Primary Sources: The 1950s: Business

"The Ad*Access Project, funded by the Duke Endowment Library 2000" Fund, presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University. "

"Thousands of television commercials created or collected by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency, dated 1950s - 1980s."

"The story of Mary Alexander, the first African American model to appear in Coca-Cola advertising. Mrs. Alexander is from Ballplay, Alabama and became a model for Coke in 1955, appearing in Ebony magazine."

"The Avon Digital History Archive provides a unique perspective on the history of the company, its sales representatives, employees, and consumers. The Avon Archive at the Hagley Library encompasses a range of materials such as advertisements, catalogs, representative's sales tools, and corporate documents."

"The Belo Records, 1842-2007 archive includes the business documents and artifacts preserved by the company’s leadership since its establishment in 1842."

"... traces the early history of business education for women at Harvard University from the founding of the one-year certificate program at Radcliffe College in 1937 to the integration of women into Harvard Business School (HBS) by 1970. Illustrating the evolution of this formative period are photographs, interviews, reports, and correspondence from Baker Library Historical Collections at Harvard Business School and from the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute. The telling documents reveal how program directors, faculty, and administrators shaped business education for women at the University, preparing students to take their places in the business world. The pioneering graduates of these programs would go on to help open doors to formerly unattainable opportunities for generations of women who followed."

"Original and preliminary drawings, sketches, storyboards, and trademark specifications for Dr Pepper's Frosty Dog and "Frosty man, frosty!" advertisement campaign, which was in effect from 1956 to the early 1960s. To learn more, see our finding aid."

"Advertisements created by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency for Ford Motor Company’s lines of consumer and commercial vehicles, tractors, auto parts, and dealerships."

"This website contains images of content in the Philip Morris USA Inc. Advertising Archive. These images include print ads, outdoor ads, point-of-sale and direct marketing materials dating back to the early 1900s, including some materials which may not have been published or publicly displayed."

"Nearly 10,000 photographs of billboards and other outdoor advertising, mostly on the Atlantic City Boardwalk from the 1920s to 1950s."

This Sears website provides access to information from the company archive dating back to 1886.

"An archive of 14 million documents created by tobacco companies about their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, scientific research and political activities, hosted by the UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management. "

"In addition to providing the public with an abundance of affordable consumer goods during the 20th century, the service sector of corporate America also began to invade and interfere with the private lives of many of its customers. Not content to advertise in print, radio, and television outlets, corporations and their investigative subsidiaries collected information in order to more efficiently target their products to interested buyers. (With the advent of the Internet, corporate consumer information gathering has grown even more sophisticated.) Just how much of an annoyance this could be to the average consumer was documented in the following article about maternity and baby products in the 1950s, the peak years of the “baby boom.” During this period, the nation’s birthrate rose substantially as economic security became more widespread and Americans on average got married earlier and had healthier children than before. The report described how friends, neighbors, delivery personnel, and laboratory technicians were all suspected of selling the names, addresses, and other vital statistics of prospective parents of “boomers” to marketers. By including men as advertising targets along with women, the author acknowledged a changing role for fathers in the “modern” family." GMU History Matters

"Organized temperance movements have been part of the American political landscape since the early 19th century. Reform groups, dominated at various times by clergy, social elites, workingmen, and clubwomen, tried alternately to convince individuals to take a pledge against drinking alcohol, to promote drinking only in moderation, and to enact laws prohibiting the production and sale of liquor. Prior to the ratification in 1919 of the 18th Amendment banning liquor nationwide, two-thirds of the states had passed similar legislation. After rampant noncompliance with the Amendment led to its repeal in 1933, anti-liquor advocates focused protests against liquor advertising on the radio. While the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority to ban liquor ads, their threats to hold license renewal hearings for offending stations induced broadcasters to self-impose a ban. Similarly, in 1948, the television industry voluntarily decided to restrict alcoholic beverage advertising to beer and wine commercials. Congress, nevertheless, proposed legislation in the 1950s to prohibit all liquor ads from radio, TV, and in interstate commerce. In the following testimony, an attorney for an advertising association argued that a proposed House bill would interfere with the “right to sell,” while a police sergeant and member of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union contended in a Senate hearing that children should be protected from televised liquor ads in their homes. No legislation was enacted, and in November 1996 due to a sharp decrease in sales of hard liquor, the Distilled Spirits Council voted to allow advertising of its products on TV. In December 2001, NBC became the first network since 1948 to broadcast hard liquor ads." GMU History Matters