Finding Advertisements

Harley Davidson Softail Deuce, April 2000

This guide will help you to identify and locate sources of consumer ads in print, from other libraries, and on the Web.

Magazines by Title

Many of the following are located in Current Periodicals (usually one year's worth) on the second floor of the Library; older issues available bound, on microfilm, or microfiche on the first floor. Please ask for help at the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor or at the Service Desk on the 1st floor. Your public library will have many magazines not found at Eastern.

Magazine Title

Types of Advertisements

Atlantic Monthly
Editorial magazine

High-end cars, financial services (banks, credit cards, insurance, investment advisors), audio equipment, travel, mattresses, energy companies, computers, fine liquor.
Business Week

Computers, cars, financial services.
Child

Children’s clothes, cars, financial services, cosmetics and skincare, prepared foods, snacks, drugs (prescription and OTC), household cleaners, diapers, cameras.
Ebony
African-American magazine

Financial services, cosmetics, fast food, computers, cars, liquor, armed forces.
Essence
African-American magazine

Clothes (men and women), cosmetics, hair and skin care, television specials, financial services, telecommunications, computers, cars, liquor, soft drinks, cigarettes, prepared foods, household cleaners.
ESPN
Sports magazine

Men’s clothes, liquor, cars, men’s personal care (hair, scents), financial services, sporting goods.
Family Circle
 Cars, financial services, cosmetics and skincare, prepared foods, snacks, drugs, household cleaners, diapers, cameras.
Fitness
Women’s health and fitness

Cosmetics, sportswear, skincare, mattresses, financial services, cars, greeting cards, drugs, kitchen products (Food storage), household cleaners, diet and “healthy” prepared foods.
Forbes

Financial services.
Fortune

Financial services, cars, clothing, computers.
Gear
 Liquor, cigarettes and cigars, electronics, men's clothes, men's personal care.
Glamour

Cosmetics, designer clothes (women), skin and hair care, drugs, prepared foods, snacks, cigarettes, diet products, cars.
Harper’s Bazaar
Fashion magazine

Designer fashions, cosmetics.
Jet
African-American news weekly

Fast food, liquor, cosmetics, snacks.
Ladies Home Journal
 Financial services, cosmetics and skincare, prepared foods, snacks, drugs, household cleaners.
Mademoiselle
Fashion & beauty

Clothes, cosmetics, hair/skin care, movies.
Money
 

Cars, computers, financial services.
Motor Trend

Cars.
National Geographic
Not many ads

Cars, computers, pet food, drugs.
Nature
Not many ads

Drugs and drug companies.
New York

Designer clothes, cars, department stores, cigarettes, cosmetics and scents, high-end cars, liquor.
New York Times Magazine

Cars, financial services, audio equipment, small appliances, computers, telecommunications, fashion, cosmetics.
New Yorker

Computers, liquor, cars, financial services, wine, jewelry, TV specials, electronics, scents, designer clothes.
Newsweek

Financial services, drugs, computers, alcohol.
Parenting
 

Cosmetics, skin care, snacks, baby products, drugs, food, household cleansers, entertainment, cars.
Parents
 Cosmetics, cars, prepared foods, household cleaners, diapers, drugs.
PC Magazine

Computers.
PC World

Computers.
People

Prepared foods, snacks, cosmetics, health and hygiene products.
Readers Digest

Cars, food, drugs, pet food, coffee.
Rolling Stone
Music and entertainment

Clothes (men and women), movies, music, computers, liquor, jewelry (including watches), cosmetics, skin and hair care, audio equipment.
Rosie
Women’s magazine

Cosmetics, skincare, food, pet food, drugs, household cleaners, snacks, kitchenware, diet products.
Self
Women’s health and fitness

Sportswear, cars, cigarettes, cosmetics, diet products, prepared foods, hair and skin care.
Sports Illustrated

Snacks, cars, sporting goods, sportswear, financial services.
Time

Computers, cars, drugs, financial services.
Travel Holiday

Travel destinations, cameras.
U.S. Ad Review
 Quality print ads from a variety of advertisers.
U.S. News and World Report

Financial services, prepared foods.
Vanity Fair
Culture, politics, fashion.

