Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - The Happy Homemaker: How Advertising Invented The Housewife - Part 1

Episode Date: July 8, 2023

This week, we look at how Madison Avenue invented… the housewife. Over 100 years ago, the advertising industry realized they had thousands of household products to sell. All they needed was a customer. So they invented the Happy Homemaker, and for the next 25 years, encouraged women to be stay-at-home moms. That strategy created the biggest business in the world: Housekeeping.The rest is advertising history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling.

Subscribe now, and don't miss a single beat. Due to popular demand, we've dug very, very deep into our archives and are pleased to announce the re-release of episodes from the last season of The Age of Persuasion. And we've remastered them to fit our Under the Influence format. And by the way, this particular two-part episode won the grand award as the best radio program worldwide at the 2011 New York Radio Festivals. This is an apostrophe podcast production. You're so king in it. Your teeth look whiter than no nose.

You're not you when you're hungry. You're a good hands with our seats You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly Today, a new moon is in the sky, a 23-inch metal sphere placed in orbit by a Russian rocket. October 4th, 1957, was a historic day. The Russians launched the first man-made object into space. It was called Sputnik. That very day, another historic first was launched. It was called Beaver.

Leave it to Beaver. Starring Barbara Billingsley, Hugh Beaumont, Tony Dow, and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver. Leave It to Beaver was created by Bob Mosher and Joe Connolly. They were ad men who had met while working together at the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency. The show was about a fictional suburban family called the Cleavers. The principal setting was the Cleaver household.

Surrounded by a white picket fence, it was a pleasant two-story suburban home. The series revolved around the hijinks of one Theodore Beaver Cleaver and his brother Wally. Their parents were Ward and June Cleaver. Ward was played by Hugh Beaumont, who was a Methodist lay minister in real life,

and June was portrayed by actress Barbara Billingsley. Even though Leave It to Beaver never once cracked the Nielsen Top 30, it was a landmark show that came to define a white middle-class suburban life in the late 1950s. While Ward Cleaver's middle-class job

was never clearly explained, June's job was very well defined. She was a stay-at-home mom who provided a loving, nurturing home. She was a housewife who did laundry, packed lunches, shopped, took care of the house, always had dinner waiting for Ward when he came home,

and she did it all while impeccably dressed in pearls and heels. June Cleaver was the wife every man wished for and the mother every kid wanted. More importantly, she was the mom every mom wanted to be. As a result, she put a lot of pressure on women. But that pressure didn't originate with June Cleaver at 485 Mapleton Avenue. It originated on another street

called Madison Avenue. The image of the happy housewife has a point of origin, and you may be surprised to learn it predates Leave it to Beaver by almost 50 years. Put on your pearls and heels and come with me as we carbon date June Cleaver to find the origin of the species known as the housewife. It's a journey that goes back to a time when the advertising industry had its biggest epiphany and realized that its most desirable customer

was the lady of the house. You're under the influence. In 1929, the advertising periodical Printers Inc. magazine wrote, The proper study of mankind is man, but the proper study of markets is woman. No truer words were ever written. The story of women becoming the major market and target of Madison Avenue is a fascinating one. And believe it or not, it begins with the Civil War. Life in North America was decidedly rural in the 1800s. But starting in 1830, massive improvements in rail transportation and manufacturing brought costs down and turned the country into a unified national market.

The Civil War, beginning in 1861, was not only a defining chapter in the history of the United States, but it also had an enormous impact on modern marketing, although rarely credited as such. As we often say on this show, many innovations happen in times of war. The Civil War was no exception. The armies had to be fed, healed, and clothed, which in turn required ingenuity. The resulting innovations introduced a generation to brand new products like bakery bread, ready-made clothing, medicinal remedies and canned goods.

And the technology that accompanied those breakthroughs, like can openers. But another change was also afoot, the public's demand for war news. So insatiable was that demand, it became the catalyst for mass communications. Newspapers opened up offices all over the country, relaying news from the battle lines to a concerned public. It was those newspapers that gradually converted millions of people

to daily reading habits, a seismic change that would open the door to printed advertising. And it wasn't long before publishers realized that retailers would pay a lot to advertise to their audiences. When the last Civil War shot was fired in 1865, over 620,000 soldiers were dead. By far, and to this day, it was the costliest battle America has ever fought.

