New York World's Fair (1939)

Located in America's Flushing Meadows-Corona Park from 1939 - 1940, the idea of the fair was to show the world of the "future". Not necessarily what it may be like or trying to predict what may happen but more of a way of "presenting a new and clearer view of today in preparation for tomorrow" This was reassuring to society at the time, as it appeared during the after years of the first world war which created a huge economic decline and unknowingly before the events of WWII occurred.
According to many critics, the fair "provided the one saving grace which all of America needed - it provided hope".
Over the two seasons the exhibition was open, it is estimated that nearly 44 million people attended and visited the fair, where they were seen "enjoying entertainments from marionette shows and thrill rides to 'girlie' shows and choreographed aquatic extravaganzas."
The theme of the 1939 New York World's Fair was one of refreshment of new and exciting ideas, forms, views and mostly consumer products. It was trying to change culturally, politically, globally and commercially, the society of post war. Some believe it shaped and defined these things so much that it still effects us, the modern consumer, today.
On display at the time were exhibitions, restaurants, theatres, artwork, and plays. There was even a national cash register, "The Road of Tomorrow" an elevated highway made from cork and rubber, futuristic models of New York city, auditoriums, modern machines and techniques to package products, 'Fun Zones' which included games and rides for entertainment and buildings that represented various world destinations (such as Russia and Poland).

Arial view of a small section of the New York World's Fair 1939. The Trylon and Perisphere structures later became the symbols for the fair.

It was also during this time, that William (Bill) Bernbach (soon to be one of the founders of DDB Doyle Dane Bernbach) was working for the Schenley Distillers Company, Pennsylvania. This would change, however, when the fair closed in 1940, where he began his career as copywriter for William Weintraub ad agency.
Bernbach may have been influenced by what he saw at the New York World's Fair and how the viewers reacted towards it. Much of what happened at the fair can be compared to Bernbach's advertising style - which included inventing new and exciting ways, one step ahead of everyone else, in promoting or selling products.

Bibliography:

Wikipedia (2013) 1939 New York World's Fair (Unknown Author) [Online] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_New_York_World's_Fair

America Studies (2009) Welcome To Tomorrow (Unknown Author) [Online] http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/display/39wf/frame.htm

Taylor. A (Author) The Atlantic (2013) The 1939 New York World's Fair [Online] http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/11/the-1939-new-york-worlds-fair/100620/

Transatlantic Perspectives (2013) William Bernbach (Unknown Author) [Online] http://www.transatlanticperspectives.org/entry.php?rec=29