The 1950s could be called the advertiser's dream decade. World War II was over. The postwar economy had rebounded. Prosperity seemed like a sure thing. Americans were ready to buy homes, cars, clothes and products to validate their leisurely lifestyles. And advertisers were eager to sell goods. This time they had a more powerful tool than print ads: television. Advertising boomed in the 1950s because of America's culture at the time and TV's massive reach. Consumer consumption peaked at a historically high level. The end of World War II signaled the end of a thrift-based consciousness that Americans had held since the Great Depression. Goods, no longer as scarce as they were during the war, flowed into the marketplace. Credit was easy. Purchases could be made on "time." And advertisers were relentlessly urging consumers to "buy, buy, buy," writes Young. Consumers felt closer to the American Dream than in the previous decades.
Advertisers saw a potential gold mine when TV debuted in 1941. Television had sound and movement. Print ads, by contrast, were two-dimensional and static. Advertisers began a slow trek to TV by the early 1950s. A major drawback was the advertising cost; sponsors were spending between $10,000 to $20,000 for 1-minute spots – 10 times more than for radio ads, according to William H. Young in his book "The 1950s"
