Consumerism can be thought of as the culture surrounding the buying and selling of products. consumerism came into its own throughout the 1920s as a result of mass production, new products on the market, and improved advertising techniques. with more leisure time available and money to spend, americans were eager to own the latest items.

read the excerpt from will rogers' column below:

"everything nowadays is a saying or slogan. you can’t go to bed, you can’t get up, you can’t brush your teeth without doing it to some advertising slogan. we are even born nowadays by a slogan: 'better parents have better babies.'

you see a fool slogan can get you into anything. but you never heard of a slogan getting you out of anything. it takes either bullets, hard work or money to get you out of anything. nobody has ever invented a slogan to use instead of paying your taxes.

but they will fall for ’em. you shake a slogan at an american and it’s just like showing a hungry dog a bone. we even die by slogans. i saw an undertaker’s sign the other day which read: 'there is a satisfaction in dying if you know the woodlawn brothers are to bury you.'"

what does rogers' commentary say about consumerism in america in the 1920s?