Testimonial advertising in the American marketplace : emulation, identity, community / edited by Marlis Schweitzer and Marina Moskowitz.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Schweitzer, Marlis.

Moskowitz, Marina, 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Advertising--United States--History.

Advertising.

Psychological aspects.

United States.

History.

Advertising--United States--Psychological aspects.

Physical Description:

viii, 240 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Summary:

This book explores the history and practice of testimonial advertising in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, addressing a surprising lack of scholarship on this enduring and pervasive marketing tool. Treating consumers as neither the victims nor the empowered foes of corporate practices, the authors gathered here contribute to new scholarship at the intersection of cultural and business history by examining how testimonials mediate negotiations between producers and consumers and shape modern cultural attitudes about social identity, advice, community, celebrity, and the consumption of brand-name goods and services.

Contents:

1 Testimonials in Silk: Juba and the Legitimization of American Blackface Minstrelsy in Btitain / Stephen Johnson 23

2 The Testifying Subject: Reliability in Marketing, Science, and Law at the End of the Age of Barnum / Michael Pettit 51

3 "After a Season of War": Sharing Horticultural Success in the Reconstruction-Era Landscape / Marina Moskowitz 79

4 "The Ten Year Club": Artificial Limbs and Testimonials at the Turn of the Twentieth Century / Edward Slavishak 95

5 "The Mad Search for Beauty": Actresses, Cosmetics, and the Middle-Class Market / Marlis Schweitzer 123

6 "I am Kay and I Prefer Modern": Bridal Testimonials and the Rise of Consumer Rites, 1920s-1950s / Vicki Howard 151

7 "Dear Friend": Charles Atlas, American Masculinity, and the Bodybuilding Testimonial, 1894-1944 / Dominique Padurano 173

8|"For Us, By Us": Hip-Hop Fashion, Commodity Blackness and the Culture of Emulation / Mary Rizzo 207.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0230615600

9780230615601

OCLC:

369141623

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description