Conclusion

Abstract

By 1948, when Seventeen’s promotional director circulated this brochure, seen in figure 6.1, to thousands of manufacturers, marketers, and retailers, she confidently presented the magazine’s success in reaching teenage girls, conducting research about teenage girls, selling teenage girls to advertisers, and selling products to teenage girls. The teenage girl was “worth” almost $12 million because businesses were willing to invest that much into selling her their products. She was worth this to advertisers because she purchased the magazine and the products advertised in it, spending an estimated $2 billion annually on food, clothing, cosmetics, and entertainment.

When is a girl worth $11,690,499?

… when 1738 advertisers spend just that much money in four years—to sell her their product and their name in the magazine she reads

… when the magazine devoted to her interests surveys her needs—sets up a research department, a consumer panel, a library of fifteen market studies to determine her powerful present, her promising future

… when the magazine she buys on the newsstands or subscribes to can show a 150% circulation gain—400,000 copies sold in September ‘44; 1,000,000 in September ‘48

Seventeen—the magazine that keeps pace with each new generation of teens.

—Seventeen Magazine Promotional Brochure, 1948¹