The Generations of Baby Boomer to Generation Z As Defined in Consumer Culture

The Generations of Baby Boomer to Generation Z as Defined in Consumer Culture

by Elizabeth Ciechanowski

B.A. in Art History, January 2010, Temple University

A Thesis submitted to

The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art

May 15, 2015

Thesis directed by

Clare Brown Program Head in the GW Corcoran School of the Arts and Design Assistant Professor of Art and Design

Nigel Briggs Professor of Exhibition Design

Cory Bernat Professor of Exhibition Design

Dedications

I would like to dedicate this thesis to my family for all the support they have given, and continue to give me. To my thesis mentor John Alviti, and to the thesis advisors;

Clare Brown, Cory Bernat, and Nigel Briggs for all of their guidance.

iii

Abstract

The Generations of Baby Boomer to Generation Z As Defined in Consumer Culture. Exhibition Title: Marketing History: Baby Boomer to Generation Z

This proposed exhibition, Marketing History: Baby Boomer to Generation Z brings together the sights, sounds, and voices of generations through the medium of advertising and consumer products. Beginning in the 1950s, this exhibition will follow the generations of Baby Boomer, Generation Jones, Generation X, the Millennials, and

Generation Z from their coming of age. The exhibition will juxtapose the history and consumer culture of each era with the advertisements, slogans, commercials, and products of the time in an immersive and interactive game-like environment. Precedents include museum exhibitions, retail spaces, radio programming, trade shows, festivals, and world expositions. The target audience of families, especially multi-generational families was chosen in hopes of the exhibition beginning a dialogue between family members. This exhibition strays from the traditional museum exhibition space with a subject neutral venue proposed to be in the Fisher Pavilion at the Seattle Center in

Washington. This exhibition will look towards a more modern model of an exhibition along with the use of the positive aspects of sponsorship, extended hours, and public programming.

Table of Contents

Dedications 3

Abstract of Thesis 4

List of Figures 6

Introduction 7

Approach 10

Challenges 14

Precedents 16

Site and Exhibition Space 20

Audience 22

Content Overview 25

Design Narrative 29

Conclusion 31

Works Cited 32

Appendices 35

List of Figures

Figure 1 11

Figure 2 12

Figure 3 16

Figure 4 18

Figure 5 19

Figure 6 20

Figure 7 20

Figure 8 25

Figure 9 26

Figure 10 28

Figure 11 29

Figure 12 30

Figure 13 30

Figure 14 32

Figure 15 33

Figure 17 36

Figure 18 38

Figure 19 47

Introduction

How do marketers see you? How do you see yourself? Do these two views agree or disagree? These will be some of the questions posed to visitors in this exhibition; Marketing History: From Baby Boomer to Generation Z. Located in the

Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center, Seattle, Washington; the exhibition will showcase how marketing has changed and evolved from the Baby Boomer Generation (1946-

1965) through to Generation Z (1996-Present), and what we can learn about ourselves through our buying habits.

Generations such as Baby Boomers and Millennials have been in the news frequently as of late and featured in recent exhibits such as The Newseum’s “The

Boomer List”, along with a series on National Public Radio called “The New Boom.”1

This series discusses Millennials in depth, along with some mentions of the current generation that is coming of age, Generation Z, in podcasts from their radio programming, videos, and articles on their website.

This exhibit content is relevant because the ways advertisements are presented now are not the way they used to be presented. From print to radio to TV, and now to websites, smartphones, and tablets, bloggers, and vloggers, there are constant re-designs, updates, and improvements in attempts to reach consumers.

Brands also want to take control of their own products and image and have shifted from showcasing the next innovation or newest product at a world’s fair or expo to announcing new products themselves, or unveiling them at tradeshows such as the

Consumer Electronic Show, or at festivals such as South By Southwest Interactive.

1 Raphelson, “From GIs To Gen Z (Or Is It iGen?)”

The medium of advertisement has also changed to grab the attention of

Millennials and Generation Z by looking towards mobile or in app ads, ads on social sites such as Facebook and Instagram, or on YouTube. Some brands have even gone so far as to pay singers and DJs to wear their product in their music videos such as

Beats By Dre, who have used the artists’ music videos like one long commercial for their product2

From the Baby Boomers to Generation Z there will be important moments captured in this exhibition to get the essence of each generation. The exhibition will capture themes from the generations of Baby Boomer, Generation Jones, Generation

X, Millennial, and Generation Z through iconic images, advertisements, products, and vignettes.

This exhibition will provide an immersive experience for visitors, and will be approachable, inviting, and make it feel as if the family of that era just left. Visitors will be able to walk into each vignette and experience the moments through sound, smell, or touch. The exhibition will include interactive areas to engage children and adults alike and will provide an opportunity for families to begin a dialogue with one another. The usage of color coded RFID bands most commonly used within theme parks and festivals will be utilized as another interactive point for visitors. These bands will coincide with each generation’s gallery and will be based on shades from

Pantone’s 50 Years of Color.3 There will be scanning points throughout the exhibition with answers that will correlate to specific generations, along with an interactive area in a space separate from the exhibition which will allow all visitors to see the results of each question asked.

2 “40 Music Videos With Blatant Beats by Dre Product Placement.” 3 Pantone, 50 Years In Color http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone.aspx?pg=21111&ca=90

In terms of precedents, many areas of design and demographics were looked into for this topic. For content; exhibits covering generations, consumers, and advertising were researched along with radio programming, and demographic findings. For design ideas for this exhibition historic house, architectural elements such as the use of windows in homes, retail shop front windows, and advertisements were researched. For interactive, technology, and audience trade shows, festivals, and world fairs were researched.

Approach

The research for this exhibition began with an interest in world fairs and the excitement and awe they brought to its visitors, the technology and innovations that were showcased, and the grand way in which companies showcased their products.

The exhibition topic began as Technology and Innovations at the World’s Fairs and was re-worked into the current topic, still including the main factors of the marketer and the consumer. The exhibition is planned to have a historical side so visitors can get the chance to understand the various “voices” of the advertisements, through products, vignettes, and interactives.

The research on the current topic has been varied given the span of generations. Research areas have been mainly in books and databases for research into the Baby Boomer I and II generations. For Generation X it has mainly been newspaper articles and online sources. For Millennial and Generation Z, which are both ongoing, research has been through online news sites such as Huffington Post,

CNN, National Public Radio, and Pew Research.

Prior to beginning thesis I worked on projects covering World’s Fairs, along with Levittown and the Baby Boomers during internships at the Franklin Institute and the National Building Museum. Other sources that were focused on more in depth was working with my thesis mentor at the Franklin Institute.

The research first began by delving into each generation and finding out what defined them, what activities they enjoyed, how they grew up, what influenced them.

A time line was written out from 1946- the present (fig. 1) with the five generations that would be included, along with information about each. Research was done that

4 looked into the marketing of each era, or generation, to get a sense of how each generation was being portrayed in advertisements, who advertisers were trying to reach, and what the common theme of the time was. The goal was to find out more about the constant relationship between each generation and marketing and consumer habits.

Fig. 1 Ciechanowski, Written timeline covering Baby Boomer to Generation Z. October, 2014

Next in the process, a bubble diagram (fig 2.) of sorts was created to categorize the five generations in order to show important events, products, or technology of the time. Overlapping areas were used as transition points between the generations and questions were posed for some of the generations such as: How are the halves of the Baby Boomer Generation alike? How are they different? How has the shift from print media changed marketing? and What’s next? How will marketing change with the children of Millennials? What mediums will be used to grab their attention?

Fig. 2 Ciechanowski, Bubble diagram-content. November 2013.

Some of these questions do not have a clear answer yet as it is still an ever evolving area. Questions could be posed at the end of this exhibition for visitors to answer, or programming could be made based on some of these questions for lectures, or question and answer panels. An example that has been looked at is the

Brooklyn Museum’s Killer Heels4 exhibit with a webpage titled “In Conversation” where visitors have sent in questions and they are answered by the curator of exhibitions, registrar, or the chief designer with the questions and answers posted at the end of the exhibit. This is a great example of making information about an exhibition more accessible to the public and give visitors more of an understanding to the work that goes into an exhibition and a chance to learn about the objects chosen for the exhibition.