Picking itself up from that historic confrontation, America began an amazing rebuilding process. As low-cost mass production ramped up in cities, people moved from the country to find gainful employment. As a result, they were no longer self-sufficient. They weren't growing crops or raising animals anymore. The move to the city made them reliant on manufactured goods. Many advertising agencies opened their doors at that time, like N.W. Ayer in 1869, as well as both J. Walter Thompson and Lord & Thomas in 1871. As the advertising industry began to research its customers,

it became apparent very early that one market in particular offered limitless opportunity. That market was female. As North American families began to consume more and more mass-produced goods, it was the woman in the family who began to do the majority of the shopping. She not only bought food, household goods, clothes, beauty aids and furnishings, but also huge volumes of clothes, accessories, toiletries and luxury goods for husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. And what she did not purchase, she heavily influenced.

At that time, print was the dominant medium. Ladies' Home Journal, for instance, which actually predated the Civil War, established a format for women that is still followed by magazines today. It offered a fascinating mix of decorating tips, recipes, needlework patterns, fiction, and plenty of romance. By 1903, it became the first American magazine to reach one million in circulation. Women came to use these magazines as trade publications

to learn more about their job of running a household. They looked to articles for advice, opinions, information on child care, medicine, beauty, home care, cooking, finances, health, nutrition, and relationships. The magazines may have looked like fluff from the outside, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Magazines have had an overwhelming effect on the life of women. Advertising agencies understood this better than anyone,

and they poured millions of dollars worth of ads alongside the helpful editorial. As we mentioned in our Mad Women episode, one agency in particular saw the potential of women as a major market. That firm was J. Walter Thompson. While it was run by Stanley Reeser, the creative department was run by his wife, Helen Lansdowne Reeser. Both knew instinctively that women were the major purchasers, and their research pointed

to housekeeping as the greatest leverage point of all. So, in the 1920s, Helen Reeser assembled a creative department populated entirely by women. She supervised the work using market research, psychology, insights, and plain old woman's intuition. As Helen stated, she simply added the feminine point of view. In no time, her department was handling over 75% of J. Walter Thompson's entire billings. That's important to note because J. Walter Thompson was the largest ad agency in North America. Their roster of clients included most of the top brands aimed at women, so their influence was substantial. Over the next 40 years, J. Walter Thompson did more to shape the image of the female consumer than any other organization.

Helen Reeser's department used their own femininity to understand the female buying public and shape the imagery that would influence women for decades to come. For example, they believed that one fantasy women held was the desire for a man's complete attention and adoration. So, sex appeal and romance would feature heavily in their work. It led Reeser to use sex for the first time in advertising for a client called Woodbury's Facial Soap. The groundbreaking print ad showed a man

nuzzling a woman's neck. Reeser was also the first to use nudity in advertising. As their clients launched more and more new products, J. Walter Thompson helped introduce them to women. One example was Orderono deodorant. Prior to this product, women thought deodorant was unnecessary and used unpleasant rubberized dress shields instead. But the ads warned that the personal handicap of excessive perspiration could affect job, romance, and marriage possibilities. It was the first time social disgrace was used as a strategy.

It doubled the product sales. Laundry soap Lux Lux Flakes moved from using celebrity endorsements to suggesting that women prevent undie odor. Lux dish soap warned of dish pan hands. Industry research

into the female mind revealed an even deeper well of insights that women harbored another set of unexpressed and unrecognized wants. These inarticulate longings embraced women's innermost hopes, fears, desires, and dreams.

Employing that knowledge led to emotional pitches that were much more powerful than logic or messages of practicality. Yet, emotion could be used to sell practical appliances by fueling a woman's desire to provide a well-tended home. By the 1930s, two-thirds of American homes had electricity.

But the public had to be convinced that electricity could be used for more than just lights. Manufacturers were beginning to produce appliances like washing machines, electric irons, gas ranges, and vacuums. And women had to be taught how to use them in order to create a demand. The need to wash, scrub, dust, and polish every week generated a whole industry of household products that included soaps, detergents, waxes, and polishes. So, in order to generate a market for all these products, the advertising industry did something that changed marketing for all time. It created the stereotype of the happy homemaker. The imagery of the happy homemaker was carefully chosen.

