The Vacation to Nowhere

The American Dream mill family goes on vacation!

On July 1966, this picture appeared with an article in the local newspaper, showing a proud, young mill worker and his family.  The article detailed this happy, “american dream” mill family and a caption explained how they were loading the car to go on a family vacation because the mill closed on July 4th.  The family all looks proudly at their father, the head of the household and family provider.

But it was a lie… the suitcases were empty and the family simply went back home after the photo was taken.  The car wasn’t even theirs and drove away after they were done.  In reality, this family never went on this vacation.  The photograph was staged and the article was fiction.

This was taken just after the mill company mergers in 1965 and public relations would have been important to maintain in local communities.  New interested needed to be generated about working in textiles to increase the production base and availability of workers.  The dominant ideology of the time was being reproduced by the media and pictures like this reinforced the hegemony of the mill companies.  This shows what a powerful ideological state apparatus the media had become and how it was being utilized to create ideology and maintain the current status quo.