The Power of Marketing brought Power to the Farm

Lester Beall

Power on the Farm, Rural Electrification Administration, 1941

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/5020

Electricity had completely transformed the day-to-day lives of city dwellers by the 1930’s. According to Kitchens and Fishback (2015), while more than 90% of every major city in the United States had electricity in 1930, only 10% of farms were electrified. In 1935, an executive order by Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Rural Electrification Administration. This gave utility cooperatives access to loans from the government to create an infrastructure that would introduce electricity to the rural population. While electricity was proven to improve the quality of life, many of the rural farmers didn’t understand the value of electricity at first. The rural population was often illiterate and didn’t have access to current news. This is where an important marketing strategy would come into play.

Lester Beall was a successful graphic designer who was approached in 1935 to get the word out to rural Americans that electricity would change their lives. (Pompeson 2012). His use of color, red, white, and blue, spoke to a sense of patriotism. His bold pictures with very little verbiage was meant to get a message to people whether or not they could read. In the picture I have included here, a farmer is shown working on a complex electrically powered machine. It would appeal to a farmer because it shows a task that would normally be very manually intensive, sharpening a knife, can be done much more simply with the help of electricity. The man in the picture looks relatable, but also sophisticated. The only words on the poster say, “Power on the Farm,” thus it could be understood by those who had marginal reading skills. This example is eye-catching and worked. Beall was contracted to make three sets of posters in total to advertise the Rural Electrification Administration. (Golec 2013).

These bold and compelling posters were used at county and state fairs, and while the message spoke to illiterate farmers, they also attracted the attention of a more elite crowd of government officials and experts. And they worked: within 15 years, more than 90% of rural farms had electricity. (Kirtchens & Fishback 2015). The power of marketing worked to bring light to rural communities across the United States.

               

References

Golec, M. J. (2013). Poster power: rural electrification, visualization, and legibility in the United States. History & Technology, 29(4), 399-410. doi:10.1080/07341512.2013.876249

Kitchens, C., & Fishback, P. (2015). Flip the Switch: The Impact of the Rural Electrification Administration 1935–1940. The Journal of Economic History, 75(4), 1161-1195. doi:10.1017/S0022050715001540

Pompeson, P. (2012). Lester Beall and the Rural Electrification Administration. Inside Out: A MoMA/MoMa PS1 Blog. Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/03/22/lester-beall-and-the-rural-electrification-administration/