Television and American consumerism

Abstract

How did the introduction of mass commercial television in the postwar era change American consumer behavior? Media scholars and U.S. historians claim that TV with its unprecedented advertising appeal drew Americans into a culture of upscaling and purchasing products for social status. I test this prevailing theory using newly digitized nationwide county-level retail sales data from the Census of Business series. I compare growth in retail sales between areas with and without local TV service over the unanticipated Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Freeze, which halted the licensing of new TV stations from 1948–52. I find three results that corroborate TV’s long-attributed role in American consumerism. First, during the Freeze, total retail sales in counties with TV access increased by 3–4% more on average than in counties without access. Second, the effect of TV was concentrated in the automobile sector, which alone accounted for a third of the total difference. Third, TV advertising led to higher growth in sales, but only for durable goods, which neatly aligns with both qualitative reports and theories of conspicuous consumption. Historians also propose that the suburban family life popularized in TV sitcoms became the mainstream representation of the American Dream in the 1950s. Consistent with these accounts, I find that the start of TV access coincides with greater activity in local highway construction and birthrates.