4 https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/ask/forum/post.php?forum=28

This exhibition will show the five generations through the objects they used, the technologies that evolved through their times and the advertisements that showcased them. Technology and products are changing so rapidly that people lose touch with where the objects began from, or in the case of younger generations, might not have an idea of what older products were like. These advertisements also reflected what was going on at the time by keeping pace with their consumers. When soldiers came back from the war advertisements for new houses in the suburbs were marketed towards them, or a new car. During the feminist movement ads began to show women in the workplace or showed husbands including wives in decision making.

The research on this topic very much affected this exhibition. Before research began on this topic there was already some prior knowledge of the subject due to previous internships that dealt with generations such as baby boomers and various world fairs.

Challenges

There were some trial and errors along the way, such as having to begin again with a changed topic and getting a focus on the topic. The exhibition still has some references to technology and innovations, but the main points will cover the generations of Baby Boomer- Generation Z through history and consumer culture.

Some of the challenges that occurred with this topic so far have been a shift from the original topic of Technology and Innovations at the World’s Fair to the current topic for exhibition Marketing History: Baby Boomer to Generation Z and the importance of showing the influence between marketing and generations, and the relationship between both. Another challenge has been dealing with a topic that is based on paper and digital advertising throughout the years and how to translate that to exhibit and object or product form to engage visitors. These challenges were overcome by working many sessions of in class work and workshopping ideas with colleagues, and through working with my content and thesis mentors.

Another issue was with the site of the exhibition, which was originally planned in a temporary structure on the Seattle Center grounds. The issues then becam whether the exhibition should be kept where it was planned, moved into a nearby building, or turned into a travelling exhibit. A venue other than Seattle Center was also looked at, Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA, as the site also hosted a world’s fair and has family friendly tourist attractions such as a children’s museum, outdoor theater, and a Japanese house and garden. The site was ultimately dismissed as the park is somewhat isolated from the rest of the city and is not as easily accessible by public transportation or walking as the Seattle Center is.

After some debating and receiving feedback, it was decided that it would be best to put the exhibit in a permanent structure because of the logistics of also having to create a temporary structure that the exhibition would be housed in. The exhibition is proposed to be housed in the Fisher Pavilion in the middle of Seattle

Center. The exhibition will benefit from the permanent structure’s open floorplan and large floor to ceiling windows which look out toward the International Fountain, another draw for families.

Precedents

There are many recent exhibitions that explore areas of marketing or general identity within certain generations. Most similar is the exhibit “Your Place in Time:

20th Century America” at the Henry Ford Museum. This exhibit, which is permanent, opened in 1999 in conjunction with features in the magazine Popular Mechanics.

“Your Place in Time” covers the Progressive Generation (1890-1919) to the Next

Generation, now called the Millennial Generation (early 1980s-2000s). The exhibit:

“looks at everyday technologies that shaped each of those generations. Each

generation of the exhibit is presented through a series of vignettes, which

allow visitors to immerse themselves in different eras and contemplate what it

was like for each group as they came of age.”5

Fig 3: Photos by Henry Ford Museum: “Your Place in Time: 20th Century America” at the Henry Ford Museum. Recreated 1950s classroom, geodesic dome, and 1987 teen bedroom. Popular Mechanics April 2000 issue. Page 95.6

5 http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/ypit/index.html 6 Seelhorst, Mary. "Henry Ford and Popular Mechanics Bring You the Sights, Sounds and Great Events of Six Generations."Popular Mechanics, April 1, 2000, pgs 93-95. 10

Another exhibition, “Magical History Tour: A Cultural and Musical Happening” which runs from July 12, 2014 to June 6, 2015 gives a nostalgic look back into the

Baby Boomer generation and features a re-created teenager’s bedroom. The

Newseum’s “The Boomer List” runs from November 2014-July 2015 and includes photography and video featuring 19 influential baby boomers, each representing one year of that generation from 1946-1964. It also includes artifacts, interactive kiosks and a scent station in the exhibit, and a documentary film, coffee table book, and

DVD.

The “American Cool” exhibit at National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian

Institution, ran February 2014 to September 2014. The exhibit featured portraits of musicians, actors, singers, rappers, athletes, activists and other celebrities from the

1940s to the present, and there were areas with touch screens where visitors could see clips from an actor’s movies, listen to their songs, or their speeches. It also included a catalog which had illustrations and essays. Also at National Portrait

Gallery is the exhibit “Time Covers the 1960s”, on display from September 26th 2015-

August 9th 2015. The exhibit displays Time magazine covers from the decade.

In areas of marketing and business the upcoming American Enterprises exhibition at the National Museum of American History includes sections which cover “the Consumer Era (1940s-1970s) and “the Global Era (1980s-2010). Harvard

Business School created an exhibit, “The Art of American Advertising 1865-1910”.

This exhibit ran from November 2013-April 2014 at the university’s library and was a small scale paper based exhibit.

Tradeshows such as Consumer Electronics Show, or CES were looked at in terms of design, along with historical houses such as the architect and furniture

11 designer Finn Juhl7, the exhibition of Mid-Century Modern Australian Furniture

Design held at the National Gallery of Victoria from May 2014- October 20148, and fashion and retail displays such as Philippe Nigro’s house shaped vignettes for

Hermes during Milan Design week 20139, and windows in retail such as Lacoste’s

80th Anniversary window display:

Fig 4. Lacoste 80th Anniversary Interactive Window Display During NY Fashion Week. Source: thebwd.com

In terms of site, the Fisher Pavilion holds visual arts shows throughout the year, some of which are held during the annual music and arts festival Bumbershoot, which began in 1971. These exhibits draw an all ages crowd with the 2015 festival holding Let’s Finger Power! installation which allowed visitors to adjust music, videos, and light by pressing buttons.

7Ordrupgaard Museum- Finn Juhl’s House. http://ordrupgaard.dk/en/finn-juhls-house/ 8 National Gallery of Victoria- Mid Century Modern Australian Furniture Design http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/mid-century-modern/ 9 Design Boom- les necessaries d’Hermes by Philippe Nigro. http://www.designboom.com/design/les- necessaires-dhermes-by-philippe-nigro/

Fig. 5 Arkley, Andy. Finger Power! Screencap from video https://vimeo.com/107668660

In terms of audience, the target audience of families was chosen from the beginning as the exhibition covers five generations and having visitors being able to associate with some objects or advertisements and then begin a conversation about them with other family members was the goal. The site of the Seattle Center is the largest tourist draw in Seattle with the three largest age groups being in the categories of 11 and under, 35-44 year olds, and 45-54 year olds as discussed further in the Audience section of this paper. The Seattle Center includes family oriented museums such as the Seattle Children’s Museum, Seattle Children’s Theater, the

EMP museum, and tourist attractions such as the Space Needle and the Monorail.

Site and Exhibition Space

Fig. 6 View of Fisher Pavilion, Seattle Center. Digital Image. Fig. 7 View of International Fountain and Fisher http://seattlecenter.com/locations/detail.aspx?id=55 Pavilion Illustration by: Stephanie Bower http://www.stephaniebower.com/architecture.html

The site chosen for this exhibition, The Seattle Center in Seattle Washington, has a constant stream of festivals and other events throughout the year. Seattle

Center had 4.6 million visitors in the year 2005, which was the year of the most current assessment.10 Of the 2,837 people interviewed by the GMA Research

Corporation 90% of people were visiting Seattle primarily to go to the Seattle Center,

50.5% were there primarily to visit attractions and museums, and 53% visiting attractions and museums were visiting from out of state (Appendix C). Given the site is a draw for tourists; it is very accessible by car or public transportation. There are many lots and parking garages within and around the site and various bus stops around the site. The monorail also is able to take visitors to Seattle Center with stops close to light rail and close to the state’s convention center.

The Seattle Center site ties into this exhibition as it was originally built for the

1964 World’s Fair and has since been redeveloped into Seattle’s largest tourist destination. It features the Space Needle, Monorail, and International Fountain

10 Seattle Center Economic Impact Assessment

14 along with various museums such as the Pacific Science Center, and the EMP

Museum. The site also hosts many art festivals, and music festivals.

The exhibition will be housed in the Fisher Pavilion. Originally, it was planned for this exhibition to be housed in a temporary building or structure on the grounds of the Seattle Center but given the logistics of a temporary structure, it was decided to be best to either move the site to a neighboring indoor building, or to create a travelling exhibit.