It showed women in domestic housekeeping roles with big smiles and frilly aprons, using the most up-to-date appliances and products to keep a spotless home. It would become the dominant female image from the 1920s through to the 1950s. That image of the happy homemaker, created by Madison Avenue, had one major goal, to confine women to the home. Homemaking was beginning to provide a motherload of revenue for advertisers, and they needed women to aspire to be a housewife. The Betty Crocker Service Program, a regular feature of General Mills. March on together, sharing every fire and tea.

In the 1920s, radio began targeting women shoppers, and by 1938, it would overtake print as the most influential medium. Betty Crocker hosted the country's first radio cooking show called Betty Crocker's School of the Air. So here she is, your Betty Crocker. Hello everybody, I'm going to tell you a story today, a real story of love and more time. The key to attracting large audiences was to develop a strong personal bond

between the audience, the actors, and the sponsors. In the early days, evening radio attracted sponsors easily, but daytime was a hard sell because many believed homemakers were too busy to listen. Household tips and recipes weren't enough to attract a female audience, so another solution was required. Enter the soap opera. The soap opera was a female genre in a male-dominated broadcast world, and it opened up unprecedented job opportunities

for women in broadcasting. Brought to you by the makers of P&G Soap. The white half of soap. They started producing radio programs for female audiences and pulled storylines from their own lives and aspirations. Many earned from $6,500 a year to over $26,000. A remarkable salary, considering the average doctor at that time only earned $5,000 annually. The practice of product placement was pioneered in soap operas.

Actors and characters were positioned as radio friends, and loyal female listeners purchased the products their favorite characters promoted. Radio soap operas had a big influence in shaping lifestyles and reinforcing stereotypes, urging women to consume and identify themselves primarily as housewives. That was an imperative strategy, because housekeeping products were becoming the most profitable business in the world. So, storylines repeatedly affirmed the importance of homemaking tasks. But marketing to women was about to go into overdrive. General Eisenhower informs me that the forces of Germany have surrendered to the United Nations. The flags of freedom fly

all over Europe. When the U.S. emerged from the Second World War, it wasn't just as a victor, it was as a global superpower. That new status led to a huge period of growth and progress. North Americans clamored for the material goods they had denied themselves during the Depression and the war. Manufacturers, now freed from the war effort, were now able to produce those products, and Madison Avenue was ready to create the desire. Modern kitchens, TVs, and big chromed automobiles symbolized the hope and possibilities of the post-war era.

The number of marriages soaredared and the baby boom began, and growing urban populations created a massive demand for homes. Today, March of Time is in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where a city is being formed. The prospective homeowners come from various sections of the United States. Each will be a part of a unique community being built today on what were spinach fields just a few weeks ago. When Levittown is completed as planned, it will be a city of 60,000 people. In 1947, developer William J. Levitt built the first suburbia in Long Island and called it Levittown. The home sold for between $7,000 and $8,000, with monthly payments as affordable as $57, low even by 1947 standards.

Levitt moved the kitchen from the back of the house to the front based on his philosophy that the kitchen would serve as the domestic control center. Kitchens were now designed around appliances, not the other way around. Suburbia gave the working class a chance of home ownership for the first time.

The generation which is being raised in this scientifically planned community is taking this new way of life in its stride. For Levittown, Pennsylvania is a prototype of a new kind of 20th century American living. Television shows like Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, and Leave It to Beaver also reinforced the stereotypes of confident dads, well-scrubbed children, and perky stay-at-home moms.

And commercials in those programs continued to dial up the pressure on those housewives. Harvey, want anything special for your birthday? Just a decent cup of coffee. You're kidding. I'm serious. Honey, your coffee's undrinkable. It's pretty harsh. Well, so's your coffee.

You know, the girls down at the office make better coffee on their hot plates. Living in suburbia also meant commuting, causing husbands to be away for long periods of time, leaving women at home to look after the family. Because the suburbs were so new, there was no transit available, hence the popularity of the station wagon. No matter what your need, there is a station wagon of the forward look to fill it. Two-door and four-door models, lots of color and color combinations, all so useful, all so good-looking. Wouldn't you like to see one of these station wagons parked in front of your house?

