INTRODUCTION

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses the relationship between US advertising and popular media, tracing from the nineteenth century through to today the ways that advertising funds popular culture, shapes and promotes it. It considers advertising from the perspective of its industries and business practices. The book describes the more recent history of internet personalization and targeting, including up-to-the-minute developments in government regulation and industry regulation such as Google’s phasing out of the third-party cookie. It encompass the relevance of advertising and promotion to social activism, populism, and political rhetoric by taking an expansive view of politics.