The Fisher Pavilion is a unique venue for an exhibition as it is a large space with an open floor plan and normally holds receptions, corporate events, and trade and consumer shows. This building is a good site for the exhibition because of its open floor plan, high ceilings and natural light from the floor to ceiling windows and lack of subject restrictions for the exhibit topic. The building also overlooks the

International Fountain that was originally built for the 1964 Seattle World’s Fair, has a rooftop deck with seating and has floor to ceiling windows and doors with sections that open up to the outside. (Appendix B)

Fisher Pavilion has 11,522 sq. ft. of exhibit space. The 2,900 sq. ft. foyer provides opportunities for wayfinding areas into the exhibition from the large indoor and outdoor staircases leading to the exhibit space, or could be used as additional exhibition space in order to take advantage of the large windows. Because of the pavilion’s ceiling height of between 17’-19’ ft.11 and open floor plan there will be few constraints on how to design around columns or center walls in the main exhibit space.

11 http://www.seattlecenter.com/admin/fileout.aspx?thefile=1708

Audience

The audience throughout the research for this exhibition has been families.

Families are a large portion of the visitors who come to the Seattle Center. There are many activities to do for all ages, large amounts of open green space, and various museums and landmarks to draw visitors to the site. The typical group size at the

Seattle Center visiting for attractions and museums is mainly two to three people with the largest age group being 11 and under, 35-44 year olds, 45-54 year olds, and

25 to 34 year olds. The expected staying time is between 2-3 hours and 4-8 hours.

(Appendix A)

In the Spring 2008 edition of Exhibitionist, Minda Borun writes that effective family-friendly exhibits allow families or groups to cluster around the exhibit, that it is important for several visitors to be able to interact with the exhibit, that interactive areas should be able to be comfortably used by children and adults, and the exhibit can be multi-outcome to support group discussions. The exhibit should also have activities that appeal to different learning styles and levels of knowledge, have text that is easily understood and is relevant to their existing knowledge and experience, and activities and displays that facilitate group engagement.12 This exhibition will reflect some of these characteristics by having a game like atmosphere where visitors can interact with the exhibition spaces and each other. The floorplan of the exhibit will enable them to choose how they would like to experience the exhibition by going through the exhibit from start to finish, or choosing an RFID wristband of a generation different from their own.

12 Borun, Minda, Exhibitionist Spring 2008 “Why Family Learning in Museums?”

Families are interested in learning and educational activities, going to parks or athletic fields, spending time outdoors, and being active. The prior knowledge that they could bring to this exhibition will be mainly from adults who would recognize some of the advertisements, or objects displayed throughout the exhibit and begin a dialogue with their other family members.

Since some of the exhibit will have interactive areas, this exhibit will provide various methods for interacting with the exhibit content whether it be through a more traditional exhibit environment, or areas with touch screen or motion sensor.

Each family member can also have the opportunity to identify with the generations featured in this exhibition.

This exhibition will be designed as welcoming to these various ages so that visitors will have an enjoyable time while there. The content in this exhibition will catch the attention of younger generations that have shorter attention spans through interactive areas. The exhibition will also keep multiple age groups in mind through content, programming, and extended hours during weekdays for more access after work or school.

It is important to keep in mind the various ways that visitors absorb information, videos, and other media not only within age groups but also within learning types as some visitors are more visual and object driven, while others are more story or content driven. In the book Museum Experience Revisited, seven types of visitor identity styles are outlined on the following page.13

13 Falk, John H.; Dierking, Lynn D., The Museum Experience Revisited, pgs 61-62

This exhibition is planned to be geared toward visitors who would be grouped into the types of Explorers, Facilitators, Experience Seekers, and Affinity Seekers.

Visitors that fall into these four types would be the best fit for this exhibition as visitors will be able to self-identify with objects or spaces within each gallery, talk amongst others in their group or family in sharing experiences or stories, or in immersing themselves in the experience of the galleries, content, and interactives.

Content Overview

The big idea for this exhibition is to tell the story of marketing through the five generations and what we can learn through our purchasing habits. Each gallery will feature a selection of household objects, toys, music, and technology related products from the five generations along with advertisements, interactives, and vignettes that will anchor each gallery.

Fig.8 Ciechanowski- Vignette Content. January 2014

Additional historical content can be found in Appendix A. The first generation that is covered in the exhibition is the Baby Boomers.

The experience will begin at the entrance where visitors will be able to choose how they want to experience the exhibit; either by choosing an RFID wristband, forgoing it and taking time to walk through the exhibit galleries, or choosing the generation they would like to see first. In choosing the wristband, visitors will chose

19 a colored band representing a generation other than their own and are able to decide to stay with their family or group, or to go alone and begin from the gallery that coincides with their wristband. With this band the visitor will be able to scan in at interactive spaces which will pose questions such as:

Do you read the newspaper in print, online, or at all?

Do you have a landline?

How much TV do you watch in a week?

How many text messages do you send in a day?

What are your commuting habits? (car, public transport, bike, walk)

At the end of the exhibition visitors would scan in again and see where in the grouping of generations they lie based on their answers, how it would differ with the generation’s wristband they chose, and what the results were for other visitors.

Throughout the exhibit will be Compare This signs, which will link objects from various generations to each other as a way to link the five gallery spaces to one another. An example can be seen below:

Fig.9 Ciechanowski- Compare This sign. 2015

Baby Boomer (1946-1956)

The first gallery of the exhibition that is closest to the entrance is for the Baby

Boomer generation. The gallery will have pastel shades and brighter tones. The first view of the gallery will be of a large graphic print with rows of newborn babies in hospital bassinets. There will also be panels explaining some of the history leading into the generation. Some points will be: the importance of the suburbs during that time, the return of women to the household to raise children, who were the Baby

Boomers, and the introduction of television to the household. Amy Henderson of

Smithsonian Magazine wrote:

“…it was television that branded the coming-of-age for the Boomers. TV was

an immediate communicator, broadcasting events instantly to living rooms

across the nation. Boomers learned the transformative power of change

from their sofas, and the immediacy of television instilled a lasting sense of

personal connection to the techtonic cultural changes that were “Blowin’ in

the Wind.”14

Television became so important that the Levitt brothers included it, along with washing machines, in the cost of their homes and made it a big selling point in their advertisements.

The plan for this gallery is to include a recreation of a living room from a

Levittown house in order to capture the feeling and the moment of the era. In the photo from one of the Levittown houses, the TV built into the stairway can be seen in the photo on the next page. The photo was taken for a house decorating contest featured in Life magazine.

14 “When It Comes To the Baby Boomers, It Is Still All About ‘Me’ | At the Smithsonian | Smithsonian.”

Fig.10 Life Magazine- Same Room, Varied Décor. January 14th, 1952

The Baby Boomer gallery will also feature objects such the transistor radio, which had its 60th anniversary in October 2014 and came into popularity during the 1960s-1970s. The portable radio was revolutionary, enabling teens of the generation to listen to their music almost anywhere and was the precursor to electronics such as the Walkman and influenced the iPod.15 Also featured in the music section of the gallery will be the popularity of rock and roll and Bandstand.

The space will also include memorabilia from the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, toys and products repurposed from wartime experiments—Silly Putty, which was created by James Wright and marketed by Peter Hodgson, who put the putty in plastic eggs for Easter sales,16 and the Slinky. The iconic Barbie doll will also be featured, along with a 1962 Beetle, and merchandise and music from The Beatles.

Near the entrance will be a large shelving unit with an array of toys and food from that time. Objects will include a Davy Crockett coonskin cap, Barbie doll, and play fridge. On the opposite wall will be the first interactive of the exhibit, a scent station called “Smell-O-Rama” with scents representing the Baby Boomer

15 “Retro Tech - the Transistor Radio.” 16 Young and Young, World War II and the Postwar Years in America.

Generation. Some of the scents will be baby powder, fresh cut grass, or shoe polish.

Next to the scent station will be the 1962 Volkswagen Beetle along with the “Think

Small” advertisement. The gallery’s vignette will be next to the shelving unit. This vignette will show a recreation of a living room from a Levittown house. At the entrance to the vignette will be a small panel with a graphic print of a bird’s eye view of a Levittown neighborhood. To the right of the entrance will be a small wall with floor to ceiling windows, these will represent windows at the back of a Levittown house which would look out into the back yard. A rendering of this vignette can be seen on the next page.

