Newly updated for the digital era, this classic textbook provides a comprehensive historical study of advertising and its function within contemporary society by tracing advertising's influence throughout different media and cultural periods, from early magazines through to social media. With several new chapters on the rise of the Internet, mobile, and social media, this fourth edition offers new insights into the role of Google, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube as both media and advertising companies, as well as examining the role of brand culture in the 21st century.
Given the moral and medical panic surrounding rising rates of childhood obesity, there has been much debate about who on what is to be blamed, with parents and HFSS (high fat, salt, and sugar) food advertising often censured for their role. In this paper, we review the literature on childhood obesity and pester power, and the broader context of consumer socialization within the family. We then discuss findings from a questionnaire and focus group study of 8–11 year old children in New Zealand exploring aspects of their advertising experiences and everyday snack food consumption. HFSS food ads were well‐represented in their repertoire of favorite ads, and they reported being influenced by these. However, their accounts of snacking highlighted the extent to which their actual consumption was shaped by parental agendas and concerns. Although they gravitated towards less healthy snack foods, fruit, and vegetables were included in their categorization and repertoire of snacks, perhaps reflecting the level of monitoring and gatekeeping exerted by their parents, who established ground rules for snacking and in many cases directly controlled their access to snack foods, although the limits imposed varied according to context. The children were generally accepting of this, although they drew on a range of strategies and tactics to access their preferred snacks. We conclude by considering the implications of this study for parents who seek to provide their children with a healthy diet and others concerned about health and public policy, and we suggest some avenues for developing knowledge in this area.
Introduction -- The development of modern advertising -- From traditional to industrial society -- Advertising in the transition from industrial to consumer society -- Advertising and the development of twentieth-century communications media -- The development of agencies in the bonding of advertising and media -- The structure of advertisements -- Goods as communicators and satisfiers -- Advertising at the end of the twentieth century -- Ushering in the era of demassification -- Late-modern consumer society -- The mediated marketplace -- Mobilizing the culturati in the fifth frame -- Advertising in the twenty-first-century digital age -- Internet, social, and mobile mediated marketplace -- Twenty-first-century promotional and consumer culture -- Issues in social policy -- References -- Index