Designer fashion, cosmetics, computers, cars, jewelry, financial services, liquor.
Variety
Show business

Movie ads.
Vogue
Women’s fashion

Designer fashion, cosmetics, hair and skin care, cars.
Woman's Day
 Cosmetics, hair and skin care, cars, prepared foods, household cleaners, décor, drugs.
Working Mother
 

Computers, financial services, drugs, appliances, entertainment, cars, clothes, household cleansers, prepared foods, toys, baby products.
Working Woman
 

Computers, financial services, cars, energy snacks, telecommunications, office supplies, energy companies, hotels.

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Magazines by Product Category

Product Category

Magazine Titles
Alcohol
Spirits and wine, not beer

Atlantic Monthly; Ebony; Essence; Gear; Jet; New York; New Yorker; Newsweek; Rolling Stone; Vanity Fair
Cars

Atlantic Monthly; Business Week; Child; Family Circle; Fitness; Glamour; Ebony; Essence; ESPN; Fortune; National Geographic; Money; Motor Trend; New York; New York Times Magazine; New Yorker; Parenting; Parents; Readers Digest; Self; Sports Illustrated; Time; Woman's Day; Working Mother; Working Woman; Vanity Fair; Vogue
Cigarettes

Essence; Gear; Glamour; New York; Self
Clothing
Including men's and women's designer fashions, sportswear, children's clothing, footwear

Child; Essence; ESPN; Fitness; Fortune; Gear; Glamour; Harper's Bazaar; Mademoiselle; New York; New York Times Magazine; New Yorker; Rolling Stone; Self; Sports Illustrated; Vanity Fair; Vogue; Working Mother
Computers
Software and equipment

Atlantic Monthly; Business Week; Ebony; Essence; Fortune; Money; National Geographic; New York Times Magazine; New Yorker; Newsweek; PC Magazine; PC World; Rolling Stone; Time; Working Mother; Working Woman; Vanity Fair
Cosmetics and Beauty Aids
Including hair and skin care products and fragrances

Child; Ebony; Essence; ESPN; Fitness; Fortune; Glamour; Harper's Bazaar; Jet; Ladies' Home Journal; Mademoiselle; New York; New York Times Magazine; New Yorker; Parenting; Parents; People; Rolling Stone; Rosie; Self; Vanity Fair; Vogue; Woman's Day
Drugs
Prescription and over-the-counter

Child; Glamour; National Geographic; Nature; Newsweek; Parenting; Readers Digest; Time; Working Mother
Electronics
Including audio equipment, cameras, telecommunications, small appliances

Atlantic Monthly; Child; Essence; New York Times Magazine; New Yorker; Rolling Stone; Travel Holiday
Entertainment
TV, music and movie ads

Essence; Mademoiselle; New Yorker; Parenting; Rolling Stone; Variety; Working Mother
Financial Services
Including banks, credit cards, insurance, investment advisors

Atlantic Monthly; Business Week; Child; Ebony; Essence; ESPN; Family Circle; Fitness; Forbes; Fortune; Ladies' Home Journal; Money; New Yorker; Newsweek; Sports Illustrated; Time; U.S. News and World Report; Working Mother; Working Woman; Vanity Fair 
Food
Including prepared foods, soft drinks, snacks, diet foods, fast food, pet food

Child; Ebony; Essence; Family Circle; Fitness; Glamour; Jet; Ladies' Home Journal; National Geographic; Parenting; Parents; People; Reader's Digest; Rosie; Self; Sports Illustrated; U.S. News and World Report; Woman's Day; Working Mother; Working Woman
Household Items
Soaps and cleansers, paper products, kitchenware

Child; Family Circle; Fitness; Essence; Ladies' Home Journal; Parenting; Parents; People; Rosie; Woman's Day; Working Mother

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Websites

Modern (1960-2005)

Adaholic - Searchable database of thousands of magazine ads, 1960s-2002. How to find ads:

1. Keyword search: Just type in a few descriptive words about the ad you’re looking for and hit the “enter” key, or click the “go” button to return a relevant result.

2. Year search: Use the “search by year” box and type in a four-digit year to find an ad for a specific year.

3. Category search: Point your mouse to the appropriate ad category and click to obtain original ads indexed by category.