Fig.11 Ciechanowski- Rendering of Levittown Living Room. 2015

The vignette will have a TV built into the staircase which will play clips from

Bandstand, and historical events from the time. At the back wall will be a grouping of family photos in frames from the generation and an interactive station to swipe wristbands. Next to the vignette will be a Zenith Royal 500 Transistor Radio along with an ad that shows a woman with a gloved hand and charm bracelet. There will also be a Compare This! sign which will link the radio to the iPod in the Millennial gallery.

Fig.12 Zenith Royal 500 Transistor Radio. Print Advertisement. 1956

At the back of the wall to the left will be the music area with a large graphic print of a group of Beatles fans outside of a music venue. There will also be an interactive listening space with records from generation to listen to. At the back of the gallery will be a large graphic print of a Life Magazine cover featuring three teenage girls talking on the phone and amongst themselves. Next to the print is an interactive station with rotary phones. Visitors are asked to try and reach the fictional friends listed by taking the telephone numbers that are posted and attempting to use the enlarged rotary dials to call them.

Fig.13 Ciechanowski. Rendering of Baby Boomer gallery. 2015

Generation Jones (1954-1965)

The Generation Jones gallery will transition to more earth tone shades and include a family room vignette with a color TV, touchtone telephone and TV dinners.

Clips from TV shows such as, Soul Train, Saturday Night Live, and M*A*S*H will play along with advertisements and historical scenes from the time.

The “Baby Boomer II” or “Generation Jones” generation is named for the idiom “Keeping up with the Joneses,” and the slang term “jonesing.” The TV again played a big part in the generation including the broadcasting of the moon landing and moon walk in 1969, which was watched by 500 million people, 17 the rise of color TV, and commercials on TV. In the household products area the touchtone telephone, and

“fast foods” such as drive-ins and TV dinners will be featured. For toys the Etch-A-

Sketch, one of the most popular toys of the generation, Easy Bake Oven, GI-Joe, and

Play-Doh will be featured. Interactives in the gallery will be a Spirograph station, a large screen projection of performances from Soul Train, and a life sized Light-Brite.

At the entrance of the Generation Jones gallery is a large graphic panel of a family in front of their house with a car and a boat. This represents the “Keeping up with the Joneses” aspect of the generation name. Near the entrance will be a series of shelves with toys mentioned above and fast food such as Tang. There will be a

Compare This! sign on a Crissy doll comparing it to the Totally Ultra Hair Barbie doll in the Generation X gallery. Both dolls have adjustable floor length hair which is styled to their era and are dressed in clothing which reflects their generation.

On the other side of the wall will be a vignette of a recreated living room from that time. There will be photos hung on the wall, a TV playing popular commercials and ads, and a touch tone phone. There will also be another interactive station to

17 Siy, Footprints on the Moon.

25 swipe wristbands. Next will be the Spirograph interactive which will include three drawing stations with pens and paper. To the left will be a large screen projection with videos from Soul Train. To the center will be portable music playing devices along with an advertisement featuring Jimmie Walker’s character from Good

Times JJ Evans. At the left of the gallery space is a life sized Light-Brite along with an original version in a case.

Fig.14 Ciechanowski. Rendering of Generation Jones Gallery. 2015

Generation X (1965-early 1980s)

The third gallery of the exhibit, Generation X, will include bolder shades and show a shift in the way products were bought and marketed. There will be examples of product placement within movies such as ET and Back To The Future, MTV capitalizing on the beginning of cable TV, the Columbia shuttle launch, and the popularity of the

Olympics broadcasting. This gallery will feature the Walkman, Punk and Grunge music through music videos, the rise in popularity of video games, the VCR, the home computer and the beginning of the internet boom. Some of the ads during this time became shorter, and slogans rose in popularity with Nike launching its “Just Do It”

26 campaign. Toys such as Silly String, the Cabbage Patch Dolls, Legos, and Star Wars figures will also be featured. Interactives in the gallery will include a Polaroid wall, a video game station, and a wall of TV screens that will play various music videos and clips from MTV. The gallery will have a vignette of a kitchen with food items featured in TV and movies of that time such as ET and Reeses Pieces or Back To The Future and Pepsi.

There will also be product endorsements such as Wheaties.

At the entrance to the exhibit will be a large graphic of Anna Lee Fisher, the first mother in space, from Life Magazine May 1985. Next will be a grouping of smaller toys and electronics such as Star Wars figurines, the late 1970s version of the Esay Bake

Oven, and a Mr. Potato Head doll. There will be a Compare This! sign next to Mr. Potato

Head linking him back to the original version from the 1950s which provided embellishments to dress up a household potato. After that will be food and electronics which will include Life’s “Hey Mikey” ad, Merlin electronic game, and Speak and Spell.

Futher down the wall is a large graphic scene from the iconic Apple commercial 1984. To the right of the graphic is a model of computer mentioned at the end of the commercial.

Fig.15 Ciechanowski. Rendering of Generation X Gallery. 2015

At the back will be an interactive space with a wall of televisions showing various commercials that ran on MTV at its induction. To the right will be an ad from Atari along with a near life-size stack of video games.

Millennials (early 1980s-1995)

The Millennial gallery will have more subtle shades than the previous generation. The Millennial Generation will show the shift from the suburbs back into cities, exploration of Mars, and the decline of print media. The first view into the gallery will show a large graphic print of a combination of peoples’ faces who are of various ages, different sexes, and many different nationalities. The graphic represents the vast diversity of the Millennials as they are considered the most diverse generation thus far.

On the wall to the left are two shelving units with various toys such as the American Girl dolls, Beanie Babies, which were immensely popular, and the electronic “pet” on a keychain, the Tamogochi.

Fig.16 Ciechanowski. Rendering of Millennial Gallery. 2015

In the technology section, smartphones, Apple products, and the wave of new ways to connect online such as Myspace and Facebook will be featured. Some items that will be displayed in this area will be the Talkboy, and Furby. Music and music artists that

28 will be featured will mainly cover pop music and include toys like hit clips, and the first iPod. Some of the advertisements featured will be the “Got Milk” campaign which relied on celebrity endorsements, Apple’s iPod silhouette ads and their iconic 1984 commercial, and Energizer’s commercial with the Energizer Bunny and Darth Vader. There will be an interactive in this area with the Tiger Talkback Diary and Data Pal. Visitors can send secret messages to their friends or leave messages for other visitors. At the back of the gallery are the electronics which include the Apple iBook and iMac g3 which came in an array of colors, the Nokia cell phone which had changeable front and back plates in virtually and color or print. The interactive in this section is the game Snake which was made popular on the Nokia cell phone. To the right of the electronic area is the family room and computer room vignette with a TV, computer, and smartphone. Visitors can go to pre-programmed websites or play games from that time on the computer set up there.

Generation Z (1996-present)

The final generation that will be featured is Generation Z. The colors in this gallery will have vibrant and deeper shades compared to the Millennial Generation.

This generation is coming of age now and the name and timeline are still being debated. To reflect this, there is a large projection screen at the entrance which catches the shadows of visitors that walk by.

The gallery will show how advertisements have gradually become integrated into webpages, videos, and apps along with ads from cookies that appear on these webpages that are geared toward the visitor because of other sites they are visiting or products they have bought previously.18 This generation’s toys have reflected the evolution in

18 How Advertisers Use Internet Cookies to Track You.

29 technology by creating responsive toys that can be personalized through a computer, and apps with kid friendly games and video for tablets and smart phones. The toys and food in this gallery will feature toys such as Goldi Blox, a line of engineering type toys made for girls, the gender neutral Easy Bake Oven, and a selection of Frozen toys based on the movie which was the highest-grossing animated film.

Fig.17 Ciechanowski. Rendering of Generation Z Gallery. 2015

In sponsorships, Red Bull’s Stratos, Taylor Swift for Diet Coke, and various celebrities endorsing Beats headphones will be featured. A social media wall and interactive will also be included with social apps such as Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram,

Yak, and Vine. A touch screen will enable visitors to choose what brands or popular vloggers they want to see through various apps, or they can look at the set of monitors at the back of the exhibit which will display real time social media video and pictures from brands relevant to the exhibit. The bedroom vignette in the gallery will represent a tween or teenager’s bedroom and will include the same color palette as the objects and shelving unit in the gallery. On the back wall is a faux window, and there is a desk with an iMac and digital camera which represents the rise in teens and young adults documenting their lives in daily or weekly “vlogs” uploaded to Youtube.

