The module forms one of the core components for the MA Advertising, Marketing and the Media. It explores the history of the service advertising agency in Britain and North America and the influence of this organisational model in Australia and India. To this end, the module seeks to develop an international and comparative analysis of advertising across these key societies. The module reflects on the economics of advertising, how advertising plays a role in the commercial subsidy of the media and the challenge posed by the rise of international and global advertising and the arrival of new media technologies and delivery systems.
Alongside addressing the structures of the international advertising industry, the module also explores the history of advertising expertise and how advertising has sought to understand the consumer. Cutting across the historical and empirical focus of the module there will be a reflection on how advertising as an industry and practice might be theorized and a reflection on the links between advertising and the wider creative industries.