Thomas Frank: Challenging myths about advertising and the counterculture

Myth #1: Counterculture as catastrophe

[R]ebel youth culture remains the cultural mode of the corporate moment, used to promote not only specific products but the general idea of life in the cyber-revolution. Commercial fantasies of rebellion, liberation, and outright "revolution" against the stultifying demands of mass society are commonplace almost to the point of invisibility in advertising, movies, and television programming.

Myth #2: Counterculture as authentic rebellion, later co-opted [T]he revolt of the young against [mainstream culture] was a joyous and even a glorious cultural flowering, though it quickly became mainstream itself. Rick Perlstein: "declension hypothesis" The story ends with the noble idealism of the New Left in ruins and the counterculture sold out to Hollywood and the television networks. The Merry Pranksters and their bus, “Further.”

 Both myths assume that the counterculture was: “a fundamental opponent of the capitalist order” “the appropriate symbol….for the big cultural shifts that transformed the United States” “constituted a radical break or rupture with existing American mores” [A]ll sixties narratives place the stories of the groups that are believed to have been so transgressive and revolutionary at their center; American business culture is thought to have been peripheral, if it's mentioned at all. (Frank, 6)  How does Frank complicate this?

 “cultural changes … identified as ‘counterculture’ began well before 1960”  “the world of business and of middle- class mores—was itself changing during the 1960s” (Frank, 6)

[T]he counterculture, as a mass movement distinct from the bohemias that preceded it, was triggered at least as much by developments in mass culture (particularly the arrival of The Beatles in 1964) as changes at the grass roots. Its heroes were rock stars and rebel celebrities, millionaire performers and employees of the culture industry; its greatest moments occurred on television, on the radio, at rock concerts, and in movies. (Frank, 8)

George Hanson: You know, this used to be a helluva good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it. Billy: Man, everybody got chicken, that's what happened. Hey, we can't even get into like, a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we're gonna cut their throat or somethin'. They're scared, man. George Hanson: They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to 'em. Billy: Hey, man. All we represent to them, man, is somebody who needs a haircut. George Hanson: Oh, no. What you represent to them is freedom. Billy: What the hell is wrong with freedom? That's what it's all about. George Hanson: Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what's it's all about, all right. But talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. I mean, it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace.

Frank vs. Adorno and Horkheimer [T]he prosperity of a consumer society depends not on a rigid control of people's leisure-time behavior, but exactly its opposite: unrestraint in spending, the willingness to enjoy formerly forbidden pleasures, an abandonment of the values of thrift and the suspicion of leisure that characterized an earlier variety of capitalism.... (Frank, 19)

Bill Bernbach  "I warn you against believing that advertising is a science.“  "Rules are what the artist breaks; the memorable never emerged from a formula.“  "Research can trap you into the past.“

Alka Seltzer, “Poached Oysters”

American Tourister, “Gorilla,” 1970

Creativity merges with the Counterculture, 1967

Mass society was now the target of a generalized revolt, but, provided it stayed on its toes and embraced the mass society critique, Madison Avenue could ride the waves of unrest to new heights of prosperity. The counterculture was, ultimately, just a branch of the same revolution that had swept the critical- creative style to prominence and that many believed was demolishing Theory X hierarchy everywhere, from Vietnam to the boardroom. (Frank, 118)

“The Now Generation”  “desire for immediate gratification”  “craving for the new”  “intolerance for the slow-moving, the penurious, the thrifty” (Frank, 121) 1964

1959 ad

1971 Pepsi commercial:“”You‘ve got a lot to live and Pesi’s got a lot to give.” See Frank, 181.

Coca Cola Company, “I’d Like To Buy the World a Coke” 1971

Volkswagon, Volvo, and the Critique of Planned Obsolescence

“Thus did the consumer revolt against mass society, which had begun with the selling of a sturdy car that defied obsolescence, come into its own as a movement of accelerated obsolescence” (Frank, 123)

Advertising feminism 1969

U.S. Car Companies Change Course: The Dodge Rebellion Dodge promotional campaign, 1966 Where Volkswagon and Volvo emphasized authenticity and durability, Detroit stressed escape, excitement, carnival, nonconformity, and individualism. (Frank, 157)

The “Youngmobile” by Oldsmobile, 1968 “Madison Avenue was more interested in speaking like the rebel young than speaking to them.” (Frank, 121)

The Cola Wars

The Peacock Revolution **rapid stylistic change **transgression of established modes (Frank, 204) Two members of British Psychedelic band John's Children are modeling kaftans designed by John Stephen in 1967.

After Six Formals Nehru Jacket Fashion Photo (1968)

Our celebrities are not just glamorous, they are insurrectionaries; our police and soldiers are not just good guys, they break the rules for a higher purpose. And through them and our imagined participation in whatever is the latest permutation of the rebel Pepsi Generation, we have not solved, but we have defused the problems of mass society. Impervious to criticism of any kind, and virtually without historical memory, hip has become what Norman Mailer predictedL the public philosophy in the age of flexible accumulation. (Frank, 233)