New Products for New Consumers
5 of 5
Just like today, advertisements from the thirties did more than simply introduce consumers to products. Advertisements told the reader how a product might make them more sophisticated and more modern. How that product might change their lives. Advertisements also tell us something about the roles men and women were expected to assume during the thirties.
The following selections are from advertising pamphlets found among the papers of Rural Electric Administration director John Carmody at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. The REA, under John Carmody, was committed to assuring that farmers received not only electricity but the appliances that electricity made possible.
The REA also promoted the use and effectiveness of modern electric devices in public relations photographs. These photographs contrast old methods of washing clothes and cooking with modern electrical appliances.