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Youtube When TV Commercials Ruled American Culture
The pandemic has accelerated the death of a once-crucial medium: the TV ad, which had the surreal job of heroizing a product in 60 seconds or less.
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Nomad Soul / Igor Lateci / Shutterstock / … Selling What They Preach
From Amazon to Apple, from Starbucks to upscale hotel chains, brands are making claims not just about what people should buy, but about what people should be.
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Mario Anzuoni / Reuters Our Swag Bags, Ourselves
Does everyone get something out of the $200,000 gift bags given out at the Oscars each year? Totes.
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Dairy Queen / YouTube The Rise of the Anti-Valentine’s Ad
Behold, commercials that satirize the idea that love—and women—can be bought.
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Marcos Brindicci / Reuters Taking Literature to the Streets
From vending machines to coffee sleeves, a number of projects around the world are using guerrilla marketing tactics to promote reading.
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Katy Perry The Revolution Will Be Advertised
Why so many modern commercials are referencing Marie Antoinette and the Reign of Terror
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Wikimedia Commons Breakfast Cereal's Last Gasp
Better-informed consumers are ditching the bowls of sugar that were once a triumph of 20th-century marketing.
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The Atlantic The Year Political Advertising Turned Positive
American campaigns embraced the spirit of 1976, stressing the virtues of candidates to a nation weary of war and Watergate.
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9 Questions We Answered About Ads, Brands and Marketing
A week's trove of stories on creating ads, judging ads, shopping with our smartphones, and understanding the surprising marketing motives in the entertainment industry
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Are TV Ads Getting More Sexist?
Having lost the argument that women are incompetent, American advertising has settled on the argument that women are attractive
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Why Movies Are in the TV Business
A movie is a message designed to capture, hold, and focus attention on franchises on which studios earn almost all of their profits. Does that sounds like an ad to you?
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Thinking vs. Feeling: The Psychology of Advertising
Do ads with facts work better than ads that appeal through emotion and aspiration?
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Why Funny TV Commercials Work
Advertising is about attracting, holding, and focusing attention. And nothing gets our attention like a funny TV spot. But funny is a double-edged sword.
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The Future of Shopping: Talking Shelves! No Check-Out Lines! Virtual Reality!
Plus: your cell phone as your multi-tool shopping companion
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Is the Wireless Wallet a Revolution or a Pointless Gizmo?
Banks, restaurants, and retailers of all kinds have a plan to sell you everything from your next meal to your next mortgage, all from the comfort of your cell phone.
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Apple's Marketing Playbook Was Written in the 1920s
Alfred Sloan's two marketing principles -- "a car for every purse or purpose" and "dynamic obsolescence" -- have helped make the iPhone possible
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The Grocery Stores of the Future Should Do Your Shopping For You
Why dads give in too easily at grocery stores, why recessions lead to messy aisles, and why Whole Foods should be more like CVS.
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Will Social Media Make Us Anti-Social? A Talk With Gary Shteyngart
The author of the international best-seller Super Sad True Love Story explains his dystopian take on a future with smart advertising and dumb people
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What Women Want When They Shop
"If the consumer economy had a sex, it would be female. If the business world had a sex, it would be male. Therein lies the pickle."
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Can a Commercial Be Too Sexy For Its Own Good? Ask Axe
Going inside one of the most famously salacious TV ad campaigns of the last decade to learn how it's possible to sell too well.
