Madison Avenue and the Color Line - by Jason Chambers (Paperback)

About the Book

Until now, most works on the history of African Americans in advertising have focused on the depiction of blacks in advertisements. Madison Avenue and the Color Line breaks new ground by examining the history of black advertising agency employees and agency owners.

Book Synopsis

Until now, most works on the history of African Americans in advertising have focused on the depiction of blacks in advertisements. As the first comprehensive examination of African American participation in the industry, Madison Avenue and the Color Line breaks new ground by examining the history of black advertising employees and agency owners.

For much of the twentieth century, even as advertisers chased African American consumer dollars, the doors to most advertising agencies were firmly closed to African American professionals. Over time, black participation in the industry resulted from the combined efforts of black media, civil rights groups, black consumers, government organizations, and black advertising and marketing professionals working outside white agencies. Blacks positioned themselves for jobs within the advertising industry, especially as experts on the black consumer market, and then used their status to alter stereotypical perceptions of black consumers. By doing so, they became part of the broader effort to build an African American professional and entrepreneurial class and to challenge the negative portrayals of blacks in American culture.

Using an extensive review of advertising trade journals, government documents, and organizational papers, as well as personal interviews and the advertisements themselves, Jason Chambers weaves individual biographies together with broader events in U.S. history to tell how blacks struggled to bring equality to the advertising industry.

Review Quotes

"A cogent analysis of an important aspect of race relations in the US. . . . Highly recommended."-- "Choice"

"A major contribution to the history of advertising, consumption, and African American history."-- "Lizabeth Cohen, author of A Consumers' Republic"

"Rarely do scholars look beyond consumer-directed messages to explore the battlegrounds from which they emanate. Jason Chambers succeeds at this splendidly in analyzing African Americans' struggles with the advertising industry, both inside and outside of it, through the twentieth century."-- "Journal of American History"

"The book offers perspective for those entering the industry as well as those who don't understand what all of the fuss is about."-- "Advertising Age"

About the Author

Jason Chambers Associate Professor of Advertising at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.