In no other decade did the American puritanism yield to materialism more than in the 1920s, when affluence and mass consumption ushered Americans into a new life mode and moral standards, The paper explores what advertising did to the collective consciousness of the 1920s" Americans. To achieve these goals, the paper analyzes some selected advertising copies, which were successful in those years, with the aid of insights of advertising scholars and social critics.<BR> As shown in Listerine ads, advertising took the role of religion. Just as church scared sinners, so did the ads Americans having halitosis. Some ad copies were on par with minister"s fire and brimstone sermons. In addition to this, advertising helped newly-made-middle-class Americans to get out of their anxieties. Moreover, advertising provided Americans-especially American women-with freedom from tradition.<BR> Introducing new ways of living to Americans, advertising of the 1920s often affected the structure of their consciousness. Advertising of the years not only created new living standards, but also dug out some part of human desires, which had hardly been expressed because of the puritan tradition.
(0)
(0)