TIME: Almanac of the 20th Century

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<text> <title> (1960s) Products & Consumerism </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1960s Highlights </history> <link 06512> <link 05737> <link 01429> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> Products & Consumerism </hdr> <body> [Americans bought and used a vast number of new products and processes. Among the most innovative and memorable:] (March 13, 1964) Du Pont has spent $100 million to develop Teflon and similar substances, and so many uses have been found for Teflon that it has taken its place as one of the "miracle" products. To the astonishment of U.S. housewives, eggs, meat, even cheese and pancakes, required no fat for frying and could quickly be removed from the pan without sticking. U.S. companies have since begun making many cooking utensils with Teflon, but the material has moved far beyond the stove. Electronics companies are making printed circuits out of Teflon, which can be sliced to one two-thousandths of an inch. Teflon is used in barbecue gloves that will not scorch, in missile nose cones and in fireproof suits. Ovens and muffin tins are coated with Teflon, and a coating of Teflon is applied to some electric irons to make them slide more easily across cloth. Surgeons are using Teflon tubing successfully to replace artery sections. Steinway even turns out a piano with 1,130 Teflon bushings that replace conventional cloth, which shrinks, expands and eventually rots. (April 17, 1964) This week Ford's new Mustang sports car, one of the most heralded and attention-drawing cars in autodom's history, drives into showrooms all over the U.S. In it rides both a big bundle of Ford's future and the reputation of the man who daily test- drives a different Mustang between Bloomfield Hills and Dearborn. The man is Lido Anthony Iacocca, general manager of Ford's Ford Division, which accounts for roughly 80% of the company's sales. With its long hood and short rear deck, its Ferrari flare and openmouthed air scoop, the Mustang resembles the European racing cars that American sports-car buffs find so appealing. Yet Iacocca has made the Mustang's design so flexible, its price so reasonable and its options so numerous that its potential appeal reaches toward two-thirds of all U.S. car buyers. Priced as low as $2,368 and able to accommodate a small family in its four seats, the Mustang seems destined to be a sort of Model A of sports cars--for the masses as well as for the buffs. (October 30, 1964) The newest fad in U.S. business offices is the copy break--that unguarded moment when clerk or perhaps even vice president slips over to the office copying machine, quietly reproduces everything from old love letters to check stubs. Half a million U.S. offices now have one or more copying machines, which this year will turn out well over 10 billion copies, or 50 for each person in the nation. (April 21, 1967) Though basically kin to such familiar cards as American Express and Diners Club, bank credit cards aim more at the ordinary needs of middle-income families than at travel and expense account entertainment by executives. In a few cities, doctors, dentists and veterinarians already accept bank cards; in Chicago, several mortuaries and ambulance services have signed up, and at the city's Cheetah Twistadrome Boutique. The obvious goal for any ambitious bank or bank group is to span the U.S. with a single credit card system. In the race to go transcontinental, the giant Bank of America has grabbed an early lead. Last year it began licensing banks outside its California domain to use its highly successful (2,057,000 members, $228 million annual billings) BankAmericard. Fifteen banks have signed up, adding 1,500,000 cardholders and 30,000 retailers to the system. [Americans embraced consumerism and fought for safer food, manufactured products, homes, cars and workplaces.] (December 12, 1969) Ralph Nader is by now an almost legendary crusader who would--and could--use a fly to instigate a congressional investigation. As the self-appointed and unpaid guardian of the interests of 204 million U.S. consumers, he has championed dozens of causes, prompted much of U.S. industry to reappraise its responsibilities and, against considerable odds, created a new climate of concern for the consumer among both politicians and businessmen. Nader's influence is greater now than ever before. That is partly because the consumer, who has suffered the steady ravished of inflation upon his income, is less willing to tolerate substandard, unsafe or misadvertised goods. It is also because Nader's ideas have won acceptance in some surprising places. Last week, for example, Henry Ford II went farther than any other automobile executive ever has in acknowledging the industry's responsibility for polluting the air and asked--indeed, prodded--the Government to help correct the situation. Nader was able to force off the market General Motors' Corvair, which was withdrawn from production this year. Corvair's sales had plunged by 93% after Nader condemned the car as a safety hazard in his bestseller, Unsafe at Any Speed. That influential book, and Nader's later speeches, articles and congressional appearances, also forced the Department of Transportation to impose stricter safety standards on automobile and tire manufacturers. Advocate, muckraker and crusader, Nader has also been almost solely responsible for the passage of five major federal laws. They are the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, the Wholesale Meat Act of 1967, the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act, the Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act and the Wholesale Poultry Products Act, all of 1968. This week Congress will almost certainly pass the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, which Nader and a group of insurgent mine workers supported against the wishes of complacent union leadership. From witness chairs and podiums, he has also taken aim at excessively fatty hot dogs, unclean fish, tractors that tip over and kill farmers, and the dangerous misuse of medical X-rays. (March 8, 1963) When the old Nash Motors Co. came out with seat belts as standard equipment in 1949, customers tore them out and cut them off with razor blades. Last week, as Studebaker became the first U.S. auto-maker now in business to make set belts standard equipment, no one had any fear that motorist would once more lay hold of their razors. Finally convinced by safety authorities that seat belts can prevent many traffic deaths, U.S. motorists are buying them so fast that sales have risen threefold since 1960 to $63 million last year--and this year are running at double the 1962 rate. Beltmakers see an almost unlimited potential for their product. So far, only 8,000,000 of the 65.5 million cars on U.S. roads have seat belts. Making them standard equipment in Detroit would add more than $114 million a year to sales--not counting the millions of auto owners who would then be inspired to install belts on their own. </body> </article> </text>