Blog Assignment 9

The "cold war" of 1945 was seen as an ideology war where the communists and the capitalists fought with ideas and design.  It was seen that ideology + design = "the good life".  "The Marshall Plan" was then started by George Marshall who wanted to contain communism through consumerism.  The plan created consumer markets and put out the idea that consumerism: fashion, wealth and mobility was freedom. 

And example of this was after the war where woman were working in factories, the men came back to their jobs, meaning the woman had to go back to the home. They were seen as the consumers therefore lots of marketing came out that put forward the idea of consumer choice.  This marketing was aimed at the woman and featured woman happily surrounded in products.  This was meant to incourage them to buy the goods and make them happy.

Today, this type of marketing still occurs, everywhere.  We are surrounded by advertising, where it be ads on the TV, on the radio, billboards and posters down streets, flyers in the mail, ads in magazines etc.  All this advertising is aimed at specific groups of people, and features them happily wearing/using the products.  It has the same idea that ideology + design = "the good life" and freedom.

The above photo is of a Glassons shop front, a shop for teenagers to young adults.  In the window you see photos of three models wearing Glassons clothes.  They are beautiful, fashionable, content and standing confidently, like they own those clothes.  There is also writing on the window saying "change as often as you like".  All this advertising is aimed at young adults and teenagers as they often care a lot about how they look, they like to be in fashion and have plenty of clothes and variety so they can "change as often as [they] like".  It's meant to pull this user group in and make them want to buy the clothes so they too can be fashionable, beautiful, content, have consumer choice and "the good life".