Design Narrative

The look and feel of the exhibit would take advantage of the full wall of windows by highlighting the various generations through shop like windows. The exhibition will have entry into each generation’s gallery and will be constructed at an angle in order to catch the eye of the visitor. Each gallery entrance will have a large graphic print in order to draw the visitor in to the gallery space.

The Baby Boomer Generation gallery will have a darker salmon pink toned carpet influenced by the first lady Mamie Eisenhower’s love of pink and the Pantone colors from the decade. The gallery will have medium-darker colored wood shelving for objects and cases, and interactives. The vignette will feature an 8” long wall of floor to ceiling windows that are 10’ tall to match the exhibit wall height, and a faux staircase along with a built in 1950s replica TV. The family portraits on the wall will be of various sizes with wood frames. The Volkswagen Beetle will be surrounded on three sides with acrylic panels. At the front of the car will be an enlarged copy of the text from the “Think Small” ad attached to MDF.

Generation Jones will have a burnt orange colored carpet, also known as

Sixties Orange, throughout the gallery. The gallery will use lighter colored wood on shelving and exhibit cases. The Spirograph interactive space will have bases made from acrylic in blue, red, and green which represent the colors of the kit. The front base would be made from an eroded metal which matches the color theme of the gallery. The vignette would have a back wall covered in wood paneling, and family portraits of various sizes in wood frames. A Light-Brite wall at the back of the exhibit would have pegs made from various colors of clear acrylic.

The Generation X gallery will have a deep blue carpet representing the vibrant and bold aspect of the generation, along with the Space Race. The gallery will have medium tone wood for the shelving and kitchen vignette, along with use of acrylic object cases for the majority of the objects in the gallery. The gallery’s largest interactive, the video wall, will include TVs from the era stacked 6 high and nearly

10’ tall.

In the Millennial gallery, the carpet will be an olive green shade representing the more neutral tones of the generation. The gallery would also use medium tone wood in its shelving and interactive bases, along with some acrylic object cases. The family room vignette will have a wooden desk and media console along with a rolling office chair and sofa.

The final generation highlighted in the exhibition, Generation Z will have a pale yellow rug to offset the vibrant and deep shades in the objects, social media panels, and shelving boxes. This gallery will have a multicolored modular shelving unit inspired by the German company Cubit.

Fig.18 Ciechanowski. Rendering of Generation Z Gallery. 2015; Cubit. Modular Shelving Unit. 2015

The gallery will also include a touch screen on an aluminum base, and a large interactive display with TV screens of various sizes set in an aluminum frame.

The bedroom vignette will have white painted wood furniture and light colored wood flooring. There will be a faux window on the back wall with a white wooden window frame and long curtains. At the desk will be an Apple iMac along with a replica of a digital camera.

Summary

Marketing and consumer products are constantly changing and evolving, and museum exhibits and galleries should be able to change along with it by finding new ways to include the visitor in the subject, be able to engage the visitor and get the visitor excited and interested to know more about the topic. The exhibit will provide an opportunity to learn factual information on economic policies and political power struggles inside the five eras in order to interpret the video, objects, and slogans of the eras.

The way consumers are marketed to and the medium with how they are reached has changed over the decades. From the start of advertising on television to the move onto the internet and now to finding new ways to advertise through cell phones marketing consistently has a finger on the pulse of the consumer. The exhibit will show this gradual shift through advertisements in both paper, video, and digital format alongside some of the history of the eras to have a reminder or understanding of what was going on at the time that influenced the material of the advertisement.

I hope that others are able to use this research as a way to see how an exhibit is created that will take into consideration various generations and learning styles.

This research and exhibition proposal could be used when gathering information on advertisement or media and how various generations will react in an exhibit that includes the more traditional immersive space and content on text panels to a more modern and updated space with less content, more image, and interactive areas and motion sensor games.

Works Cited:

"A Brief History of Wi-Fi." The Economist, June 12, 2014, Technology Quarterly sec.

Beyers, William B. “Seattle Center Economic Impact Assessment”

“Boomers Are ‘The Most Valuable Generation’ For Marketers, Nielsen Report Finds.”. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/17/marketing-to-boomers-most- valuable-generation_n_1791361.html.

Borun, Minda. “Why Family Learning in Museums?” Exhibitionist, no. Spring 2008 http://name- aam.org/uploads/downloadables/EXH.spg_08/EXH_spg08_Why_Family_Lear ning_in_Museums_Borun.pdf.

Brill, Marlene Targ. America in the 1980s. Minneapolis, Minn.: Twenty-First Century Books, 2010.

Cernan, Eugene, and Don Davis. The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.

Chris, Sherry. “The Next Great Generation: Gen Z.” Huffington Post, September 24, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sherry-chris/the-next-great - generation_b_5864292.html.

Colby, Sandra L., and Jennifer M. Orton. "The Baby Boom Cohort in the United States: 2012 to 2060." Census Current Population Report. May 1, 2014. Accessed November 10, 2014. http://www.census.gov/prod/2014pubs/p25-1141.pdf.

Coombs, Danielle, and Bob Batchelor. We Are What We Sell (3 Volumes). How Advertising Shapes American Life. . . and Always Has. New York: Praeger, 2014.

Cross, Gary S. An All-consuming Century Why Commercialism Won in Modern America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Dunbar, Brian. "1980s: All Eyes Focus on Space Shuttle." NASA. June 27, 2012. Accessed December 2, 2014.

Elmqvist, Maria. “How to Connect with Generation Z - iMediaConnection.com.” iMedia Connection. http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/37330.asp#multiview.

Friesner, Tim. “The Six Living Generations In America.” Marketing Teacher. http://www.marketingteacher.com/the-six-living-generations-in-america/.

“Generation X: America’s Neglected ‘middle Child’ | Pew Research Center.”

“Harvard Business School.” http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/artadv/marketing-revolution.html.

How Advertisers Use Internet Cookies to Track You. http://www.wsj.com/video/howadvertisers- use-internet-cookies-to-track-you/92E525EB-9E4A-4399-817D- 8C4E6EF68F93.html.

Lang, Kurt, and Land, Gladys. Television and Politics. Transaction Publishers, n.d.

Leiss, William. Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Lonoff Schiff, Jennifer. “9 Digital Marketing Tips for Connecting With Teens.” CIO, September 25, 2014. http://www.cio.com/article/2687952/online-marketing/9-digital-marketing- tips-for-connecting-with-teens.html.

"1960s Creativity and Breaking the Rules." Advertising Age 75 Years of Ideas RSS.. http://adage.com/article/75-years-of-ideas/1960s-creativity-breaking- rules/102704/.

McAleenan, Patrick. “Generation Z Think They Know It All. They’re so Wrong,” October 9, 2014, sec. Men. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/11149578/Generation-Z-think- they-know-it-all.-Theyre-so-wrong.html.

“Newseum Celebrates 19 Newsmaking Baby Boomers.” http://www.forbes.com/sites/janelevere/2014/09/30/newseum-celebrates19- newsmaking-baby-boomers/.

Medoff, Norman. Kaye, Barbara. "Electronic Media." In Electronic Media: Then, Now, and Later, by Norman. Kaye, Barbara Medoff, 306. 2011.

Monhollon, Rusty L. Baby Oom People and Perspectives. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC- CLIO, 2010.

Raphelson, Samantha. “From GIs To Gen Z (Or Is It iGen?): How Generations Get Nicknames.” NPR.org. http://www.npr.org/2014/10/06/349316543/don-t- label-me-origins-of-generational-names-and-why-we-use-them.

Raphelson, Samantha. “Getting Some ‘Me’ Time: Why Millennials Are So Individualistic.” NPR.org. http://www.npr.org/2014/10/14/352979540/getting-some-me-time-why- millennials-are-so-individualistic.

Rielly, Edward J. The 1960s. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2003.

“Retro Tech - the Transistor Radio.” BT.com. http://home.bt.com/techgadgets/retro-tech-the-transistor-radio- 11363937910884.

Sagert, Kelly Boyer. The 1970s. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007

Sivulka, Juliann. Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub., 1998.

