How the Ad Council and federal government influenced America’s perception of socialism after WWII
Channel: The Conversation
Date: 2020-02-27

Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is an Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies at the Department of Global and Intercultural Studies, Miami University in Ohio.

She is a scholar of American culture with an interest in the relationship between political ideologies and popular culture. In her research, she has found that America’s antipathy toward socialism may not be an accident. The Ad Council and American corporate interests produced materials that promoted the virtues of capitalism and free enterprise in America while simultaneously demonizing the alternative -- socialism -- which was often conflated with communism.

This video presents clips from two films that were part of that effort, “It’s Everybody’s Business” from 1954 and “Make Mine Freedom” from 1948. 

The full versions of some of these films are available at the links below-


Meet King Joe- https://archive.org/details/meet-king-joe-1949
Why Play Leap Frog?- https://archive.org/details/WhyPlayL1949
It’s Everybody’s Business- https://archive.org/details/ItsEvery1954
Make Mine Freedom- https://archive.org/details/MakeMine1948

Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy’s article at The Conversation US can be found at https://theconversation.com/how-socialism-became-un-american-through-the-ad-councils-propaganda-campaigns-132335