Vance Packard And The American Dream

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Vance Packard, a journalist turned social critic, exposed truth to post-war society. The best-selling author of the 1950s challenged consumerism beliefs and unmasked the truth about social status. Packard believed that society was being highly influenced by the nation’s advertising industry. Companies would slip messages into popular networks in order to silently persuade people to buy their products. They wanted anything to boost their sales, even if it meant manipulating people to value things that were not necessary. Packard’s words echoed throughout communities, challenging people to recognize the malignant voice of consumerism. His passion for truth continued to flourish as he continued writing. His voice grew louder and louder as he began …show more content…

The Dream was defined by having the “best of the best.” In the 1950s, a variety of people had access to the “best” things, and the traditional American Dream was at risk and the new American Dream had begun to emerge. Packard stated that because of the crumbling of the American Dream, people had been scrambling to find new ways to draw lines between the elect and the non-elect. Society has always had a desire to associate people in different categories, whether it be race or religion, and it had gone so far as to redefine what the American Dream truly was, and how to separate who was living it and who was not. However, defining the Dream became difficult when society realized they could no longer separate people by material things. Packard recognized this and stated that in terms of a person’s productive role in society versus his consuming role, class lines had become rigid, forcing a person to advocate for himself instead of buying things that automatically gave him a societal boost. The risk of the American Dream increased and became threateningly out of reach, leaving people in a constant state of what felt like personal

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