Who were food advertisements geared towards in the 1950's? What kind of consumers were expected to buy these food products? After looking through various food ads from the time period, one can clearly see who was expected to respond to them. These ads were geared towards women, presumably those who didn't work and had time for magazines, those who did the grocery shopping and cooking for their families. Food ads during the 1950's have the overwhelming theme of the beautiful housewife in heels and dresses, setting colorful feasts down on a table for a perfect nuclear family, usually never shown participating in the meals herself. Of course the women in these ads are delighted at the incredible wide ranging versatility of spam and jello, how it pleases their families and impresses their dinner guests.
These advertisements reinforce what it meant to be a perfect American housewife, belonging to nuclear families, always in suburban homes, and set up a situation in which the typical female consumer is expected to place herself within the ad, identifying with the happy obliging image of a wife, maintaining her place in society.
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