ADText

Jan 26, 2009

Click here to download the PDF of the AEF report.



Is advertising literature? What is the relationship between public service ads and propaganda? How did "old-fashioned" Christmas imagery get linked to the promotion of products?

    These are the kinds of questions explored by ADText, an online series of articles about advertising and its relation to society, history and culture. The curriculum is published by the Advertising Educational Foundation as part of its outreach to students, professors and libraries around the world.

    Widely used in colleges and universities in courses on advertising, ADText is equally useful to professionals and lay people who want to gain a fuller understanding of the history of advertising and its place in society.

    Written by Professor William M. O'Barr, a specialist on advertising at Duke University who has twice won awards for distinguished teaching, the Web site www.adtextonline.org includes 20 chapters on a variety of topics.

    For example, the learning unit on "high culture/low culture" examines the relationship between fine art, classical music, great literature and popular culture (blockbuster movies, rock concerts, comic books and advertisements).

    "To many people, they seem worlds apart. A more careful examination shows that literature, art, and film are intimately linked to advertising," according to the article. "And on at least one occasion each year-Super Bowl Sunday- advertising is elevated to the status of popular cultural spectacle to rival almost every other form of expressive culture."

    ADText's topics are wide-ranging and comprehensive, including chapters on public service advertising, representations of masculinity and femininity, advertising and Christmas, the role of research, ethics, creativity and management of brands, and the curious history of subliminal advertising and the public's interest in it.

    The content also considers advertising in both an American and a global context, including chapters on current advertising practices in China, India and Brazil.

    O'Barr, ADText's author, is a cultural anthropologist who wrote Culture and the Ad: Exploring Otherness in the World of Advertising (1994). He is also founding editor of the online journal Advertising & Society Review.

For more AEF coverage:
A New AEF for New Times
The Advertising Educational Foundation COmes of Age
Professors Swap Classroom for the Agency World
AEF Speakers Program Links Theory and Reality
ADText
The Big Project