Marketing Social Class and Ideology in Post-World-War-Two American Print Advertising

Abstract

American beliefs about social class are not always accurate. Up to half of Americans claim to belong to the middle class, and many believe in an egalitarian society where social mobility is possible. These misperceptions have been attributed, in part, to the mass media. This work sets out to explore whether images of and messages about social class in advertising may contribute to such misperceptions. The class structure pictured in advertising is examined using a large representative sample of American print advertising from 1950 to 2015. First, a content analysis is used to identify what images of social class are depicted in advertising and in what proportion. Then, a qualitative approach is taken to identify what messages those images convey. Findings are presented for each social class. Together the findings suggest that advertising blurs the lines between social classes and diffuses the potential for class conflict. Importantly, this work also notes that advertising representations of the lower and working class are markedly positive, differing from other forms of mass media in important ways. This work calls for increased attention to social class in the marketing literature and is a crucial step in considering the societal effects of marketing messages.