CULTURE
LIFE (circa 1950):
PART II: The Ads
By Scott Jacobs
When I was born, Ipana was the hottest selling
toothpaste in America.
It not only cleaned your teeth but cleaned your gums, thus keeping your “whole
mouth wholesome,” a very appealing idea back in The Fifties.
Wholesomeness,
in fact, was sort of the operative word for the decade. Whether you were buying
a Lane Cedar Hope Chest “for your daughter’s dearest possessions”
or a smart looking Lo-Bel gabardine jacket "for your junior Beau Brummel,"
or just trying to get a beer “in this America of kindliness, of friendship,
of good-humored tolerance,” LIFE’s presenters of these fine products
were universally well-scrubbed, happy and white Americans, wholesomeness personified.
If you were leafing through LIFE magazine on March 27, 1950, you would also no doubt be salivating over the enticing ads for such new appliances as vacuum cleaners, GE electric washers and, wonder of wonder, television.
The new Hoover Aero-Dyne vacuum cleaner was the first to bring suction-power cleaning to average American homes and the budding General Electric Company, already established as a major player in light bulbs and radios, was branching out to offer such household appliances as refrigerators, ranges and washer-dryers.
Within a year, GE would open a new Appliance Park on a 1,000-acre site outside Louisville, Kentucky to keep up with the demand. At its peak, Appliance Park would employ 25,000 people. Today, it is a sliver of its former self. Only 3,000 people there are left in the manufacturing division. The appliances, and the jobs, have been out-sourced to Mexico. But we are buying more of them than ever.
When Appliance Park was planned, television was
a fuzzy part of the equation. Most major cities in 1950 had at least one television
station transmitter. In Chicago, we had four: WBKB, WENR, WGN and WNBQ. But
nationwide,
there were only 3 million TV receivers in American homes. Each decoded transmissions
differently and depended on unreliable rooftop antennas, some of which looked
like Rube Goldberg inventions. It was not until September 1950 that the first
coast-to-coast TV network was launched, and 1954 before the FCC would begin
setting uniform broadcast standards.
GE’s offering at the time was the amazing BLACK-DAYLIGHT television featuring a built-in antenna and “Automatic Sound – just tune picture, sound is right every time!” Those who bought a TV set found they were instantly popular in the neighborhood. The average set was watched every night by 3.47 people for an average of 17 hours a week (versus an America today that watches an average eight hours a day on 300 million TV sets.)
Ironically, the appliance business that sustained GE through The Fifties is now the smallest division in the company. After trading in "we bring good things to life" for the current "imagination at work" slogan, the company is still ranked 6th in the Fortune 500 and a major player in entertainment (NBC Universal), plastics, aerospace and medical imaging. Over 50% of its revenues today comes from its financial services division, which specializes in lending America money to finance our obsession with buying stuff.
GE is not the only company to establish its brand
in The Fifties, then expand into other markets. In 1950, the Harley-Davidson
Motor Company of 
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, was a minor advertiser in LIFE. But it had an important message:
buy a motorcycle so you can “ride the fun way and save!”
“Here’s your modern, motorized way to go places . . . at amazingly low cost! Smart looking, comfortable, safe. So easy to ride, you can learn in a few minutes. So economical you get 90 miles and more per gallon,” the ad copy reads. “Ends riding in crowded buses and trolleys. Saves your car. Eliminates parking problems. Gives you quick, dependable transportation anywhere you want to go . . . to business, factory, school, sports events, outings. Thousands being ridden by men, women, boys and girls. It’s transportation in tune with the times, the fun way to get around.”
Although not an ad per se, we shouldn’t leave the world of LIFE advertising in The Fifties without mentioning a little bug that appears in the corner of many: The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
The
Good Housekeeping seal was handed out by the Good Housekeeping Institute in
New York as a sign that a product had been thoroughly tested in its lab. If
a customer found the advertising claims were unfounded or the product was
defective, the seal guaranteed he or she could get their money back.
Good Housekeeping editors established the institute in 1900 to certify advertising in their own publication, but its popularity soon spread to use in other magazines. Because of its commitment to improving consumer products, the institute pushed legislation in 1906 establishing the Federal Drug Administration and again in 1952, urging a ban on cigarette advertising in magazines.
The magazine and the institute live on today, conducting tests on over 2,000 products annually. But fewer and fewer advertisers pursue the once proud seal.
Wholesome just ain’t what it used to be.
