e, for example, “the affluence of America meant that almost every family owned a car” and food rationing was unthinkable while in Briton the opposite was true. Other countries experienced the boom in designed consumerism through the media especially television. Audiences were directly targeted through adverts and sponsored programs that were sold to Europe were to a certain extent selling the American way of life (the American dream). However it was not only American influences that affected Europe. Following the unifying political and social changes taking place after the second world war various aesthetics from other cultures like Japanese art and the chic of Italian design began for the first time to be accessible to the general public, these ideals were sold back across the Atlantic to the American public.With the constant threat of the cold war between America and the Soviet Union the American public had a fear of the unknown, in this case communism and the atom bomb. This fear can be seen for example in countless alien attack and end of civilisation B movies. Another weapon used against communism was consumerism, to be able have more choice and the newest and best of everything. Even if the product was of poor quality. The culture of the time was a form of rebellion, flamboyant and wasteful, cars with racing car engines that do 10 miles to the gallon, fast food and rock and roll. Pop Art fitted in to these categories well and was accepted because it was a non-elitist non-threatening and easily recognisable form of art. In 1957 the artist Richard Hamilton listed Pop Arts characteristics as: Popular (designed for mass audience)Transient (short term solution)Expendable (easily forgotten)Low costYoung (aimed at the youth)WittySexyGimmickyGlamorousBig businessBoth Warhol and Lichtenstine were unknown to each other while creating similar techniques it was however lichtenstein’s Ben Day dots that set him apart and what ...
