Please view the posters presented at the 19th Annual City Tech Faculty and Student Research Poster Session below. You can click on each poster to enlarge it and view the PDF version under the poster abstract.
We thank all presenters for sharing their innovative and informative research with the City Tech community and beyond!
29-The Shortening Wars of Mid-Century America
Many household goods sold in stores are interchangeable. Flour, sugar and shortening, for example, do not have inherent differences. It has long been left then to advertisers to establish distinctions between products; devising campaigns that position brands as unique and superior to competitors. By early in the 20th Century, eager manufacturers had learned to manipulate Americansā newfound mania for cleanliness. Advertisers linked the factory production of goods to modernity, positioning the family farm as old-fashioned and that from factories as symbols of progress and cleanliness. This was especially evident in the burgeoning grocery industry. Soap manufacturers, already using fats to make cleaning products, turned their attention to shortening. Advertising promotions pitched shortening as a āpureā and clean alternative to lard. To sell products, corporations exploited the changes occurring in American culture. Issues of race, gender and immigration were a few of the social forces that challenged previously perceived standards of superiority. Marketing campaigns both soothed and incited the latent fears that underpinned this society in flux. Shortening ads serve as an exemplar of this. View or download a PDF version of this poster.
