Creating Consumers in the 1930s: Irna Phillips and the Radio Soap Opera

Marilyn Lavin

Journal of Consumer Research, 1995, vol. 22, issue 1, 75-89

Abstract: The 1930s marked an important stage in the evolution of a mass consumer society in the United States. The current article examines the roles that Irna Phillips and the early radio soap opera played in that process. Through the daytime serial, Phillips developed a program format that appealed to American housewives, who were the likely purchasers of most household products. She adjusted story lines to meet the selling needs of her sponsors; she used soap opera characters as effective product spokespersons; and she designed program promotions to stimulate product sales. However, at the same time that her programs sold products contributing to social change, they also reinforced traditional expectations about the roles of women as housewives and mothers. Copyright 1995 by the University of Chicago.

Date: 1995
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/209436 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:22:y:1995:i:1:p:75-89

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Consumer Research is currently edited by Bernd Schmitt, June Cotte, Markus Giesler, Andrew Stephen and Stacy Wood

More articles in Journal of Consumer Research from Journal of Consumer Research Inc.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().