Absence and the advertising historian

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the commonly held idea that American advertising agencies closely supervised their Australian counterparts during the globalization of advertising. Design/methodology/approach The author, a cultural historian based in the USA, searched American archives without finding evidence of the kind of oversight often associated with the Americanization of advertising. Findings The paper concludes that American advertisers paid less attention to Australian advertising than the other way around. In addition, Australian and American advertising industries agreed on the importance of advertising as part of transnational capitalism and did not need to outline, or follow instructions, on how advertising worked. Originality/value Reviewing the history of advertising in a global context reminds scholars that the national advertising industries have different subject positions and yet agree on advertising’s practice and efficacy.

The German advertising industry – from 1950 to 2018

“…Several studies examined this development by exploring how “the modernization of commercial practices, the introduction of marketing principles, and the rationalization of advertising led to a radical transformation of communication strategies” (De Iulio and Vinti, 2009, p. 270). Researchers focused either on the general impact of the expansion of American advertising overseas, also referred to as “cultural imperialism” (Schwarzkopf, 2011) or on the “Americanization” of advertising in specific countries, such as Italy (De Iulio and Vinti, 2009; Fasce and Bini, 2015), Britain (Schwarzkopf, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c), Ireland (Whelan, 2014), and Australia (Smulyan, 2016). However, a historical overview of the specific development of the GAI and the impact of the American influence on the GAI is largely absent.…”