Free Wheeling: Shopping Carts and Culture
The invention of the shopping cart changed our purchasing patterns, but the way we use it also reflects how we live life on the streets.
How Stovemakers Helped Invent Modern Marketing
Most people in the United States have a stove in their kitchen. But how did this “must-have” come to be?
Is Multi-Level Marketing Really Just a Pyramid Scheme?
Offering products as their main revenue base allows MLMs to operate legally, but they often have fundamentally the same ethical issues as pyramid schemes.
Selling Slashers to Teen Girls
The heroines of 1970s and 80s teen horror movies were traditionally feminine, tough, and sexually confident.
Sex and the Supermarket
Supermarkets represented a major innovation in food distribution—a gendered innovation that encouraged women to find sexual pleasure in subordination.
Why Brands Want To Be Your BFF
Most contemporary consumers consider ourselves too savvy to be taken in by a corporation’s attempts to integrate seamlessly ...
How Marketing Made L.A.
In the early 20th century, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce started marketing L.A as an earthquake-free alternative to San Francisco.
How Mr. Coffee Made Coffee Manly
Mr. Coffee, the first electric-drip coffee machine for home use, debuted in 1972, forever changing the way Americans made coffee.