In the final years of the Great Depression, Americans began to encounter huge and lofty billboards across the country promising for the great future. Outside the grocery stores, offices, streets, long highways, they were everywhere.
These billboards featured Happy American families picnicking, greeting family members, partying, or taking a Sunday drive with the family dog. Smiley faces, comfortable car, and cheerful lifestyle indicated that they were living a happy life without any worries. These happy people on the billboards were also spreading some fabricated and unfeasible messages such as “World’s Shortest Working Hours”, World’s Highest Wages”, “World’s Highest Standard of Living” and “There is no way like the American Way”.
These billboards were designed and distributed by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). They were placed in every city with a population of over 2,500, reaching an estimated 65 million Americans daily. While the other nations were turning to communism and fascism these billboards encouraged the public towards the capitalist world. At that time, many Americans were devasted by the worst economic downturn. The people began examining their political options. In this atmosphere, New Dealers, industrial unionists, conservative businessmen, and their various allies all seized on the language of Americanism and sought to define the nation in ways that furthered their own political and social agendas.