Seelhorst, Mary. "Henry Ford and Popular Mechanics Bring You the Sights, Sounds and Great Events of Six Generations." Popular Mechanics, April 1, 2000, 93-95.

Taube, Aaron. "How The Greatest Super Bowl Ad Ever - Apple's '1984' - Almost Didn't Make It To Air." Business Insider. January 22, 2014. Accessed December 3, 2014. http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-super-bowl-retrospective-2014-1.

Taylor, Paul, and George Gao. "Generation X: America’s Neglected ‘middle Child’." Pew Research Center RSS. June 5, 2014. Accessed October 30, 2014. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/06/05/generation-x-americas- neglected-middle-child/.

The National Building Museum, ed. World War II and the American Dream. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 1995.

Thompson, Derek. "Bye-Bye, Boomers: This Is the Age of the Baby Bust-ers." The Atlantic. August 22, 2012. Accessed December 3, 2014. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/08/bye-bye-boomers-this- is-the-age-of-the-baby-bust-ers/261424/.

Shaw, Hollie. “Honesty Is Now a Marketing Policy.” National Post Canada, December 27, 2012, sec. Financial Post.

Siy, Alexandra. Footprints on the Moon. Charlesbridge Publishing, 2001.

TEDxTeen. A Teen Just Trying to Figure It out. http://www.ted.com/talks/tavi_gevinson_a_teen_just_trying_to_figure_it_out . "Women in the Workforce." Accessed December 3, 2014. http://www.census.gov/newsroom/pdf/women_workforce_slides.pdf.

“When It Comes To the Baby Boomers, It Is Still All About ‘Me’ | At the Smithsonian | Smithsonian.”. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian- institution/when-comes- baby-boomers-still-all-about-me-180953030/?no-ist.

“Who Will Succeed the Millennials? Let’s Call Them the Post Generation.” AdWeek. http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/who-will-succeed- millennials-let-s-call-them-post-generation-160545.

Young, William H., and Nancy K. Young. World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A Historical and Cultural Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2010.

Appendix A

Advertising and the Boomers

The Boomers. “The first generation to have a defined sense of themselves in a single entity.”19 They are one of the most important demographic events in American

History, and one of the wealthiest and most educated generations. The Boomer generation had over 75 million babies born during their time period of 1946-1964 and increased the United States’ population by 17 million people in one decade20.

With each milestone came another marketing opportunity. At birth the Boomers ushered in the shift away from cities and the move to suburbs such as Levittown, NY in houses with sprawling backyards and neighborhoods with good schools. Family life in the home transitioned from time spent in front of the radio to the television which became a new medium for advertisements. Over 50 million households owned a television by the mid- 1960s21. The most watched event in history, Neil Armstrong,

Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins heading into space and landing on the moon, happened at the end of the Space Race with Russia in July 1969 with over 125 million viewers.22

Advertisers used television to their advantage by introducing spokespersons that were characters or actors to highlight their products. During this time, the 1960s became known as the “image and impression era”23 as advertisers shifted from the product era of the 1950s and focused on communicating the importance and personality of the brand to consumers.

19 Monhollon, Rusty L. Baby Boom: People and Perspectives 20 Census.gov 21 1960s: American Popular Culture Through History Edward J. Rielly 22 The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space

23 Soap, Sex, and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising

By their teenage years the Boomers were spending billions of dollars buying into Beatle mania, Elvis, Davy Crocket, and American Bandstand, radios, music, and telephones, and in their late teens and early twenties they were turning to music as one way to deal with the sentiments of the Vietnam War.

The innovation of color television was a large market for advertisers with companies persuading customers that their brand of television had the best color.

One of the largest manufacturers, Zenith, spent $25 million dollars on television ads.

Advertisers also attempted to keep up with the large youth market of the era and spent $12 billion dollars in ads during 1960 alone.24 These companies were also dealing with effects from the counterculture movement that included civil rights, anti- war, feminism and environmentalism and a general distrust for government and business, especially with advertisers misleading consumers by using actors as doctors. Advertisers also looked toward the 1960 United States Census to learn more about their market’s income and lifestyle. With this research they were able to see that a recession was coming and made the decision to scale back on image based advertising and focus again towards fact based works. Advertisers during this time took a different approach by poking fun at themselves and not taking themselves too seriously. This can be seen in Volkswagen’s “Think Small” campaign, named as the top campaign of the 20th century by Advertising Age25.

24 Cross,Gary An All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America 25 Adage.com 39

By 1965 50% of the population was younger than twenty five.26 With each step advertisers were constantly looking to appeal to this growing demographic with the likes of Pepsi’s campaign of “Think young”, and Coca-cola’s campaign mirroring the peaceful actions of some of their audience with their campaign “I’d Like to Teach the

World to Sing.”

Pop Art, along with artists such as Andy Warhol became more common in advertising, and Campbell’s slogan during the time was changed to “M’m, m’m, groovy!” to appeal to the growing market. Woodstock also was a large influence in the culture of the time bringing with it antiestablishment, individualism, and feminism.27

A big change was coming with the start of the 1970s including inflation, the

Watergate scandal and resignation of Richard M. Nixon, and discord from the

Vietnam War. These events paired with the social and political movements of the past decade caused more conservative reaction from the public during the 1970s through the 1980s.28 There also was a need for proper protection of consumers

26 The 1960s 27 We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life. . . And Always Has 28 Cross,Gary An All-Consuming Century: Why Commercialism Won in Modern America

40 which was brought on by the lawyer Ralph Nader. Nader was the founder of the group NGO Public Citizen, which focused on the health and environmental issues of the public.29 Two examples of this are the 1969 ban on a sugar substitute cyclamates, and limits put on the tobacco industry during the decade. In both cases the advertising industry had to find a way to put a positive spin on the issue for their brand. In the case of the ban on cyclamates, advertising firms had to reassure consumers that the products which they were buying still tasted great but did not include the artificial sweetener.

Another change during this time was to the need to be able to effectively advertise to the many roles of women. Not only was there the traditional housewife, but also the stay at home mother, and the more recent role of the woman in the workplace who was also a wife or a mother. This can be seen below with a variation of McDonald’s campaign “You Deserve a Break Today” which targeted working mothers and recognizing them for their hard work both in and away from the household.

Fig. 19 McDonald’s advertising campaign- “You Deserve a Break Today”

29 Sagert, Kelly Boyer 1970s

The approach of advertising also changed with companies “trying to sell a point of view rather than a product or service…”30 said Fred Danzig of Advertising Age.

Branding of companies became more important during this time with slogans created by advertising agencies to define the brand and make them more memorable to the consumer. Slogans became widely used with examples such as 7UP’s “Uncola,”

Coca-Cola’s “It’s the Real Thing.”31

Music variety shows also continued to play an important part in musicians debuting or performing songs with Soul Train growing in popularity over American

Bandstand and featuring artists such as The Jackson 5, The Temptations, James

Brown, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and KC and the Sunshine Band.

Companies also embraced advertising on television during this time with commercials ranging in length from 30 seconds to 60 seconds. Of the top 100 advertising campaigns during the 20th century one out of every five commercials on the list aired in the 1970s.32 The most popular commercials during this time were

McDonald’s “You Deserve a Break Today,” a form of which can be seen on the previous page; Burger King’s “Have It Your Way” from 1973, American Express’ “Do you Know Me?” from 1975 which used celebrities in their commercials , and

Polaroid’s “It’s so simple” in 1977.

30 The 1970s 31 We are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life. . . And Always Will 32 The 1970s

Advertising to Generation X

The oldest of Generation X were coming of age around 1979 and were welcomed with the highest rate of inflation in thirty-three years along with high unemployment rates.33 Generation X, born from 1964- the early 1980s, is sometimes labeled as the forgotten or “middle child.”34 In a study by Pew Research the generation falls in the middle in demographic between the Millennials and Baby Boomers for all of their charts including their diversity; to the number of friends they have on Facebook, to saying that their generation is unique. Generation X is also a smaller generation than the

Baby Boomers and Millennials and was originally referred to as the baby busters because of this.35

Ronald Reagan came into office in January 1981, which would become an optimistic time for the country. A former actor, he was charismatic, and brought a change to the United States at a time that was needed. He stressed the importance of creating “an era of national renewal.”36 In 1982, women made up 50% of the workplace,37 which was a large accomplishment when compared to previous decades.

