Advertising Trade Press Research Articles

The Advertising Industry’s Advice on Accessibility and Disability Representation: A Critical Discourse Analysis

How do advertising trade press and association resources advise practitioners on considering disabilities in advertising work? What does the industry think are effective practices for taking disabilities into account fairly and respectfully? This article answers these questions by closely reading prominent industry articles and multimedia materials focused on recommendations regarding how to take disabilities into account in advertising work. Using critical disability scholars’ critiques of the advertising industry’s considerations of disability as a guide, critical discourse analysis was applied to trade articles and multimedia materials published between 2018 and early 2023 by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Adweek, and Ad Age, all leading advertising industry trade publishers among U.S. advertising practitioners. These analyses present some emergent themes about what the industry tells itself are the effective practices to represent disabilities and reach and include people with disabilities. Careful attention is paid to the similarities and gaps between industry recommendations and scholarly and activist guidelines to see where the industry sees itself in its journey of disability diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Optimizing Looking and Buying on Instagram: Tracing the Platformization of Advertising and Retail on Mobile Social Media

Over its first decade Instagram became central to Facebook’s dominance of audience and advertising markets. In this article, we critically examine how marketing and advertising trade press documented the development of advertising and retail on the platform. Instagram’s platformization involved formalizing relationships among users, influencers, creators, advertisers, retailers, and analytics services. The development of advertising and retail on the platform was characterized by open-ended third-party experimentation and innovation, which was gradually incorporated into, and controlled by, the platform. Advertisers and marketers increasingly approach the platform not just as an advertising service, but an end-to-end advertising, analytics and retail infrastructure. While much attention has been given to the promotional and influencer culture of Instagram, advertisers and marketers saw it as an opportunity to integrate advertising with retail. We argue that Instagram has platformized practices of looking and buying historically associated with department stores, malls, home shopping, and catalogs.

Beyond Mrs consumer: competing femininities in Swedish advertising trade publications, 1900–1939

ABSTRACTThis article follows the discussion on female consumers in Swedish advertising journals and handbooks. The aim is to problematise the gendered aspects of Swedish consumer and early advertising history, by studying how the notion of the female consumer intersected with notions of social class, marital status and sexuality. The article also closes in on the persons who were invited to embody the consuming women and what kind of interests they represented. The article concludes that, from the start of the twentieth century, gender and class was prevalent in the advertising literature. The married woman was also from the start seen as the head of the consuming family. Therefore, reaching her through advertising became key for facilitating the relations between producer and consumer. With time, different women’s organisations, the weekly press, and new theories of advertising from the US addressing the notion of ‘Mrs Consumer’ came to influence the Swedish advertising trade press. The result became the favouring of a certain kind of middle class, urban and rational kind of femininity, strongly connected to homemaking and women’s roles in purchasing for the family. However, this femininity also paralleled notions of ‘the flapper’ and the professional woman.

Bright New Dawns and Bastard Children

The article addresses debates around the introduction of commercial television in Britain, conducted in Parliament, lobby groups, the advertising trade press and broader cultural commentary. It notes that the boundaries between these interest groups were porous. The article refers to sample advertisements produced by agencies in anticipation of the 1955 launch of ITV in London and other regions thereafter, setting advertisers' initial caution against the bullishness subsequently checked by the 1962 report of the Pilkington Committee. ‘Americanisation’ is identified as a recurrent theme of anxiety, and advertising as a symptom of it, prompting complaints on both sides of the Atlantic. Many of the production strategies anticipated experimentally in the 1950s are with us still, as are concerns regarding differentiation of advertisements from programme content, advertisements' target audiences and commodities advertised on television. For legislators and advertisers alike, print media provided a model for imitation more often than did cinema. Competition between old and new platforms for advertisements – then as now – is identified as an opportunity for mutual advantage rather than displacement.