Adflip   
Searchable database of classic print ads from the 1940s to 2001. How to find ads:

1. You can search by category, by decade, even by year.

2. The "what are you looking for" search box allows you to type in a brand name and a specific model name.

3. "Today's 10" and "Another 10" let you see ads that you might not find through a conventional search. The ads change every twenty four hours.

4. "my adflip" puts ads from all decades into categories that have a common theme.

Images de Parfums - Fragrance ads - Collection of perfume advertisements and commercials.find over 2600 fragrance ads from 1980-2005.

Top 100 Ad Campaigns of the Century 
The list of top campaigns provides the product, slogan, agency and date for each with links to 5 ads from 1929-1988. See also Top 10 Advertising Icons Of The Century and the Advertising History Timeline, a 295-year synopsis of the most important events in American Advertising, 1704 to 1999.

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Vintage


A Touchdown! Philco Direct View Television
New York Daily News, 1947

Ad*Access   
Reproductions of advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1957. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University. The advertisements are from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisements Collection of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising, and Marketing History in Duke University's Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

Adflip   
Searchable database of classic print ads from the 1940s to 2001. How to find ads:

1. You can search by category, by decade, even by year.

2. The "what are you looking for" search box allows you to type in a brand name and a specific model name.

3. "Today's 10" and "Another 10" let you see ads that you might not find through a conventional search. The ads change every twenty four hours.

4. "my adflip" puts ads from all decades into categories that have a common theme.

Images de Parfums - Fragrance ads - Collection of perfume advertisements and commercials.find over 2600 fragrance ads from 1980-2005.

Top 100 Ad Campaigns of the Century 
The list of top campaigns provides the product, slogan, agency and date for each, links to 5 ads from 1929-1988. See also Top 10 Advertising Icons Of The Century and the Advertising History Timeline, a 295-year synopsis of the most important events in American Advertising, 1704 to 1999.

The Trade Card Place Victorian Scrapbook (19th Century Trade Cards)
Postcard-sized colored cards were handed out by businesses and collected by many customers in special scrapbooks. There are many good examples of trade cards, and animations are used to illustrate folding novelty cards. You may also find articles on trade card history and discussions on the different types of trade cars. See Also: A New and Wonderful Invention: The Nineteenth-Century American Trade Card - a modest sampling of the vast on-site collection at the Harvard Business School Baker Library.

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Books

Ads, fads, and consumer culture: advertising's impact on American character and society / Arthur Asa Berger.
Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Pub. HF5823 .B438 2004

Advertising and the mind of the consumer: what works, what doesn't, and why / Max Sutherland and Alice K. Sylvester. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. HF5822.S84 2000

Advertising and the World Wide Web / edited by David W. Schumann and Esther Thorson.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. HF6146.I58 A38 1999

Advertising, promotion, and new media / edited by Marla R. Stafford and Ronald J. Faber.
Armonk, NY.: M.E. Sharpe. HF6146.I58 A39 2005

Breaking up America: advertisers and the new media world / Joseph Turow.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. HF5813.U6 T85 1997

The changing images of females and males in television commercials: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose / Jean Kilbourne. 1980 HF5827.K4

Consuming kids: the hostile takeover of childhood / Susan Linn. New York: New Press; Distributed by W.W. Norton & Co. HF5415.32 .L56 2004

Encyclopedia of major marketing campaigns / Thomas Riggs, editor. Detroit: Gale Group.
Reference HF5837.E53 2000

Fables, fashions, and facts about advertising: a study of 28 enduring myths / John Philip Jones.
Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. HF5823.J7172 2004

Michael Jordan, Inc.: corporate sport, media culture, and late modern America / David L. Andrews, editor.
Albany: State University of New York Press. GV706.2.M53 2001

Persuasive imagery: a consumer response perspective / edited by Linda M. Scott and Rajeev Batra.
Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. BF367.P464 2003

Product placement in Hollywood films: a history / Kerry Segrave.
Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. HF6146.P78 S44 2004

Provocateur: images of women and minorities in advertising / Anthony J. Cortese.
Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. HF5823 .C5977 2004

Major parts of this guide were adapted from Pace University Library.
Page created and maintained by Susan Herzog, Information Literacy Librarian
J. Eugene Smith Library
Eastern Connecticut State University
Last Update: July 29, 2005