Cable television, along with MTV, and the VCR caused a drastic change to the advertising industry. MTV brought a new way for advertisers to get their message across; they enabled advertisers to become part of the message the consumer is watching rather than filler in between shows. History and music became intertwined with the cable network kicking off broadcasting with the airing of video of spaceship

Columbia and one of the views that defined the network, the astronaut, and the

33 America in the 1980s 34 “Generation X: America’s Neglected ‘middle Child’ | Pew Research Center.” 35 Raphelson, “From GIs To Gen Z (Or Is It iGen?” 36 Bye-Bye, Boomers: This Is the Age of the Baby Bust-ers 37 http://www.census.gov/newsroom/pdf/women_workforce_slides.pdf

43 illustration of the MTV flag being saluted.38 Shopping channels such as Home

Shopping Network launched in 1982, and QVC launched in 1986, came onto the air giving viewers the ability to shop wherever they had access to cable and a telephone.

Channels such as CNN gave companies the ability to bring their products into the worldwide market by selling advertising throughout the world. The rise of the yuppie also happened in the early 1980s, which was one of the first “lifestyle” target groups for advertisers.39 Pepsi also followed the youth market by changing their slogan from

“Pepsi generation” to “Choice of a new generation” to appeal to Gen-Xers.

During the mid-80s companies moved away from the then standard 30 second commercials toward 15 second spots in order to become more profitable. The most popular commercials during this time were Pepsi using Michael Jackson as a spokesperson featuring him singing and on stage; Nike made $2.5 million 5 year deal with Michael Jordan; The California Raisins Advisory Board using music and claymation raisins who sang Marvin Gaye’s 1968 hit “I Heard It Through the

Grapevine;” along with the Apple Macintosh commercial “1984.” The commercial was based upon George Orwell’s novel 1984, aired once during the 1984 Superbowl, and ran one minute long. The commercial did not even feature any of Apple’s products yet is still considered one of the best commercials in Super Bowl history.40

38 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/about/history/timeline/80s-decade.html 39 Social Communication in Advertising: Consumption in the Mediated Marketplace

40 http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-super-bowl-retrospective-2014-1

Advertising to The Millennials

The Millennials, Y Generation, or the Me Generation. Born during the early

1980s-the early 2000s, the Millennials have benefitted from the movements of the 1960s and 1970s. These movements ranging from civil rights, anti- war, feminism and environmentalism have made room for the Millennials work towards awareness in climate change and green design, and have taken the pressure off of getting married at a younger age, having children at a young age, if having any at all41. This generation also saw the exploration of Mars and many leaps in technology. Two examples were, the iPod launching in 2001 with Wireless internet rapidly expanded that same year.42 The

Millennials also saw a decline in print media and the slow shift to the Kindle, iPad, and

Nook along with digital subscriptions to newspapers and magazines.

Advertising to Generation Z

This generation is coming of age now with its oldest in high school. They are technologically savvy, optimistic about their future and the first generation to have grown up with the internet, laptops, and iPads. They are also very fickle and as 13 year old Katelyn Lohr, the founder of Freetoes, a toeless sock company says, “We want to see the product—shoes, hats, clothes, accessories—being used and looking great, not be told how great the product is”43 This is shown in advertisement by the lack of words but abundance of an aesthetically pleasing product, bright, flashy colors, and the symbol of the brand. Lohr also shows that this generation is more apt to being entrepreneurs. With the internet at their fingertips Generation Z are becoming bloggers or vloggers with large amounts of followers. One example is Tavi Gevinson who, at 12, became well known due to her fashion blog and at 15 founded a magazine. She also spoke at TEDxTeen on

41 Raphelson, “Getting Some ‘Me’ Time.” 42 “A Brief History of Wi-Fi.” 43 Lonoff Schiff, “9 Digital Marketing Tips for Connecting With Teens.”

45 women being represented in popular culture.44 Brands are adapting to this new generation by sending them their products and have them be their “spokesperson” of sorts as a way to bring in more revenue and grow their audience.

Scott Hess, Senior Vice President at the media agency Spark calls Generation Z the post generation as they are:

“inheriting a world that is Post Obama. Post Facebook and social media. Post

mobile computing and smartphones. Post 9/11. Post Columbine and Sandy Hook.

Post “don’t ask/don’t tell” and same-sex marriage rights. Post legal marijuana.

Post local and insular. And, quite obviously, post millennial.”45

This generation is able to order virtually anything they want off of sites like

Amazon and have it delivered to them the next day. They are seeing not only electric cars but self driving cars become a reality. They are globally aware because of their connection to the internet and have the ability to connect with nearly anyone around the world through Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, Facetime, or simply e-mail.

44 TEDxTeen, A Teen Just Trying to Figure It out. 45 “Who Will Succeed the Millennials?”

Appendix B

“Seattle Center is a major tourist attraction, with about 50% of its visitors coming from outside King County. Most of these people make their trips primarily to go to events or activities at Seattle Center. Their spending, plus the income that businesses at Seattle Center receive from sources other than visitors from outside King County, results in economic impacts that would not occur if Seattle Center were not located here or if businesses located here were not in King County. The magnitude of these economic impacts is referred to as “new money” impacts. They yielded $597 million in business activity, 7,349 jobs, $193 million in labor income, and $23 million in tax revenues in the year 2005.

A typical group of visitors to Seattle Center was composed of two or three people.

Over 90% of them made their visit to Seattle primarily to visit Seattle Center. They are roughly evenly split between men and women, and encompass all age categories.

They are primarily working full-time or are self-employed, but include retired people, those not working, students, and other classes of people.”

Appendix C

Full Assessment Available at: www.seattlecenter.com/admin/fileout.aspx?thefile=836

Appendix D

Site Plan of the Fisher Pavilion

Site Section View of the Fisher Pavilion

Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015 Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015

Table of Contents

Mission Statement...... 1

Target Audience...... 2

Site...... 3

Content Plan...... 5

Color Schemes...... 6

Inspirations...... 7

Exterior Treatment...... 8

Vignettes...... 10

Baby Boomers...... 13

Generation Jones...... 19

Generation X...... 24

Millennials...... 30

Generation Z...... 35

Graphic Elements...... 41

Materials...... 43

Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015

Mission Statement:

Marketing History: Baby Boomer to Generation Z brings together the sights, sounds, and voices of generations through the medium of advertising and consumer products. Beginning in the 1950s, this exhibition will follow the generations of Baby Boomer, Generation Jones, Generation

the history and consumer culture of each era with the advertisements, slogans, commercials, and products of the time in an immersive and interactive game-like environment.

Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015 1

Target Audience

ages was chosen to begin a dialogue between family members. Each family member can have the opportunity to identify with the generations featured in the exhibit along with the advertisements, slogans, commercials, and products of each generation.

to the site are 11 and under, 35-44 year olds, 45-54 year olds, and 25-34 year olds.

Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015 2

Site

Center in Seattle, Washington. • been redeveloped into Seattle’s largest tourist destination.

• Features numerous museums and attractions which include the Space Needle and

• Is accessible by public transportation, car, bike or on foot.

Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015 3

Fisher Pavilion

areas into the exhibition from the full wall of windows and large indoor and outdoor staircases leading to the exhibit space.

Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015 4

Content Plan

Baby Boomers Generation Jones Generation X Millennials Generation Z

New electronics and Toys and food products Music and music playing Vignettes other technology in the products home

Elizabeth Ciechanowski Exhibition Design Thesis Fall 2015 5

Color Scheme Inspired by Pantone’s 50 Years in Color, each color represents a generation in the exhibit.

Baby Boomers 1946-1954 Growing up in a post-war environment, this generation witnessed a time of optimism, prosperity, and comfort. A sign of this optimistic tone was the use of certain colors seen throughout fashion and in household decoration. Colors changed from a

pastel to red pinks became one of the most popular colors during this time.

Generation Jones 1955-1965

muted version of Sixties Orange, known as a vibrant hue, was widely used in print and interior designs during this time.

Generation X 1966-early 1980s

deep blues and bright reds.