The Gay Market is Dead, Long Live the Gay Market: From Identity to Algorithm in Predicting Consumer Behavior

Abstract: Target marketing to identity-based consumer niches such as gay men and lesbians (occasionally bisexuals, transgender and queer people) has been radically transformed since 2000 by social media, the decline of gay and lesbian print publications, and Big Data. Drawing from 53 articles from the business and advertising trade press, this article argues that marketers no longer use sexuality-based identity markets such as "the gay market" as the primary mechanism to structure their advertising appeals. Instead, marketers collect large amounts of search, locative, and social behavior information to predict consumer behavior. If a modern LGBTQ identity was formed in part by gay and lesbian commercial media and marketing, how must we rethink queer identities in an algorithmic age of target marketing?

Knowing the Child Consumer through Box Tops: Data Collection, Measurement, and Advertising to Children, 1920–1945

National advertisers took an earnest interest in children during the first half of the 20th century. Throughout this period, food advertisers commonly offered children membership in clubs and premiums (prizes) in exchange for proofs of purchase, such as box tops. This article, relying upon primary research from the advertising trade press and ad agency archives, considers box tops as instruments that generated market-relevant knowledge. I argue that the submission of box tops to advertisers was an early form of data mining—used to learn about and better target consumers, but also as an audience metric, an ad hoc ratings system for print and radio broadcast sponsorship investments. These arguments are contextualized in critical theories that suggest commercial media audiences, as well as consumers more broadly, are manufactured and that measurement plays a central role in the processes of audience manufacture and commodification. I draw two important conclusions. First, this research demonstrates that consumer surveillance is not unique to the digital era of advertising. Second, I conclude that by “knowing” children through box top submissions, the advertising industry socially constructed the child consumer; that is, measurement through box tops constructed the very audience it sought to measure.

The Spanish advertising industry and female advertising professionals:A gendered view of the creative department

The aim of this study was to analyse female participation among creative advertising professionals who worked on top advertising campaigns between 2004 and 2008 (according to the Spanish advertising trade press). A total of 581 advertising campaigns were reviewed. This study found evidence of horizontal and vertical segregation in the advertising industry. Female advertising practitioners were under-represented in industry accolades. The lowest female participation was found in the creative department, while women outnumbered men in the account and the media services departments. Segregation was found in job positions and team composition and gender division was encountered in the account categories creatives were working in. This study suggests that female creatives occupy lower job positions than men and are less involved in the decision-taking process of the final advertising products.

“This Astounding Car for $1,500”: The Year Automobile Advertising Came of Age

In 1906, a writer declared that it remained an “unsolved problem whether the automobile is to prove a fad like the bicycle, or a lasting factor in the industry of the country.” A few years later, concerned with the possibility of overproduction and market saturation, auto executives and other commentators were writing articles for the advertising trade press with titles like “Why Auto Production Must Be Curtailed” and “The Fading of the Automobile Rainbow.” Considering that by the early twenty-first century, the United States had a population of nearly 300 million people and an average of 2.1 registered motor vehicles per household, it is difficult to appreciate how uncertain the industry’s status seemed in its early years. Yet although contemporary observers may not have known it, in many ways by the end of 1908 the foundation stoneswere already in place for a hundred years of automotive economic and cultural preeminence in the United States. Two events from that year are well known as harbingers of the industry’s future. In September, General Motors was established, and in October, Ford introduced its Model T to the nation's auto dealers. In time, these developments had a profound impact on American automobile manufacture and management.

“This Astounding Car for $1,500”: The Year Automobile Advertising Came of Age

In 1906, a writer declared that it remained an “unsolved problem whether the automobile is to prove a fad like the bicycle, or a lasting factor in the industry of the country.” A few years later, concerned with the possibility of overproduction and market saturation, auto executives and other commentators were writing articles for the advertising trade press with titles like “Why Auto Production Must Be Curtailed” and “The Fading of the Automobile Rainbow.” Considering that by the early twenty-first century, the United States had a population of nearly 300 million people and an average of 2.1 registered motor vehicles per household, it is difficult to appreciate how uncertain the industry’s status seemed in its early years. Yet although contemporary observers may not have known it, in many ways by the end of 1908 the foundation stoneswere already in place for a hundred years of automotive economic and cultural preeminence in the United States. Two events from that year are well known as harbingers of the industry’s future. In September, General Motors was established, and in October, Ford introduced its Model T to the nation's auto dealers. In time, these developments had a profound impact on American automobile manufacture and management.

