Hard Sell. Advertising, affluence and transatlantic relations, c1951-69

Notes:

Examines advertising in Britain in the 1950s and 60s and deals in particular with the Americanisation of the industry but 'rejects the idea of the emergence of a common Anglo American advertising culture and argues that American techniques and practices were adapted, hybridised and indigenised when introduced into a British context ... So far from subordinating the British advertising industry, Nixon argues that American commercial and cultural influences should be seen as a valuable resource and stimulus to British advertisers'. Essentially a cultural study but giving significant insight into the industry - 'examines [inter alia] the development of market research, the power of television advertising, the construction of the ideal housewife and the ideal home, and the reaction of consumers to the new television advertising'.