Irresistible empire or innocents abroad? American advertising agencies in post-war Italy, 1950s-1970s

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence and influence of US advertising in Italy between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s. Design/methodology/approach – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence and influence of US advertising in Italy between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s. Findings – The paper argues that there is a need to further qualify and deconstruct the notion of “Americanization” by integrating the now well-established notions of “hybridization” and “mediation” with more specific attention to the competing “hearts and souls”, the different strategies and discursive practices that different individual actors (American, British and Italian) operating within the Italian advertising business tried to instil into goods and consumers and the economic and cultural results that they achieved. Originality/value – This is the first research on the history of Italian advertising that fully places it within a transnational and comparative perspective using so far unpubli...

[1]  R. Crawford.  Opening for business: A comparison of J. Walter Thompson and McCann Erickson’s entries into the Australian market , 2016 .

[2]  Jennifer Scanlon.  A dozen ideas to the minute , 2013 .

[3]  S. Schwarzkopf.  From Fordist to creative economies: the de-Americanisation of European advertising cultures since the 1960s , 2013 .

[4]  S. Nixon.  Hard sell: Advertising, affluence and transatlantic relations, c. 1951–69 , 2013 .

[5]  E. Bini.  La potente benzina italiana. Guerra fredda e consumi di massa tra Italia, Stati Uniti e Terzo mondo (1945-1973) , 2013 .

[6]  M. Nolan.  Excerpt from The Transatlantic Century: Europe and America, 1890–2010 , 2012 .

[7]  E. Bini.  Selling Gasoline with a Smile: Gas Station Attendants between the United States, Italy, and the Third World, 1945–19701 , 2012, International Labor and Working-Class History.

[8]  R.H.C. Davis.  Negotiating local and global knowledge and history: J. Walter Thompson around the globe 1928–1960 , 2012 .

[9]  S. Schwarzkopf.  The subsiding sizzle of advertising history: Methodological and theoretical challenges in the post advertising age , 2011 .

[10]  S. Schwarzkopf.  Discovering the Consumer , 2009 .

[11]  F. Petruccelli.  Storia della pubblicità , 2008 .

[12]  E. Scarpellini.  L’Italia dei consumi : dalla Belle Époque al nuovo millennio , 2008 .

[13]  S. D. Iulio,et al.  The Americanization of Italian Advertising during the 1950s and the 1960s: Mediations, Conflicts and Appropriations , 2009 .

[14]  Susan Smulyan.  Popular Ideologies: Mass Culture at Mid-Century , 2007 .

[15]  S. Schwarzkopf.  Transatlantic Invasions or Common Culture? Modes of Cultural and Economic Exchange between the American and the British Advertising Industries, 1945–2000 , 2007 .

[16]  M. Moraglio.  Un Paese a Quattro Ruote: Automobili E Società in Italia , 2006 .

[17]  Victoria De Grazia,et al.  Irresistible Empire , 2005 .

[18]  Véronique Pouillard.  American Advertising Agencies in Europe: J. Walter Thompson's Belgian Business in the Inter-War Years , 2005 .

[19]  J. Moreno.  J. Walter Thompson, the Good Neighbor Policy, and Lessons in Mexican Business Culture, 1920–1950 , 2004, Enterprise & Society.

[20]  G. Gasperoni.  Recensione di "Storia del sondaggio d’opinione in Italia, 1936-1994. Dal lungo rifiuto alla repubblica dei sondaggi", di Sandro Rinauro (Venezia, Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, 2002) , 2004 .

[21]  C. Hultquist.  Americans in Paris: The J. Walter Thompson Company in France, 1927–1968 , 2003, Enterprise & Society.

[22]  Jennifer Scanlon.  Mediators in the International Marketplace: U.S. Advertising in Latin America in the Early Twentieth Century , 2003, Business History Review.

[23]  A. Arvidsson.  Marketing Modernity: Italian Advertising from Fascism to Postmodernity , 2003 .

[24]  James P. Woodard.  Marketing Modernity: The J. Walter Thompson Company and North American Advertising in Brazil, 1929-1939 , 2002 .

[25]  S. Rinauro.  Storia del sondaggio d'opinione in Italia , 2002 .

[26]  F. Fasce.  Voglia di automobile. Fiat e pubblicità negli anni del dopoguerra , 2001 .

[27]  D. Pozzi,et al.  Tra New York e Fornovo Taro: l’occasione mancata della Società petrolifera italiana (1945-1953) , 2001 .

[28]  E. Genovese.  The President's Corner , 2012 .

[29]  Jeff Merron.  Putting Foreign Consumers on the Map: J. Walter Thompson's Struggle with General Motors' International Advertising Account in the 1920s , 1999, Business History Review.

[30]  Edd C. Applegate.  The Ad Men and Women: A Biographical Dictionary of Advertising , 1994 .

[31]  Douglas C. West.  Multinational Competition in the British Advertising Agency Business, 1936–1987 , 1988, Business History Review.

[32]  Douglas C. West.  From T-Square to T-Plan: The London Office of the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency 1919–70 , 1987 .

[33]  R. Ferrier.  Petrol Advertising in the Twenties and Thirties: The Case of the British Petroleum Company , 1986 .

[34]  R. Hidy,et al.  History of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) , 1976 .

[35]  Brian Ash.  Tiger in your tank: The anatomy of an advertising campaign , 1969 .