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| Mona Abaza looks back on the consumer culture of the 1960s / Al-Ahram Weekly Features Advertising history 1 - 7 July 2004 Issue No. 697 Features Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 Advertising history Mona Abaza looks back on the consumer culture of the 1960s Clockwise from top: advertising locally produced radios; IDEAL; FIAT; local couture (photos: Courtesy of Mona Abaza) Many of our generation would agree that the most drastic change they ever experienced in their life style was during Al-Sadat's infitah. It was during Sadat that Egyptians discovered the unlimited desires, but also frustrations of the eternal unfulfilled desires of consumption. Sadat's shift of alliance from the Soviet Union to the Western capitalist world in the early 1970s was followed by the policy of the open door. This concretely meant further privatisation at the expense of destroying the public sector and the state monopoly over large scale industries. This was followed by the World Bank and the IMF's increasing intervention in internal Egyptian economic planning decisions. The Nasser regime's achievement in import substitution came under attack. The shift from the Nasserite state capitalist era to full integration into the world capitalist system went hand in hand with encouraging consumerism among Egyptians as a new lifestyle. This led to an astonishing and swift transformation in the consumer norms and shopping customs of Egyptians. On t...
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