Commercializing Lifestyles: An Analysis of Lifestyle Brand Identities and Consumer Engagement in Post-War Mass Media

This Independent Study’s purpose examines lifestyle brands and consumer brand engagement in mass media. Historically brands have created, maintained, and strengthened lifestyle identities in multiple media since the 1940s. Lifestyle brand images have been marketing in print advertisements, broadcast and cable television, the internet, and social media. Additionally, the 1960s creative revolution was a crucial context to the growth of lifestyle branding through individualistic ideologies. Furthermore, this study quantitatively analyzes consumer engagement with lifestyle brands on social media. A quantitative survey looks to find out how consumers reacted and identify with their favorite brands and lifestyle brands on social media. Quantitative results found that consumers were more connected to and informed of lifestyle brands identities. A specific case analysis of Nike and Adidas found that consumers felt closer and engaged more with Nike, a lifestyle brand, than with Adidas, a non-lifestyle brand. A historical primary source analysis of lifestyle advertisements in twentieth century media argued that lifestyle images have transformed. This second method supported the quantitative research by analyze the corporate side the media consumption environment