American Magazine, July 2015

TOBACCONIST’S SHOP FIGURE, 1870–1910; PHILCO RADIO, 1930S; MR. PEANUT; NIPPER; NEW YORKER “467–821,” BY TED KEY, CIRCA 1960; AND COOKIE MONSTER SWEATER, 1970S–1980S,
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE EXHIBITION; FRANZ IMAGE BY HILARY SCHWAB
“As with slavery,
I’m glad we touched
on uncomfortable
but historically
important topics,
such as racial and
ethnic stereotypes.
As a historian, I felt
it was important
to say that in the
late nineteenth
century, advertising
participated, along
with minstrelsy,
in creating racial stereotypes that cast most
white people as consumers and people of color
as servants—whether they’re handing you your
cigars or your pancakes. These stereotypes, such
as the cigar shop figure, had a profound impact
on commercial life, including some people in the
democracy of goods and excluding others.”
“Patent medicine producers were among the first
innovators of advertising, but their products and
pitches were unregulated. All of this unregulated
advertising resulted in distrust among consumers
and, eventually, the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906,
truth in advertising laws, and greater regulations.”
From the late 1920s until the dawn of the
television era, broadcasters reached consumers
through their ears, not their eyes. “From the
beginning of commercial radio, the radio program was
the ad. One sponsor, one ad. This approach shaped the
beginnings of commercial television as well.” Many
of the advertisements are from the John R. Hickman
Collection at the American University Archives.
One of the innovations
of advertisers was to
make business friendlier
for consumers. This led to
the creation of spokescharacters
like Mr. Peanut
and Nipper, the RCA dog.
“ONE OF THE CHALLENGES OF CURATING THE
CONSUMER ERA, THE PERIOD AFTER 1945, IS
THAT IT’S IN THE REALM OF RECENT MEMORY
AND CAN EVOKE NOSTALGIA. I WANTED TO
REMIND PEOPLE THAT IT WAS ALSO THE ERA
OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, THE WAR
ON POVERTY, THE POOR PEOPLE’S CAMPAIGN,
AND A TIME WHEN PEOPLE WERE FIGHTING
FOR GREATER ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY.”
-KATHLEEN FRANZ
Alfred S. Bloomingdale was the grandson of the
department store scion and an early developer
of the credit card. He collected cartoons from the
New Yorker about credit cards and donated them to
the National Collections at the National Museum of
American History. “The cartoons are a nice way
to show how American consumers grappled with
this new form of credit in the 1950s and 1960s.”
In the 1950s, parents and children’s advocates
debated whether commercial broadcasting
was bad for kids. This led to the creation of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1967 and
the Public Broadcasting System two years later.
Among its most beloved programs is Sesame
Street, which became a commercial success as
well. The nonprofit company behind the kids’
show licensed images of its characters, like
Cookie Monster, in the 1970s to fund production.
J. C. Penney was among the first retailers to
sell Sesame Street-licensed clothing.
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