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Advertising » Ad Databases

The Ad Council is a private, non-profit organization that delivers critical messages to the American public via public awareness advertising campaigns.

"Over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements covering five product categories - Beauty and Hygiene, Radio, Television, Transportation, and World War II propaganda - dated between 1911 and 1955."

Examples of print and video advertisements & campaigns along with their perspective agencies. Access to certain areas requires individual subscription with additional cost.

Ads of the world and their agencies.

Examples of print advertisements.

"The AdViews digital collection consists of thousands of television commercials created or acquired by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles advertising agency from the 1950s through the 1980s for a diverse range of clients including General Foods, Proctor & Gamble, Pillsbury, Anheuser-Busch, Pan-American World Airways, Mattel, and Nestle."

"The American Advertising Awards is the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition, attracting nearly 35,000 entries every year in local AAF competitions. The mission of the American Advertising Awards is to recognize and reward the creative spirit of excellence in the art of advertising."

The industry award for outstanding advertisements.

"Over 3,300 advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1920, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States."

The largest archive of British advertising in the world.

"Resource for Outdoor Advertising Database 2.0 is a portal to more than 30,000 out of home advertisements from five unique source collections.  See also the original ROAD metadata only database that contains descriptions of over 50,000 images of outdoor advertising dating between the 1920s and the 1990s.  Metadata includes advertiser company, product, placement company, date if known, and medium."