Practical progress from a theory of advertisements

This paper presents a framework for a theory of advertising. The starting point is the view that advertising affects action, but rarely directly.

Practical progress from a theory of advertisements

Stephen KingJ. Walter Thompson

Marketing and advertising are changing very fast today. There is a bewildering succession of short-term pressures, as government and government agencies intervene directly—sometimes speeding up long-overdue reforms, sometimes heavy-handedly mistaking effects for causes. There is the destructive force of a long period of high inflation. And perhaps most powerful of all, there are marked changes in people's attitudes to life, their aspirations, their understanding of marketing and their responses to it.

Sometimes it seems that the only things that aren't changing are the arguments about advertising research. This...

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