Images of Ourselves: The Good Life in Twentieth Century Advertising

Using a longitudinal content analysis of advertisements appearing in popular U.S. magazines between 1900 and 1980, we assess the image of life depicted during this period. While little evidence is found to support some critics ' contention that advertising has visually portrayed a progressively more luxurious and comfortable lifestyle, the themes employed in advertising do lend support to such an assertion. In addition, there is evidence that recent advertising has increasingly portrayed consumption as an end in itself rather than as a means to consumer well-being. I n 1887, Edward Bellamy wrote a highly popular utopian novel in which the central character, Julian West, slept for 113 years and awoke in Boston in the year 2000. West found that people in the future worked until age 45 and then retired to further enjoy "a time for the leisurely and unperturbed appreciation of the good things of the world which they have helped to create " (Bellamy 1926, p. 196). Bellamy's