I’m sure it started way before 1951, when I was born, but not too much before. I think it was a post-World War II phenomenon, Americans trying to stay “one up” on the neighbors at all times, especially where material possessions were concerned.
This shallow practice of striving to be better than those around you was never more prevalent than in the 1960s, when Madison Avenue started employing behavioral psychologists and began creating subliminal advertising, TV commercials that would cut to the quick and make parents and even children feel as bad as you could about that old station wagon still parked out front or that dreadful depression-era wallpaper disgracing your living room.
After all, this was the Sixties. Color television would soon be worth fighting for and fussing over. The Democrats were back. Men would be walking on the moon before you knew it.
“Keeping up with the Joneses” meant that, if the family car was a Chevy, then you’d better make your next one a Pontiac. And if the Joneses across the street already had a Pontiac, than you’d better consider test driving a Chrysler as soon as possible. The big question, of course, was “why?”. Why??? Well, hell, so the kids didn’t develop some kind of awful complex because they were surrounded by people who were better than their parents were and, hence, better than “they” were because that other family’s disposable income was greater.
In the early Sixties “Keeping up with the Joneses” meant buying a bigger and better station wagon and to hell with the gas mileage. It meant housewives could be proud of the fact that they didn’t have to go to work, that they could easily afford those avocado Capri pants and the avocado sectional and the avocado melamine to dress up their boring interior days. In a pinch, beige would do.
Did I mention that avocado was in and green was out? Just as all things French and Continental went out the window in 1959 and everything Latin was in by the time 1960 rolled around, especially if it came from Brazil. And especially if it was the color avocado.
I’m not sure when this fad of trying to be better than the neighbors faded out. It probably never did. It probably went underground in 1970 when America got so funky that parents went back to being drab just to maintain some sort of balance at home. But the American family slowly recovered and, by the mid-1980s, upwardly mobile parents began buying their kids sneakers with three-figure price tags and all the latest electronic gizmos to annoy the neighbors with.
By the mid-1990s, “Keeping up with the Joneses” was pretty much back in full swing. A bigger and less fuel-efficient SUV meant that you had so much money you didn’t care and, to further prove that point, the kids started getting their own ATVs to tear around in. And next year, what the hell, they’d get bigger and noisier ones than the kids down the street.
This shallow practice of striving to be better than those around you was never more prevalent than in the 1960s, when Madison Avenue started employing behavioral psychologists and began creating subliminal advertising, TV commercials that would cut to the quick and make parents and even children feel as bad as you could about that old station wagon still parked out front or that dreadful depression-era wallpaper disgracing your living room.
After all, this was the Sixties. Color television would soon be worth fighting for and fussing over. The Democrats were back. Men would be walking on the moon before you knew it.
“Keeping up with the Joneses” meant that, if the family car was a Chevy, then you’d better make your next one a Pontiac. And if the Joneses across the street already had a Pontiac, than you’d better consider test driving a Chrysler as soon as possible. The big question, of course, was “why?”. Why??? Well, hell, so the kids didn’t develop some kind of awful complex because they were surrounded by people who were better than their parents were and, hence, better than “they” were because that other family’s disposable income was greater.
In the early Sixties “Keeping up with the Joneses” meant buying a bigger and better station wagon and to hell with the gas mileage. It meant housewives could be proud of the fact that they didn’t have to go to work, that they could easily afford those avocado Capri pants and the avocado sectional and the avocado melamine to dress up their boring interior days. In a pinch, beige would do.
Did I mention that avocado was in and green was out? Just as all things French and Continental went out the window in 1959 and everything Latin was in by the time 1960 rolled around, especially if it came from Brazil. And especially if it was the color avocado.
I’m not sure when this fad of trying to be better than the neighbors faded out. It probably never did. It probably went underground in 1970 when America got so funky that parents went back to being drab just to maintain some sort of balance at home. But the American family slowly recovered and, by the mid-1980s, upwardly mobile parents began buying their kids sneakers with three-figure price tags and all the latest electronic gizmos to annoy the neighbors with.
By the mid-1990s, “Keeping up with the Joneses” was pretty much back in full swing. A bigger and less fuel-efficient SUV meant that you had so much money you didn’t care and, to further prove that point, the kids started getting their own ATVs to tear around in. And next year, what the hell, they’d get bigger and noisier ones than the kids down the street.
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