The waste makers by Packard Vance 1914-1996

Author:Packard, Vance, 1914-1996
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Waste (Economics), Industries
Publisher: New York, D. McKay Co
Published: 1960-01-22T05:00:00+00:00

176 THE WASTE MAKERS

if they want something the other children have, we buy it for them."

The Tribune^s report on Park Forest observed: "There is much buying for the children, and the things bought are determined by what the child wants, rather than what the parents want for him. What the child wants, in turn, is determined either by what the other kids have or by a particular item seen in advertisements. The parents see 'giving the child what he wants' in the way of material things as a positive thing."

The great baby boom—or "population bomb," as some preferred to call it—put marketers in many dozens of lines to mapping plans to "cash in" on it.

First, of course, there was the obvious tot and toddler market for baby powder, nursery furniture, soft foods, nipples, etc. Sales Management reported in 1960 that new baby foods were being researched and launched at "a frantic pace."

Then there was the booming youngster market for ice cream, soda pop, phonograph records, and toys—not to mention school desks, rubbers, etc. American youngsters by 1960 were receiving a billion and a half dollars' worth of toys each year. During a good December day, American stores were jingling up six million dollars' worth of toy sales every hour. The average American child received $26 worth of toys a year. In my own state of Connecticut, where toy consumption is highest, the average child received $36 worth. The head of a firearms manufacturing firm observed that by the time a boy is fifteen he has had between fifteen and twenty replicas of guns—and so is now a prime prospect for a real bullet-firing one.

Most of the major manufacturers of brassieres—and many minor ones—began promoting and selling bras to nine- and ten-year-old girls. By 1960, this had become an important market, as thousands of little girls had been conditioned by the emphasis on bosoms in advertising and elsewhere to worry about their fiattish chests or to see bras as status symbols. The 28AA

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