Millennials early 1980s-1995

Generation Z 1996-Present

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Inspirations

1 2

4 5

6 1. Disneyland attraction Monsanto House of the Future 1957 2. Eichler Model Homes 1956-1965. San Mateo, CA. Designed by A. Quincy Jones 3. Design installation for ‘les nécessaires d’Hermès” collection by Phillipe Nigro for Hermès during Milan Salon del Mobile April 2013 4. Mid-Century Modern Australian Furniture Design-National Gallery of Victoria. May-October 2014 5. Life Magazine January 14, 1952. Same Rooms, Varied Decor Levittown, NY amatuer home-decorating contest held by William Levitt. 6. Lacoste 80th Anniversary shop front windows. New York Fashion Week September 2013

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Exterior Colors represented in the exhibit would be displayed on skrim material above the doors be another way to draw visitors into the exhibit.

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“Storefront” Windows

“Storefront” windows would be created in order to utilize the space in the lobby/entrance to draw visitors into the exhibit space.

the top right shows the placement of the panel in the exhibit space.

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Vignettes or recreated spaces, in each gallery of represent various rooms of the home throughout the various generations. room to a kitchen and a young teenager’s bedroom.

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Survey Stations Ullaboreri conem velles modiatur sequati beatiur, inus corem explaborro demquassi omnis dolupta ectium lit

Once visitors receive a wristband they would be able to scan it at points in the exhibit in order to answer questions

week?” to “Do you live in the suburbs or a city?”

the end of the exhibit guests would be able to swipe in and check their results in a room near Generation Z’s gallery.

Results would show where they land on the scale from Baby Boomer to Generation Z based on their answers, and how other visitors to the exhibit ranked.

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Entrance Space

screens would show a short reel of historical news clips so that visitors who were unfamiliar with a decade would be able to get a better -

during that time.

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“ dominant) and a new soundtrack (rock ‘n’ roll)-and that was even before most boomers were old enough to go to college and get a job (which boomer women did in unprecedented numbers). ” -Landon Y. Jones

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Gallery Entrance, Toys and Food

First view into the Baby Boomer gallery. On the right is a large graphic of newborn babies in cribs at a hospital.

gallery giving background of the generation and the role of products and advertising during the time.

reproductions of televisions from that era that will play clips of commercials, and televisions shows which has advertising within their programming.

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Interactive Space and a Beetle

A 3D image of the items would be displayed along with the scents.

Next to the interactive station is a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle in

posted on the wall beside it.

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Levittown Vignette

a Levittown house. Visitors are able to walk through each vignette as all furniture and other objects in the space are reproductions

On the outer wall of the space is a wall panel with a graphic wrap of an aerial view of Levittown, and to the right side

that was featured at the back of the house overlooking the backyard.

Inside the room is a reproduction television similar to

television would play a loop of popular commercials and news clips from the era.

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Music and Household Interactives

View further into the gallery which show pieces from a Kenner model toy house set that they can play with.

On the back wall is a large graphic taken of young Beatles

the right where visitors can listen to popular hits from artists of the time, or music from American Bandstand and the Ed Sullivan Show.

To the right is a scanning station relating to phone use in the home and there is a large graphic print of a Life magazine

formal sitting on a staircase while talking on the phone and amongst themselves.

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Household Interactive

View at the back of the gallery which features an interactive element tied to the rotary phone. Visitors are asked to try

numbers that are posted and attempting to use the enlarged rotary dials to call them.

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Generation Jones ”

“We were given huge expectations growing up during the height of postwar optimism, and then

was used a great deal during our childhood. So in a sense we feel owed.” -Jonathan Pontell, Generation Jones

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Gallery Entrance

View into the Generation Jones gallery. To the right is a large graphic panel representing the generation through one of it’s

shows a family in front of their house with a car and a boat.

An introduction panel into the generation’s gallery is to the right and gives background of the generation and the role of products and advertising during the time.

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Toys and Food

View of various toys and food from the generation placed on

series of commercials from the era.

A compare this sign is placed next to a Crissy doll with a link to the Totally Ultra Hair barbie doll in the Generation

has long wavy hair and her box is designed in an earthtone pallete. On the other hand Ultra Hair Barbie is dressed in an 80’s style with neon colors, crimped hair, and a scrunchi.

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Vignette

includes photos hung on the wall and a television from that era that has been reproduced. Current events of the time will play along with popular commercials and ads.

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Interactives, Music

View of Spirograph interactive. Includes three drawing stations with pens and paper. Bases are made from acrylic in blue, red, and green which represent the colors from the

which matches the color theme of the gallery. An ad for the game which was created in the style of a comic is at the front.

Soul Train. At the center are portable music playing devices,

version that is in a case in front of the interactive.

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Generation X

“ media technologies to transform their personal and cultural landscapes. In particular,

MTV, a channel based on music video clips that spoke to these rebels so well in their own audiovisual language that teens used MTV and Nickelodeon to escape from the family without ever leaving the home. ” -Katie Mills “Await Lightning” How Generation X Remaps the Road Story

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Gallery Entrance

View into the Generation X gallery. To the right is a large

featured in Life Magazine, May of 1985.

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Toys and Electronics

View of smaller toys and electronics on wood shelving and

younger age.

beginning was providing embellishments to dress up a household potato.

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Food, Electronics

Food, electronic advertisements and items are featured on

popular movies, or well remembered food advertisements. One ad shows product placement for Reese Pieces in ET.

on to have ET featured on their product, along with toys and other memorabilia related to the brand.

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Technology

commercial 1984, produced by Apple computers. To the right of the graphic is the model of computer mentioned at the end of the commercial.

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Music, Video Games

Interactive space with wall of televisions showing various commercials that ran on MTV at its induction. To the right is an ad from Atari along with a near life-size stack of video games.

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Millennials

“Good-bye to piercings, green hair, grunge music and the deliberately uncouth look. Hello to kids who look up to their parents and think bowling is fun. Whatever the post-Generation-X

that precedes them..” -Dyan Machan A More Tolerant Generation. Forbes 1997

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Gallery Entrance, Toys and Food

View into the Millennial gallery. To the right is a large graphic of a combination of people’s faces who are various ages,

represents the vast diversity of the Millennials as they are considered the most diverse generation thus far.

popular food brands of the generation. Some examples include

Beanie Babies, and the Taco Bell dog.

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Electronic Toys, Music Devices

View of electronic toys, and music ranging from a talkboy to an iPod. To the right is an interactive area with a Talkback Diary and a Talkback Datapad. Visitors are able to use this reproductions to send secret messages to friends or leave a message for the next visitor.

to the transistor radio in the Baby Boomer gallery.

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Technology

View of electronics-computers and video games. In this section there are 2 versions of a computer by Mac; a desktop and laptop.

during the time was also known for having changeable front and back plates in any color or print that could be thought of. Underneath is an interactive on a TV screen which would enable visitors to play Snake.

To the right are various video gaming system including a

that were popular during that time.

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Vignette

represents a computer room, or computer space that children

with sofa and TV are close by as parents were told to monitor what their children did online. Both the TV and computer are reproductions, so children will be able to check out some areas that are pre-programmed into the computer.

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Generation Z

“ Having been born post-911, they have never known a time that the United States has not

Millennials, have no memory of the free-spending boom times that came before.” -Laura Heller Move Over Millennials, Generation Z Is In Charge Forbes 2014

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Gallery Entrance

was chosen as the generation is still forming and both the name of the generation and the dates are still up for debate.

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Toys and Food

View of multicolored shelving with toys and food along with commercials playing. Some examples of objects are GoldiBlox

To the right of the shelving is an advertisement for Red Bull and the sponsorship of Red Bull Stratos. Below the advertisement is a looped video of the space dive.

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Music and Social Media

View of the music and social media area of the gallery. Visitors can go to the touch screen and choose what brands or vloggers they want to see through apps such as Snapchat,

or product reviews made in relation to the exhibit. At the back of the gallery space is a set of monitors which will display real time social media video and pictures from brands relevant to the exhibit.

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Vignette

View into the vignette, a tween or teenager’s bedroom with

represents the rise in teens and young adults documenting their lives in daily or weekly “vlogs” uploaded to Youtube.

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Interactive “Check Out” Space

Visitors have the option of “checking out” by swiping their

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Graphic Elements

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Exhibition Posters and Advertisement

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Materials

Powder coated aluminum for touch

screen bases and holders. Laminate cherry wood- object pedestals Acrylic bonnet

Acrylic base for interactive check out space

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