Advertising: Mass Media: Television

The two decades following World War II saw the biggest dislocation in living patterns since the end of the previous century, especially among the primary advertising audience: the white middle class. The new suburban lifestyle transformed not only the landscape but also shopping patterns, ways of eating, and even socializing rituals. The new jumbo-sized supermarkets required bigger, bolder packaging and eye-catching displays. The car culture created a demand for fast food and, in part because of the mobility that it made possible, a desire for predictable, standardized products from coast to coast. Perhaps more subtle was the effect on the women who moved to the Levittowns and Villa Serenas of the time. While her husband commuted to work, the model fifties housewife was left home alone to prepare meals with foods and devices undreamed-of by her mother, often insecure about her cooking skills and isolated from the traditional community she had grown up in. It is no wonder that Tupperware parties—where the plastic containers were marketed and sold—were such a popular form of social mingling.