How U.S. Operations in Post-War West Germany Affected the Representation of Women in Advertising and Media — Presentation Detail — Celebration of Scholars

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Student presentations must have a faculty sponsor.

Abstracts must include a title and a description of the research, scholarship, or creative work. The description should be 150-225 words in length and constructed in a format or style appropriate for the presenter’s discipline.

The following points should be addressed within the selected format or style for the abstract:

A clear statement of the problem or question you pursued, or the scholarly goal or creative theme achieved in your work.
A brief comment about the significance or uniqueness of the work.
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Additional Information

More information is available at carthage.edu/celebration-scholars/. The following are members of the Research, Scholarship, and Creativity Committee who are eager to listen to ideas and answer questions:

Jun Wang
Kim Instenes
John Kirk
Nora Nickels
Andrew Pustina
James Ripley

How U.S. Operations in Post-War West Germany Affected the Representation of Women in Advertising and Media

Name: Annaliese Kambol
Major: German and Marketing
Hometown: Lake Forest, IL
Faculty Sponsor: Gregory Baer
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Senior thesis

Abstract

After the end of World War II, the presence of the United States in post-war West Germany changed the dynamics of the country’s culture. With the implementation of the Marshall Plan in 1948, the Americanization of German advertising occurred: Media began to represent the female body in a more erotic manner, and sexually-suggestive topics became more commonplace. This sexualization of the media, therefore, set an early foundation for the Sexual Revolution in West Germany.

Through research and the analyzation of primary sources — such as speeches, government directives, and American and German advertisements from the 1940s and 1950s — and secondary sources like scholarly articles and lexicons, this work explores the transformation and objectification of the representation of women in German advertising in the late 1940s and the early 1950s.

This work sets itself apart from other similar works, as these works focus more on the recent sexualization of women in German media (i.e. the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s) rather than on the potential roots of this objectification.

Although this project is still a work-in-progress, it aims for an outcome that proves that this Americanization of German advertising and media in the late 1940s and early 1950s became an element that encouraged the Sexual Revolution in West Germany.

Poster file