As with the Civil War, innovations from World War II made their way to female consumers. Nylon from parachutes replaced costly silk stockings. Aerosol bug bombs from the South Pacific became furniture polish, cheese, whipped cream, hairspray, perfume, and deodorant. Well, there must be a girl somewhere who thinks it's a wonderful career just to have a home and babies.

His only thought is to make her husband happy. Motivational research hit a high watermark in the 1950s. In particular, researchers mined the difference between the sexes, looking for gender-specific behavioral clues. For example, even men's socks were found to be invested with emotional significance. Researchers of the 50s stated that when a man finds an empty sock drawer, he interprets it as a symbol of an empty heart or wife's neglect. But an overflowing sock drawer was visible evidence of his wife's consideration, concern, and love. You may laugh at that finding, but research like this put even more pressure on housewives

to make sure their homes were overflowing with care. And socks. Instant cake mixes found their way into kitchens. While instant mixes saved time, the food industry encouraged women to add frosting with big, sumptuous swirls, so women still felt part of the baking process. I'm Betty Crocker, and I promise you a perfect cake every time you bake. That's right, perfect. You be the judge. Or write General Mills, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and get your money back. You may see this as a small marketing strategy to get women invested in baking products, but think back to that era.

The huge frosted cake became one of the dominant images of advertising in the 1950s, becoming the predominant symbol of the happy homemaker. In the mid-50s, another sizable change in marketing was about to occur. The wholesome image of the kitchen-dwelling homemaker was about to undergo some urban renewal. In 1953, Alfred Kinsey published his groundbreaking research titled Sexual Behavior in the Human Female Hello, I'm Dr. Alfred Kinsey from Indiana University And I'm making a study of sex behavior

What's your most common decision? There's more than one I've learned that the gap between what we assume people do sexually and what they actually do is enormous. Picking up what J. Walter Thompson had started, sexuality in advertising soared. Fashion suddenly featured strapless dresses, plunging necklines, and bare midriffs. Bra and girdle ads became bolder. Maidenform launched a famous campaign of print ads that showed women clad only in girdles. It raised eyebrows and further lowered the bar of tolerance

in the conservative 1950s. Even cosmetics became sexual. All in all, it was an attitude that was quite a few neighborhoods away from June Cleaver. And it was about to usher in the sexual freedom of the 1960s. The image of the happy homemaker has been with us for decades now. And while it has morphed and changed throughout the years, women are still the ones charged with taking care of most households.

And for that, they are advertising's most desirable targets. But isn't it interesting that women as a market were not shaped by supply and demand, but by advertising men and women who understood the female market could be developed. The J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency spotted that opportunity and led the way. And I'm sure it's no coincidence that Leave It to Beaver, a landmark TV show that glamorized the stay-at-home mom,

was created by two ex-J. Walter Thompson executives who produced a program that advertisers could leverage. Because to succeed, marketers needed housewives, and housewives needed to be created. Equally interesting is the fact the stereotyping of women was not an all-male development. While it's absolutely true that ad men would control most of Madison Avenue's output,

history does reveal that some of the most lasting homemaker images were, in fact, created by women for women. We end this episode in the late 1950s, and next week, in part two,

we'll pick up the story in the turbulent 60s. Yet, no matter how much everything was about to change, one thing remained. It was still the lady of the house that advertising coveted. When you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly.

Sound Engineer, Jeff Devine. Under the influence theme by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Tunes provided by APM Music. Follow me on social at Terry O Influence. If you like this episode, you might also like our sister podcast titled We Regret to Inform You, the Rejection Podcast. It tells stories of people who overcome massive career rejection and succeed by never giving up.

You'll find it wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the new Apostrophe YouTube channel. And if you think there are too many ads in a show about advertising, making you an unhappy homemaker, you can now listen to our podcasts ad-free on Amazon Music.

See you next time for part two of The Happy Homemaker. Fun fact! While Betty Crocker was known for moist cake mixes, the first Betty Crocker product was actually packaged soup. Way back in 1941. That's right.

She went from dried to moist.