American History

All of the announcements are a reflection of the social events, of ideas, values and lifestyle. Analyzes of the announcements provides researchers with the needed information and helps better understanding of the worldview of the society. These announcements, that were proposed, were made during the period of Cold War and Space Racing – a scientific competition in conquest of the space between the USSR and the USA. Thus, they reflect the whole spectrum of the social views, the hopes and dreams of the generations’ of50s-70s.

The whole nature of these announcements are filled with spirit of the period from 50-s to 70-s, the era of the fiction, of peace and war. If the 1950s were a period of political conservatism, the 1960s were a period of liberalization of US and the whole world. After coming to power of President Johnson, he eliminated racial segregation, provided with the civil rights of people of color, expanded public welfare programs and education at all levels. This was the period of the new vision of economic and social justice, anti-communist in their political nature. In the 1960s, many young people openly opposed the social norms and conservatism of the older generation, they were standing against the Vietnam War and the Cold War in general. The success of the Sexual Revolution and the Civil Rights movement brought to life such organizations as feminism and environmentalism. The protest youth fashion appeared in the form of long hairstyle and rock music. The mainstream has joined the hippie culture, with its deliberate love to peace, universal love and freedom. Distributed by the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and marijuana, psychedelic and folk rock as a cultural phenomenon. As a result, of such an impact of drugs and subcultures on the society, there have appeared a modern vision of the art. It was based on idea of expression of the own filling in the form, which is most comfortable for authors. It was an era of the changing of society. The changes were not just in the social activity or fashion. It was in the human minds.

It should be mentioned that on the first announcement, there is a painting of the astronaut. His image is used as an image of celebrity and such a use is connected with the history of the heroes of the second half of XX century. First, it should be mentioned that exactly the 50s-70s were named as a Silver Age of the comics industry. In the 30s American comics acquires variety of genres. Under the influence of cinema emerged adventure comics with completely realistic pictures. Gained popularity the "secular" comics that plays up the attributes of a life of luxury high society, as well as the comic-melodrama. However, the main characters of the gold generation of comic books were displayed in a series of heroes, endowed with "superhuman" features - Captain America, Flash Gordon, Superman and Batman. Different spheres of social life were markedly influenced by the ideology and social policy of the USA at that time. There were Disney cartoons about space travel and the revival of the comic book series "Captain America" , who was the favorite US character during World War II, and whose popularity has decreased when the war ended, and it ceased to be used by 1950 years, with the exception of the failed attempt of revival in 1953. This character became re-used in the comics at the Silver Age of comic books when he became a member of the superhero team, called the Avengers.

The interest in superheroes began to subside as they have fulfilled their function setting an example for whole nation. There was even a conflict with comics industry as they have a lot of violence, eroticism and horror. In the 60s it becomes clear that the main comic book reader is a teenager. As a result, comics focused on the teenagers values appears. Therefore, the set of comics about Spider-Man appears. This character goes to school, has a problem with his girlfriend, and is full of other difficulties and misfortunes, which is relevant to teenagers inner world. If the golden age of comics was during the publishing DC heroes, then the Silver Age - is for the Marvel, the characters of which were involved in solid soap opera. Moreover, it was pleasant to all, as it was in line with the new realities. Using the people love to heroes, those real heroes were brought to light. This were astronauts, who visited the space and whose image was used in commerce.

On the second announcement, the new culture and fashion of the aforesaid historical period can be seen. It was the period of the new trends and styles, based on the new phenomenon – mass culture. The culture of US in that period has developed very quickly. In the architecture appeared the Googie style, inherited by the era of space flight, futurism through modernism. It became a movement of futuristic design, contradictory and ambiguous, which have divided the opinions of critics from the whole world. After the 60s style of Googie ceased to be at the hearing at the architects, it was considered too provocative and vulgar. His mission to attract visitors to the commercial organizations was performed, but times are changing, and in the 1970s this concept was finally forgotten. Instead, appeared the complete inclusion of commercial buildings in the urban landscape. Thus, virtually all buildings that embody the style disappeared, and today one can learn about this style only by the few left buildings scattered in the US.

From the other side, the US TV has also supported the style of futuristic outlook. The face of American television of the 1950s were music programs. The first opera written for television by Giancarlo Menotti was first performed December 24, 1951 in a studio in New York NBC and then was broadcast live every Christmas Eve until the mid-1960s, and then a few years in the record. In 1955, there the original Broadway musical "Peter Pan" with Mary Martin in the title role was first filmed. In 1956 Elvis Presley appeared on television for the first time. In the same year, there was first broadcast musical film The Wizard of Oz with Judy Garland. In 1957, there was a live broadcast performance of "Cinderella" with Julie Andrews and in the programs of the rock 'n' roll debuted popular TV presenter Dick Clark. Another masterpiece of the show was the appearance of "Star Trek". Its universe is based on cosmic future, at first glance seeming as a utopia. At the same time, large areas of galaxy remains unexplored. Universe of "Star Trek" - one of the most thoroughly worked fictional universes. Each character has its own biography, every civilization - their culture, traditions and history.

The second announcement can be used as presentation of the first steps to formation of the consumer society. It represents the new trend of that time – modernization and adaptation of the advertisements to the psychological models of manipulation and influence on the social behavior and tastes. The concept of "consumer society" is related to socio-economic and cultural phenomenon, finally stabilized in developed countries in the second half of the XX century. This is not a philosophical category, but rather a socio-theoretical and economic one. Talking about the consumer society, one mean a society of mass consumption, which have appeared after the Second World War, when the mass production of consumer goods finally starts. The second important element of consumer society occurs because of the policies, based on the Keynesian theory and the welfare state idea, which was in basis of US ideology. This created conditions for broader social spread of consumer culture. As a result, there were a lot of different advertisements that were using social authorities and fashion in order to popularize different goods. As it was shown on the advertisement, the new model of refrigerator was exposed as a step in the future, playing on the dreams of the space travels.

Concluding, it should be mentioned, that announcements have reflected the social admiration of the era of the new hope. They are filled with new senses – new culture, heroes, goals and opportunities. The analyzes of this announcements have provided with the needed amount of the information of the historical features of the US society, with the atmosphere of that time period.