Negotiating local and global knowledge and history: J. Walter Thompson around the globe 1928–1960

Abstract

In the late 11920s, the American advertising agency J. Walter Thompson opened offices around the world, and soon established themselves as a pre-eminent international agency. While trying to maintain a consistent standard of service to their clients, and searching for a universal language of advertising, they were aware of the need to cater to local markets and sensibilities. This article uses case studies of testimonial advertisements produced by the J. Walter Thompson agency and places them in their productive context by drawing on company records, correspondence, and oral history interviews. The first aim is to demonstrate the negotiation that occurred between local and global knowledges, and the tension between making changes for national markets and the belief in a universal key to advertising appeal. The second aim is to show the negotiation that can occur between local and global histories, by arguing that through the global and company-centred examination of advertisements, historians can learn more about the messages behind advertisements and produce more nuanced analyses than through other techniques such as semiotics for an international company such as J. Walter Thompson.