1950s Advertisements (Michelle)

     After the WWII, men return to the work field and replaced the jobs of many women. In the 1950s, the baby booming era existed causing women to be recognized baby giver and housewife materials. So what exactly happened during this era between the status of men and women?

In this era, many advertisements presented women in their ads. Many uses the image of women to sell their products and this also portrayed the status of women in this era as housewives. In this 1951’s Margarine by Sunnybank poster, two women and a little boy were depicted in this image. They were probably two mothers who gathered together to discuss how to use the margarine. If the little boy didn’t exist in this image, we would probably believe that the two women were friends who want to have a reunion and discuss about some recipes. However with the little boy’s existence, the meaning shifts its view from two friend reunion in a family wise meaning. The poster then defines the two women to be baby sitters or mothers of the little boy. The scene of the advertisement encourages the audience to believe that women in this era have only one role which is housewife material.

On the other hand, men had a more important role in this era. Men returned to the workforce and therefore, re- taking over the role of the household. In this 1957’s Kellogg’s advertisement, the producers used men as a figure of an important consumer of this product. Men in this era need all the energy they needed to support a household; therefore, this poster uses a man in a professional suit to convince the housewives to buy this product for their husband. 







Basically, in this 1950s era, the role between men and women barely had any tension. Men were still the main focus in any field whereas women still remained to be housewife materials. Hopefully in the upcoming weeks, we will see some shift of the role between men and women.