Hard Sell: Advertising, Affluence and Transatlantic Relations, c. 1951-69

Hardback

Main Details

Title Hard Sell: Advertising, Affluence and Transatlantic Relations, c. 1951-69
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Sean Nixon
SeriesStudies in Popular Culture
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:240
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 156
Category/GenreAdvertising
ISBN/Barcode 9780719085376
ClassificationsDewey:302.2345
Audience
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Illustrations Illustrations, black & white

Publishing Details

Publisher Manchester University Press
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publication Date 30 May 2013
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

'This is an impressive piece of sustained research that brings much to the field. It offers real depth in rethinking the post-war boom and there can be little doubt that this will have a real impact across modern British history, consumer history and cultural studies.' Jeremy Black, Professor of History, University of Exeter Focusing on advertising's relationship to the mass market housewife, Hard sell shows how advertising promoted new standards of material comfort in the selling of a range of everyday consumer goods and, in the process, generalised a cross-class image of the 'modern housewife' across the new medium of television. Nixon shows how the practices through which advertising understood and represented the 'modern housewife' and domestic consumption were influenced by American advertising and commercial culture. In doing so, he challenges the way critics and historians have often understood Anglo-American relations, and shows how American influences across a range of areas of advertising practice were not only a source of inspiration, but were also adapted and reworked to speak more effectively to the British consumer. Hard sell offers a major new analysis of the techniques of advertising in the decades of post-war affluence and advertising's relationship to the social changes associated with growing prosperity. -- .

Author Biography

Sean Nixon is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Essex -- .

Reviews

This is an impressive piece of sustained research that brings much to the field. It offers real depth in rethinking the post-war boom and there can be little doubt that this will have a real impact across modern British history, consumer history and cultural studies. 'Nixon's Hard Sell is a valuable addition to the field of advertising history that brings a much-needed transatlantic analysis to the fore.' Stephanie American, H-Diplo, October 2016 -- .