"ACNielsen Retail Measurement Services capture point-of-sale and causal information from all retail channels, highlighting incremental changes in market dynamics." Also see Nielsen NetRatings - statistics and news about Web advertising.
An extensive on-line database of over 7,000 advertisments from the J. Walter Thompson Company Competitive Advertisement Collection. It is available from the John W. Hartman Center at Duke University. The images are from U.S. newspapers and magazines from 1911 through 1955.
An ambitious collection of television commercials in QuickTime format that aspires to have "practically any ad you have seen on TV." Most content now requires a paid subscription.
Over 100,000 real ads from over 100 countries dating back to 1999 with an emphasis on creativity and award winners. Print, billboard, and interactive media comprise 50%, 45% are TV commercials, and about 5% are flash. Some restricted access, but includes searchable database of ads.
Although the interface is annoying, making the visitor wade through a mountain of preliminary images to get to the goodies, there is a significant collection of advertising toys to be found here.
"This page provides information, and links to information, about advertising law and ethics. This site is intended to supplement, not replace, the popular Advertising Law Internet Page [above] created by Lewis Rose, at the Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn law firm. Some of the links below are to resources on that site." - Jef I. Richards
"You have to register to visit, but if you're in the advertising or media fields, it's well worth the extra trouble. Advertising industry news and a chat area will make you feel at home, and the Industry Forums are useful for any potential advertiser. The AMIC site is also home to the Advertising Research Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving advertising, marketing, and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications." --Point Communications review
This source claims to be the most comprehensive Internet collection of websites suitable for advertising and marketing research. Sponsored by Leo Burnett.
A digital archive of thousands of vintage television commercials from the 1950's to the 1980's. Part of the D'Arcy, Masius, Benton and Bowles Collection at the John W. Hartmann Center at Duke University.
Information on advertising, design, marketing innovation, creativity and the annual Clio Awards International Advertising Festival. Includes industry associations, advertising resources online and selected articles from Adweek and Brandweek.
"The Commercial Closet is a unique, non-profit education and journalism project that charts evolving worldwide portrayals of the gay community in the most powerful cultural media of our time – mainstream advertising."
Captures and archives over 25,000 new TV and press advertisements every month from over 60 countries, as well as cinema, radio, outdoor and internet banner ads. Holds material going back as far as the 1950s.
Another site from Duke University that antedates the Ad*Access site listed above. Presents over 9000 images from 1850-1920 relating to the early history of advertising in the United States.
So it was natural for us to say "Let's create a site on the Internet where everyone could take a potshot at the "Ads From Hell", the ads we all love to hate.
"Currently Featuring 1,253 Ads. … The Gender Ads Project is organized in a number of topical areas or tropes of advertising. These are themes that I or others have identified in popular culture and gender." --Scott A. Lukas
Duke University's Special Collections Library. The most extensive collection at the Center is the J. Walter Thompson Company Archives, the most comprehensive surviving historical record of any advertising agency. Other holdings include vast files of 19th-20th century advertising, the extensive Wayne P. Ellis Collection of Eastman Kodak Advertising, Sales, and Marketing, and records of the Charles W. Hoyt agency. The web site offers sample images, newsletters sprinkled with more images from the collections and finding aids to the collection.
British organization dedicated to preserving the best of U.K. advertising. The Web site holds only small samples of their library holdings and traveling exhibits, but it is worth the visit anyway.
The source for sponsorship information online. Sponsorship is the world's fastest-growing form of marketing. In 1996, corporations around the globe will spend $13.5 billion sponsoring sports, arts, entertainment, causes and events.
This 8-page summary presents expected and actual advertising purchases in different media with some comparison of expenditures in a number of countries.
"Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP on an ongoing basis… this report aggregates data and information reported … by companies representing thousands of Web sites, in addition to other on-line ad selling companies. All-inclusive, the report includes data reflecting on-line advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial on-line services, e-mail providers, as well as other companies selling on-line advertising."
An official online publication of the Departments of Advertising at Michigan State University and The University of Texas at Austin. Abstracts and Full Text.
"Market Research World (MRW), previously Market Research Portal (MRP), offers a host of online resources and research related articles being highly relevant to market research buyers, researchers, newcomers to the industry, students and individuals with an interest in the market research industry."
Presents images and database information for approx. 600 health-related advertisements printed in newspapers and magazines. Covers the evolution of images from the 1910's through the 1950's.
The first commercial broadcast in 1922, the first musical commercial from 1926, and other historical sound recordings with background history provided by Danny Goodwin, an avid collector.
A collection of links to political advertising web sites and articles in reverse chronological order of political campaigns starting with 2008, provided by Kutztown University.
This online exhibit features 33 posters and 1 sound file from a more extensive exhibit that was presented in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, from May 1994 to February 1995. Like the original, this exhibit is divided into two parts, which represent two psychological approaches used in rallying public support for the war.
This Web archive of TV programming provides information on classic commercial advertising during this period in the history of television. By Billy Ingram (See "Video Vault" below.)
The Values and Lifestyles (VALS) program at SRI studies consumers by asking questions about their attitudes and values. You can type yourself according to the VALS 2 consumer-segmentation system and see the consumer patterns for people of your "type".
Collects vintage ads from a variety of sources, including comic books, CD-Roms, websites, APIs, submissions, book, magazine & comic book scans, and more.
A PBS documentary supplement that features an historical timeline of U.S. political advertising on TV, a unit on the creation process "From Idea to Ad," and "Tricks of the Trade" on how particular meanings and moods are manipulated. You can also find transcripts of the program.