New Visions of Information Technology and Postmodernism: Implications for Advertising and Marketing Communications

Although volumes have been written on information revolution and much writing continues at this very moment, it is rather surprising that this has not made an impact on the academic field of marketing communications or advertising (Katz 1991). Even within the broader field of marketing, the writing is limited — for exceptions, see Blattberg/Glazer/Little (1994), and current authors’ contributions from 1984 through 1994. In the world of marketing practice, there is no question that the information revolution has had an impact on various marketing activities such as, channels of distribution, networking of global markets, product design and new product development, customer data management, home shopping, home banking, real time manufacturing and marketing, to name a few. Although the world of marketing practice is being revolutionized because of new information technologies, the field of advertising seems to lag behind. In a recent speech to the Advertising Foundation, Edwin Artzt, the Chairman of Procter and Gamble lamented profoundly about the state of the advertising field, pointing to the fact that it has yet to show any initiative in capitalizing on new technologies.