251: Keep the Consumer Dissatisfied

Period postcard depicting the headquarters of General Motors in Detroit.

During the 1910s, Henry Ford sold millions of affordable, mass-produced cars and built the biggest car company in the world.

But during the 1920s, Ford’s company would be overshadowed by the upstart General Motors, which built an even bigger company by relying on a whole new marketing strategy: planned obsolescence.

  • Listen now:



Playlist:

Fanfare

Opening Theme

“In My Merry Oldsmobile”
Composed in 1905 by Gus Edwards and Vincent P. Bryan. Public domain.

“California, Here I Come”
Composed in 1921 by Buddy DeSylva and Joseph Meyer. Public domain.

Closing Theme 



Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.

5 thoughts on “251: Keep the Consumer Dissatisfied

  1. Are my ears getting older or is the voice quality of the podcast took a nosedive?
    I think we also need a podcast on du pont and american chemical industry, esp. the rise of oil industry, plastics and petrochemicals..

    • It doesn’t sound any different to me. Has anyone else noticed a problem?

      Petrochemicals is definitely a topic I want to discuss, but I don’t think we’ll get to it until the 1950s or 60s.

      • when I reduce the noise, distortion in the voice goes away. It seems that the problem is related to my audio system…
        An interesting story about oil refining is catalytic cracking. Because of that the allied aircraft used much higher octane fuel than te germans during ww2.

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