All across the western world in the post war period it was common to put faces and personalities to inanimate objects in order to sell things in advertisements.

All across the western world in the post war period it was common to put faces and personalities to inanimate objects in order to sell things in advertisements. The reduction of similar behavior in Japan to things like animism fails to capture the texture of why these things happen, and how they are reproduced in other places, and how ultimately societies across the world act similarly, but for timing issues. People don’t talk about the Dutch being obsessed with serious work ethic and cleanliness due to protestantism and thus generating De Stijl. I do legit wonder what the history of anthropomorphism on inanimate objects looks like though. Who was the first person to draw a toothpaste tube that smiled and talked?