Cars, Homes, Sterling Silver and Mink Coats

Suburban families in the late 50s and early 60s had many shopping choices.

My family began as a one-car family, then added a second car for mom’s family travel needs (it also gave her a sense of independence), and then a third and fourth car for teenaged boys.


Detroit built in obsolescence by aggressive changing of styles and features.

The 1956 Chevrolet was a great car.

But the 1957 was even better.

Ten years later, the car culture determined that the 1957 Chevrolet was the classic of the 50s, as consumers reflexively re-rated the cultural messages of American industry and Madison Avenue.

Homes are identity commodities not unlike cars, and many of our suburban families saw the need to upgrade housing. My suburban neighborhoods in Dallas were extremely homogenous in their WASP, middle class make-up, but each succeeding housing development made new distinctions in possibilities of class and taste identities for families. Some stayed in place like my family, but many moved up.

While homes and cars are today as important to consumers as they were fifty years ago, two consumer items sought by many suburban families (including my mom) then stand in sharp relief—sterling silver flatware and mink coats. As baby boomers inherit the belongings of their dying parents, eBay is filled with these quaint status symbols, available at bargain basement prices.

Manufacturers of flatware in the forties and fifties used all the motivational research available from depth psychologists to market their wares.

Betty Friedan, “The Sexual Sell,” The Feminine Mystique

The fact that the young bride now seeks in her marriage com­plete "fulfillment," that she now expects to "prove her own worth" and find all the "fundamental meanings" of life in her home, and to participate through her home in "the interesting ideas of the modern era, the future" has enormous "practical applications," advertisers were told. For all these meanings she seeks in her marriage, even her fear that she will be "left behind," can be channeled into the purchase of products. For example, a manufacturer of sterling silver, a product that is very difficult to sell, was told:
Reassure her that only with sterling can she be fully secure in her new role . . . it symbolizes her success as a modern woman. Above all, dramatize the fun and pride that derive from the job of cleaning silver. Stimulate the pride of achievement. "How much pride you get from the brief task that's so much fun . . ."
Concentrate on the very young teenage girls, this report further advised. The young ones will want what "the others" want, even if their mothers don't. ("As one of our teenagers said: `All the gang has started their own sets of sterling. We're real keen about it--compare patterns and go through the ads together. My own family never had any sterling and they think I'm showing off when I spend my money on it they think plated's just as good. But the kids think they're way off base.'") Get them in schools, churches, sororities, social clubs; get them through home-eco­nomics teachers, group leaders, teenage TV programs and teen­age advertising. "This is the big market of the future and word-­of-mouth advertising, along with group pressure, is not only the most potent influence but in the absence of tradition, a most necessary one."
As for the more independent older wife, that unfortunate tend­ency to use materials that require little care--stainless steel, plastic dishes, paper napkins--can be met by making her feel guilty about the effects on the children. ("As one young wife told us: `I'm out of the house all day long, so I can't prepare and serve meals the way I want to. I don't like it that way--my husband and the children deserve a better break. Sometimes I think it'd be better if we tried to get along on one salary and have a real home life but there are always so many things we need."') Such guilt, the report maintained, can be used to make her see the product, silver, as a means of holding the family together; it gives "added psychological value." What's more, the product can even fill the housewife's need for identity: "Suggest that it becomes truly part of you, reflecting you. Do not be afraid to suggest mystically that sterling will adapt itself to any house and any person."


Betty Friedan, “The Sexual Sell,” The Feminine Mystique

The fur industry is in trouble, another survey reported, be­cause young high school and college girls equate fur coats with "uselessness" and "a kept woman." Again the advice was to get to the very young before these unfortunate connotations have formed. ("By introducing youngsters to positive fur experiences, the probabilities of easing their way into garment purchasing in their teens is enhanced.") Point out that "the wearing of a fur garment actually establishes femininity and sexuality for a woman." ("It's the kind of thing a girl looks forward to. It means something. It's feminine." "I'm bringing my daughter up right. She always wants to put on `mommy's coat.' She'll want them. She's a real girl.") But keep in mind that "mink has con­tributed a negative feminine symbolism to the whole fur market. "Unfortunately, two out of three women felt mink-wearers were "predatory . . . exploitative . . . dependent . . . socially non­productive . . ."
Femininity today cannot be so explicitly predatory, exploita­tive, the report said; nor can it have the old high-fashion "con­notations of stand-out-from-the-crowd, self-centeredness." And so fur's "ego-orientation" must be reduced and replaced with the new femininity of the housewife, for whom ego-orientation must be translated into togetherness, family-orientation.
Begin to create the feeling that fur is a necessity--a delightful neces­sity . . . thus providing the consumer with moral permission to pur­chase something she now feels is ego-oriented. . . . Give fur femin­inity a broader character, developing some of the following status and prestige symbols . . . an emotionally happy woman . . . wife and mother who wins the affection and respect of her husband and her children because of the kind of person she is, and the kind of role she performs. . . .
Place furs in a family setting; show the pleasure and admiration of a fur garment derived by family members, husband and children; their pride in their mother's appearance, in her ownership of a fur garment. Develop fur garments as "family" gifts--enable the whole family to enjoy that garment at Christmas, etc., thus reducing its ego ­orientation for the owner and eliminating her guilt over her alleged self-indulgence.