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Advertising History

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 Websites presented in alphabetical order

Ad Council: Historic Campaigns view detail comment email this

This site highlights Ad Council public service advertising campaigns (PSAs) from 1942 to the present. Includes descriptions of campaigns for wars (such as "Loose Lips Sink Ships" and Rosie the Riveter), forest fire prevention (Smokey Bear), child abuse prevention, domestic violence awareness, and more. Provides images of print ads and video clips of TV commercials. From the Advertising Council.
http://www.adcouncil.org/default.aspx?id=61
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business

Last updated Mar 2, 2006


Ad*Access view detail comment email this

"Images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955." Most coverage is of beauty and hygiene, radio, television, transportation, and World War II. Each category has a brief history of the industry; also includes a timeline. From the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History and the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University.
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/adaccess/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business

Last updated Jul 9, 2008


The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss view detail comment email this

Brief information and images of illustrations created by Dr. Suess (born Theodore Seuss Geisel) before he "found fame as a children's book author." Includes work created for oil, ball bearing, beer, and sugar companies, bug spray ("Quick, Henry, the Flit!"), and radio promotional spots. From the Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of California, San Diego.
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dsads/index.shtml
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Artists, California: Libraries & Archives by Type

Last updated Oct 26, 2004


The Advertising Century view detail comment email this

Online version of a "major project to chronicle the history of the era's advertising industry. The years from 1900 to 1999 were, in fact, when the advertising business came of age." Features an introductory essay, lists of top 100 advertising campaigns (such as Volkswagen's 1959 "Think Small" and the 1955 Marlboro Man), top 100 industry players, and top 10 jingles, slogans, and ad icons. Also includes a timeline back to the 1700s. From Advertising Age.
http://adage.com/century/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing

Last updated Nov 4, 2008


American Sign Museum view detail comment email this

The purpose of this museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, "is to preserve, archive and display a historical collection of signs. ... The Museum will also document and survey the products and equipment utilized in the design and manufacture of signs." The site features images of selected signs from the collection, including gold leaf glass signs, neon signs, and plastic signs. Also includes biographical information about industry leaders, articles, and links to related sites.
http://www.signmuseum.org
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Museums by Place: United States

Last updated Jan 18, 2005


Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 view detail comment email this

Images of over 9,000 advertising items and publications showing the rise of consumerism in America and the increasing power of the advertising profession. Soap, tobacco, and beauty products are just some of the ads included here. From the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History at the Duke University Libraries.
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business

Last updated Aug 9, 2008


FCIC TV Public Service Ads view detail comment email this

Use this site to play the "FCIC TV Public Service Ads of the 70's, 80's, 90's and the 00's. Select a decade, get down with your bad self, and groove with our totally radical video spots" advertising what used to be called the Consumer Information Center, in Pueblo, Colorado. The ads direct users to what is now the USA.gov website. From the Federal Citizen Information Center (FCIC) of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA).
http://pueblo.gsa.gov/comrcial.htm
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Federal (U.S.) Government

Last updated Jan 16, 2008


Graphic Design from the 1920s and 1930s in Travel Ephemera view detail comment email this

This online gallery displays an extensive personal collection of illustrated ephemera from European, Asian, and American "travel brochures, airline time-tables, ocean liner time-tables, auto road maps, luggage labels, advertising and graphic design publications." Links to examples of Art Deco and Art Moderne commercial art are divided by nationality and into themes such as "Automotive" and "Nautical." Searchable. Note: Site displays best in Internet Explorer.
http://www.travelbrochuregraphics.com/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Art, Arts and Humanities, Business, Nonfiction by Genre

Last updated Jun 1, 2008


Medicine and Madison Avenue view detail comment email this

Searchable and browsable exploration of "the complex relationships between modern medicine and modern advertising." It contains "images and database information for approximately 600 health-related advertisements printed in newspapers and magazines [that] illustrate the variety and evolution of marketing images from the 1910s through the 1950s." Products included are "cough and cold remedies, laxatives and indigestion aids, and vitamins and tonics, among others."
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/mma/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business, Drugs & Medications by Type, Medical Treatments & Devices, Nutrition & Food Safety

Last updated May 29, 2002


Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) Creative Library view detail comment email this

Collection of images of billboards and other outdoor advertising from 1995 to 2003. Searchable by keyword (or click on a letter of the alphabet to reset a drop-down menu), year, ad agency, advertiser, and product category (such as automotive, food, or Spanish language).
http://www.oaaa.org/creativelibrary/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business

Last updated Apr 12, 2005


Patent Medicine Trade Cards view detail comment email this

Website for an ongoing effort to digitize a collection of 19th century "small, colorfully illustrated advertising cards touting a particular medicine and its many cures. The illustrations often have little to do with any of the ailments purported to be cured. They were pure advertising and very collectible." Searchable by keyword, such as "oil, extract, tonic, disease, ache, consumption, ague, dyspepsia, kidney, liver, heart, bowels, [and] appetite." From the University of California, Los Angeles, Library.
http://unitproj1.library.ucla.edu/dlib/medicinecards/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Drugs

Last updated Sep 25, 2006


ROAD: Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions view detail comment email this

"Over 50,000 descriptions of images of outdoor advertising dating between the 1920s through the 1990s." There are no images on this website, only descriptions of the images. The materials described here are drawn from "four outdoor advertising collections including the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA)" and others at Duke University's John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.
http://library.duke.edu/doc/find/road
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business, Libraries & Archives by Type

Last updated Jun 14, 2006


The Traces of Advertising Giants view detail comment email this

Biographies of people in the advertising field dating from the 1880s through the 1960s.
http://www.ciadvertising.org/studies/student/96_fall/index.html
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business, Notable People

Last updated Aug 31, 2002


The Trade Card Place view detail comment email this

This site is designed "for all who are interested in Victorian Trade Cards used to advertise American goods and services during the late 1800s." Features images of dozens of these illustrated trade cards (in categories such as beverages, fairs, and medical and dental), illustrated articles about different types of trade cards, and links to related sites. This site also conducts online auctions. From an enthusiast.
http://www.tradecards.com
Topics: Advertising & Marketing

Last updated Mar 19, 2007


Victorian Trade Cards at Miami University view detail comment email this

A searchable and browsable collection of over 1400 Victorian trading cards, "typically used to advertise products and services including such items as patent medicines, thread, sewing machines, food and beverages, farm equipment and others." From Miami University Libraries, Oxford, Ohio.
http://digital.lib.muohio.edu/tradecards/
Topics: Advertising & Marketing, Business

Last updated Aug 26, 2003




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