'Waiting for the Kiss of Life'

Mobile media, especially cellphones, are now seen and heard everywhere, forming an intrinsic part of the daily lives and habits of billions of people worldwide. Curiously, despite this wide diffusion and remarkable rate of adoption, as an advertising platform the cellphone is, in the words of one commentator, still very much ‘a mass medium waiting for the kiss of life’. This article examines why this is the case, by exploring the ‘complex mobile phone ecosystem’ and the factors that contribute to the rather hesitant adoption of mobile advertising, with particular attention to the inherent conflicts amongst the interested parties in the system. It does this through a meta-analysis of themes and issues evinced in mainstream media and the advertising trade press. Study of this data is supplemented by drawing on a number of critical studies within the available research literature on the subject.

Longevity of Websites and Interactive Advertising Communication

ABSTRACTThis study traces survival of advertising-related Web sites for a five-year period from 1997-2002. Client organizations had the best survival rate, about 70%, while less than 50% of advertising agency sites survived. Frequency of mentions in the advertising trade press was not related to site survival, but Web sites with shorter addresses were more likely to survive. This study also reports on a longitudinal analysis of health-related Web sites. Managers of surviving sites reported that resources were a critical factor for survival. Managers of failed sites often blamed the site’s demise on external factors. A major implication for advertisers is one manager’s observation that technology itself is less important than the ability to adapt to the changes it brings.

Ambient media: advertising's new media opportunity?

Ambient media have attracted considerable attention in the UK marketing and advertising trade press. This paper aims to introduce these ‘non-traditional out-of-home’ media to a wider audience, provides a basic description of the various types of ambient media and attempts to categorise ambient media to aid the academic development of this new area. Factors encouraging the growth in the ambient media sector are discussed and a theoretical argument is offered that examines why ambient media can ‘work’. Research evidence and a short case study are also presented as examples of ambient media in action.

The Media Trade Press as Technology Forecaster: A Case Study of the VCR'S Impact on Broadcasting

This paper assesses how the broadcasting and advertising trade press performed in their role as technology forecaster, using the introduction of the VCR and its potential impact on broadcasting as a case study. An examination of the forecasts made within the broadcasting and advertising trade press during the early stages of the VCR's development and diffusion indicates that the advertising trade press proved much more active and much more accurate in forecasting the future of the VCR. The results also indicate the importance of integrating technological and social factors for constructing accurate forecasts.

Promises, promises: self-regulation of US cigarette broadcast advertising in the 1960s

US broadcasters, advertising profes sionals and politicians joined health advocates in the 1960s in calling for controls of cigarette promotional prac tices, particularly on radio and television. The tobacco industry repeatedly re sponded with seemingly sincere promises and instituted self-regulation codes and procedures, first using the Tobacco In stitute and later the National Association of Broadcasters. The disclosures of ad vertising industry insiders, the evalua tions of the advertising trade press and new analyses of media sponsorship buy ing patterns all indicate that these efforts were more cosmetic than effective mana gerial controls. When anti-smoking mes sages were mandated onto US broadcast media, the cigarette industry volunteered to abandon broadcast advertising. The ultimate legislation to stop broadcast ads, had the effect of eliminating the require ment that air time be provided free for pro-health public service announce ments. Sponsorship of sport events and teams began almost instantly, creating television promotional exposure, now with no health warnings. This well-docu mented American experience suggests that other countries should not rely ex clusively on industry self-regulation, as its promise is likely to far exceed its per formance.

Spanish gold: Stereotypes, ideology, and the construction of a U.S. Latino market∗

A textual analysis of articles in advertising trade magazines shows how the U.S. Latino population was transformed from an “invisible market”; into “Spanish gold”; through the redefinition, but not the elimination, of traditional stereotypes: though basic elements of the stereotypes persist, values useful to advertisers are now assigned to the stereotyped ascriptions and behaviors. The analysis also shows that existing stereotypes of marginalized groups constrain and shape market recognition of minorities; that is, the market is ideological. Finally, the advertising trade press's attempts at defining a “Latino market”; can be seen as an exercise in what Omi and Winant have called “racial formation”;: “the process by which social, economic and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings.”;