Social Credit Election Advertising- Cinema Advertising Slide

Description

The Social Credit political party was founded on the 10th of January 1953 and was based on the social credit economic theories of Major C.H Douglas. Between the mid 1950s and the mid 1980s the party was reasonably popular and often gained over 10% of the national vote. However, due to the First Past The Post electoral system where representation required winning an electorate seat, it never gained more than two seats at a time in Parliament.

This 1950s cinema advertising slide comes from a time when there were over 30 million cinema tickets sold a year in New Zealand and many political parties were using the 'big screen' to electioneer.  In a nice piece of marketing the slide promises voters the consumer goods which would have been showcased in the other cinema advertising slides of the period.

At the time of writing (April 2023) Social Credit is deregistered as a political party- but this slide is a glimpse of the lifestyle many Kiwis desired during the 'baby boom'. Slides like this one were shown throughout New Zealand so would have been seen on Horowhenua screens.

Identification

Object type

Image

Date

1950s