How did commercial culture influence Pop art in the 1950s and 1960s?

Pop art emerged in the 1950s and 1960s as a direct response to the commodity-driven values of the postwar era, drawing its subject matter and techniques from commercial culture. By incorporating commonplace objects—such as soup cans, comic strips, road signs, and hamburgers—artists sought to bridge the gap between "high art" and everyday life.12

Commercial culture influenced the movement in several key ways:

• Subject Matter: Artists utilized imagery from mass media, including advertising, television, movie magazines, and comic books, presenting these icons with objective immediacy.1
• Technique: Many Pop artists adopted the precise, mechanical methods of commercial production. For example, Andy Warhol mimicked brand marketing and mass-production techniques through silk-screen prints of consumer goods.13
• Cultural Commentary: While some works celebrated consumer abundance, others used commercial imagery to register darker social realities, such as the Vietnam War or the desensitization of an image-saturated public.13

Ultimately, Pop art rejected the personal, subjective nature of Abstract Expressionism in favor of a democratic, accessible style that reflected the technological, media-oriented society of the time.13