The shaping of american character has progressed over the years in which this country has existed. The change of beliefs in America are different from each generation to the next, in this paper two generations have been selected and will be compared and contrasted through the popular American magazine Time. The two specific years chosen to represent their generation have been picked arbitrarily. The first issue of Time magazine that will be looked at is the June 9th 1958 issue and the second is the July 9th 1984 issue. Both issues portray American culture as it was by the use of advertisements, and, then current opinions to issues of importance to the country. By looking in depth at the magazine a sense of the culture of the times and how the country has changed will be hugely apparent.
An overview of the 1958 issue of Time shows the values of the times, by the use of cologne ads, travel ads, alchohol adds which materialize on every page, cigarette adds, along with one wash and wear suit add. In an overview of the issue from 1985, car advertisements were big, current news was and is the main part of the magazine. There are far fewer advertisements of any kind, and a much greater sense of importance was placed in the news. When it comes to the distribution of the magazine it can be seen by the adds that it is geared towards a certain gender, or race and last of all socioeconomic status. .
Plainly it can be seen that white men were the dominant readers of the magazine. With an add for Old Granddad, " a bourbon that makes friends last", it slogan is "Head of the Bourbon Family." This denotes that a man, old granddad should be the head of the family, and therefore should drink this bourbon, perfectly logical in 1955. Most of the alchohol adds are driven towards men with a Seagrams gin advertisement appearing that if you drink gin you should be in a tuxedo at a cocktail party.