The sheer intensity and violence of Germany's twentieth
century--through the end of an empire, two world wars, two
democracies, and two dictatorships--provide a unique opportunity to
assess the power and endurance of commercial imagery in the most
extreme circumstances. "Selling Modernity" places advertising and
advertisements in this tumultuous historical setting, exploring
such themes as the relationship between advertising and propaganda
in Nazi Germany, the influence of the United States on German
advertising, the use of advertising to promote mass consumption in
West Germany, and the ideological uses and eventual prohibition of
advertising in East Germany.
While the essays are informed by the burgeoning literature on
consumer society, "Selling Modernity" focuses on the actors who had
the greatest stake in successful merchandising: company managers,
advertising executives, copywriters, graphic artists, market
researchers, and salespeople, all of whom helped shape the
depiction of a company's products, reputation, and visions of
modern life. The contributors consider topics ranging from
critiques of capitalism triggered by the growth of advertising in
the 1890s to the racial politics of Coca-Cola's marketing
strategies during the Nazi era, and from the post-1945 career of an
erotica entrepreneur to a federal anti-drug campaign in West
Germany. Whether analyzing the growing fascination with racialized
discourse reflected in early-twentieth-century professional
advertising journals or the postwar efforts of Lufthansa to lure
holiday and business travelers back to a country associated with
mass murder, the contributors reveal advertising's central role in
debates about German culture, business, politics, and society.
"Contributors." Shelley Baranowski, Greg Castillo, Victoria de
Grazia, Guillaume de Syon, Holm Friebe, Rainer Gries, Elizabeth
Heineman, Michael Imort, Anne Kaminsky, Kevin Repp, Corey Ross,
Jeff Schutts, Robert P. Stephens, Pamela E. Swett, S. Jonathan
Wiesen, Jonathan R. Zatlin
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