The+New+Consumerism

The New Consumerism     media type="file" key="The New Consumerism 1.mp3"

 In 1910, the tremendous power of Niagara Falls was first used to create hydroelectricity in Ontario. By the mid-1920s, electricity was transforming the way people lived - at least in urban areas. Families with steady incomes (or a good credit rating) could afford to buy new labour-saving appliances. Natural gas or electric stoves were advertised, along with electric toasters, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and washing machines.

1. If you don't have a refrigerator, how would that effect your shopping and eating? 2. With all of these labour saving devices, how would life have changed for women in the 1920's? What did they have MORE of?

 Popular home entertainment equipment in the 1920s included radios and phonographs (record players). This simple audio equipment was quite expensive at the time. For example, a basic electric radio cost more than 50 dollars, at least two weeks' wages for most people? During the 1920s, many people went deep into debt to own consumer products.

3. Research 3 ways that people would entertain themselves before radio and phonographs. Do we still do some of those things? Why or why not?

 Cheap electricity also helped automobile manufacturing expand in Canada. Owning a car in the 20s was a real status symbol. By 1926, cost-saving assembly-line production methods had lowered the price of a basic Ford or Chevrolet to less than $400. This meant that car ownership was within reach for about half of all Canadian families. The automobile made it easier for farmers to get into town, and allowed workers to commute from any part of the city. People began traveling by car for vacations, leading to the growth of summer cottages and camping parks in scenic locations. Cars from the 1920's looked like something between a carriage that would be pulled by a horse and a modern car.

4. How would people have traveled before the automobile was invented? How would this difference in travel have made life different from the way it is today?

It wasn't just electricity that brought on this new consumerism. As we discussed earlier, advertisers had begun to use many of the same techniques used in propaganda during World War 1. Before World War 1 ads were aimed at just explaining products and describing their quality. In the 1920's advertisers began to make ads that made you feel a certain way. They tied their products with the image of positive things in life. Buy this car if you want to be successful. Purchase this perfume if you'd like to be pretty. This accelerated the consumerism brought on by electricity and the new products it helped create.

5. Try and find a historical ad or a reference to one. Did it use more modern techniques of advertising or the older style? How can you tell?