Promotional Cultures: The Rise and Spread of Advertising, Public Relations

In the twenty-first century, promotion is everywhere and everything has become promotable: everyday goods and organizations, people and ideas, cultures and futures. This engaging book looks at the rise of advertising, public relations, branding, marketing and lobbying, and explores where our promotional times have taken us.

Promotional Cultures documents how the professions and practices of promotion have interacted with and reshaped so much in our world, from commodities, celebrities and popular culture to politics, markets and civil society. It offers a mix of historical accounts, social theory and documented case studies, including haute couture fashion, Apple Inc., Hollywood film, Jennifer Lopez, the Occupy movement, Barack Obama’s election campaigns, news production and the 2008 financial crisis. Together, these show how promotional culture may be recorded, understood and interpreted.

Promotional Cultures will appeal to students and scholars of media and culture, sociology, politics, anthropology, social and industrial history.