CMJ 380: Advertising, Media, & Society: Finding Advertisements

This free, online database consists of searchable images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies.

Information about date, publication source, company being advertised and target audience is provided.

Searchable collection of GLBT-themed television and print ads. From the library overview: "Our collection focuses on mainstream corporate advertising and its incredible power to affect how the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender community is perceived. We collect worldwide corporate ads with direct references to GLBT people or a GLBT theme, including political ads and those from government and health agencies, nonprofits, gay and anti-gay organizations."

Information includes brand, ad title, company, year.

NOTE: The Advanced Search does not seem to work well with date limiters.

Advertising archive, featuring creative work from across the globe. Includes print, tv, radio, among other categories.

British and American advertisements, spanning the years from the mid 19th Century to the present day.

Lists of categories of ads, with an ability to filter search results by decade and origin.

Provides access to thousands of historic commercials created for clients or acquired by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency or its predecessor during the 1950s - 1980s.

Includes information about era and company.

EAA presents over 9,000 images that illustrate the rise of consumer culture, especially after the American Civil War, and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States. Ads run from 1850-1920.

Includes information on the company, date, location and/or publication (when available).

Truth in Advertising, Inc. (TINA.org) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Madison, CT, whose mission is to be the go-to online resource dedicated to empowering consumers to protect themselves and one another against false advertising and deceptive marketing.

This site aims to collect vintage ads from a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, contributor submissions, books, magazine & comic book scans, and more.

Select subject and then limit by year.

The Vogue Archive is a complete searchable archive of the magazine American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the most recent month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images.

You can limit your search to ads only, and search for terms in ads (to a degree. especially text-based ads). You can then situate ads in context with the rest of the issue, or consider the history of the ads used in the publication by browsing previous issues.

You may want to search for ads in a given time period of interest or related to concepts in your readings, such as gender or race.

Time has an online archive where you can browse by year back to 1923.

Life has an online archive of issues from 1936-1972.

The Political TV Ad Archive collects political ads in the 2016 election. In addition to tracking airings across key primary states, the collection includes ads that may air elsewhere or exclusively on social media.