The 1939 New York World’s Fair: The World of Tomorrow is arguably the 20th century’s most aggressively branded peacetime marketing event—and a model for the brand masters of the postwar field. As I described it in 2020: “The Fair promised to restore trust in American capitalism after the violent plunge of 1929. A response to the Great Depression. A corporate-sponsored, designer-conceived revision of a world that was shaken by an economic catastrophe that took a human toll on lives and livelihoods. Today it’s a memory of better and worse times; it is an experience; it was about hope that was placed in creative industrial planning—a lifeline to the future. At the same time, it was an entertainment extravaganza replete with souvenirs galore. You cannot have revolution without souvenirs. So in addition to its higher goals, the World of Tomorrow was a show, a stage on which capitalism was a spectacle, a force for good. It’s now more than just nostalgia—it’s antique.”
I’ve long been interested in how children are targeted in the branding of companies, institutions and ideologies (even political parties). This is a textbook example (one of many games, souvenirs and mnemonics) of a kind of World’s Fair propaganda. It is useful to see how the drawing style, lettering and character(s) use the language of persuasion.
Published in 1938 by adult magazine editor Maxwell M. Geffen, one of many independent contractors, Johnny’s So Long at the Fair: Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be? (designed by the unknown Märta) is based on a traditional English nursery rhyme, “Oh Dear! What Can the Matter Be?” The original line expresses a lover’s impatience as Johnny is delayed at a carnival or market while making promises to buy blue ribbons and a straw hat. Geffen’s estate held ownership of the lyric until 1988.
Its charm derives from a kind of sophisticated innocence, suggesting all the potential attractions that will hold the interests of the half-price customer, while the full-price parents visit the future incarnate. No stone or exhibit was left off the menu of possibilities for diversion, fun and education in this paradise of consumerism. It is arguably a brand guide for capturing the hearts and coins of the American child, just emerging from the crushing global depression.
When looked at as propaganda, it is really designed for parents to ply their children with World of Tomorrow promises in order to kindle their interest … and turn them into drivers of 20th-century branded commerce. As naif as the graphics look, Geffen’s Johnny had a suspicious goal in capturing the kid’s mind and eye through mixing culture and consumption with childhood desire. Read it for yourself as a warning from the nascent era of market-driven brands and branding for young ones.
