Changing the Face of America

The changing face of America

Taking a look back in time you are able to see how artists and other writers used words and pictures to get people to think the way they wanted them to think. In the 1950's artists were able to use pictures of families, televisions and just about any other house hold item to convey a meaning that we would understand subconsciously. In the book "Homeward Bound" by Elaine Tyler May, she talks to us about the new home life and how the families are changing right along side the new fast changing times they are living in.

The advertisements that I chose each have their own uniqueness to them. They both however are showing what money can do for a family or just a single person in general. They show that having money and living out the American dream is what it is all about. The thing that you need though in order to do this is to have security and some sort of status maker to show people that you mean business.

The first advertisement I found was of the Ford motor company. In the advertisement you see a sleek and beautiful new Ford car. It is on the set for a movie, showing off its beauty to the cameras and the people that are on set too with the car. You see props all along the set, we know those aren't real, the only real prop they are using on that set is the beautiful ford car. The other advertisement that I found was one of a family all together, gathered around the mother. The father is standing up behind the chair, his son is off to the side, and the mother is sitting in the chair while her little girl is sitting on her lap. It seems that they are all gathered together so that the mother can read the book that she is holding in hers, to them for their enjoyment. This advertisement was selling life insurance for the whole family. Each of the advertisements is targeting a specific group of people that they want to bring into what they are trying to preach about. The Ford motor company wants the group of the middle class family to come and buy their cars. They are telling the people that their future will look a lot better if there was a Ford car parked in their driveway. They are telling them that if it is good enough to be on a movie set then it is good enough for you to own and drive around to show off to your neighbors and friends. The insurance company is called, The Mutual Life Insurance Company. They are trying to tell the American public that they must buy life insurance if they want to protect their families. They tell us in the advertisement that having a "practical financial plan," everything will be alright for your family. They use this family in their advertisement to show us how happy our families could be if we use their life insurance plan, because with the help of this insurance company they can give all the happiness in the world.

The audience for each of these advertisements in the middle and working class people of the American public. They want to target these two groups because they are making enough money where they are able to afford both the life insurance and the new Ford car. The symbols that are used in each of the advertisements are different. The one for the life insurance is using the portrayal of a happy family in their advertisement. They are doing this to show happiness can come from the security that one can get from the insurance they have. The evil though that this can possess is the false protection that life insurance can give to a family. They also try to give the great illusion of a happy family by telling about their family life in the top right corner of the advertisement, giving the names of the family members, and even the name of their dog that's not in the picture with them. The picture of the Ford car is using the exaggeration that fords are better and the person in them is much better off in that car then in another car.

In the book "Homeward Bound" written by Elaine Tyler May, she talks about the baby boom of the 1950's. She tells us that there was a great increase in the making of babies during this time; she said it was the Cold War that helped to trigger the great boom in babies . Also she states the average number of children went up increasingly as well per family . It was just in one certain group of people in America but it was all the classes that were contributing to the baby boom. The advertisement for the Life insurance portrays this movement of having more kids in their family. In the picture there are only two kids but you know that they are thinking that they need to have more because during that time it was the patriotic thing to do for the country. They didn't want our population dying out . The advertisement draws the reader's attention in by showing the family all gathered together while the mother is reading them a story from the book she has in