THE SIGNS OF ADVERTISING

Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better.
-- George Santayana

You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
--Norman Douglas


What the mass media offer is not popular art, but entertainment which is intended to be consumed like food, forgotten, and replaced by a new dish.
--W. H. Auden

  • TO STUDENT WORK
  • To more quotations about advertising
  • Reference material available. Sign 'em out from me.
  • Preview of the CD-ROM Ephemeral Films: 1931-1960 that you can sign out from me for use in a semiotic analysis of commercial films from that era.
  • To notes on the readings from our book.
  • To Final Essay Options (assignment suggestions).

    Other Web Sites about Advertising

  • The Gallery of Advertising Parody
  • ADBUSTERS MEDIA FOUNDATION: Culture Jammers
  • The Internet Advertising Guide brought to you by the folks who train ad-makers to sell stuff (and consumer values). Want to find out what they're up to?
  • Principles of Advertising course at UO. Note the different use of reason in this overview of advertising. This course prepares your peers to push consumerism foward.
  • Advertising in Cyberspace A similar course taught here at UO.
  • Here's a good example of an easy analysis of the ideology of Parade Magazine, the insert in the Sunday papers that has the widest circulation in America of anything. From New York to Oregon, weekend newspapers supply PARADE Magazine. A typical issue of this "magazine of the masses" contains some interest to those who wonder how the dominant order keeps power with little resistance in the face of great contradictions.
  • Is Advertising Finally Dead? AdViruses, digimercials, and memgraphics: The future of advertising is the future of media. from WIRED magazine.