Abstract

The 50th anniversary of the Journal of Advertising launch is an opportune moment to dialogue among the past, present, and future and offer a fruitful vision for the possibilities of advertising. In this paper, we advance a new subfield that we call transformative advertising research (TAR). TAR examines problems and opportunities across the advertising system with the goal of transforming it toward better outcomes, namely cultivating individual, institutional, and societal well-being. We present a conceptual framework on TAR, informed by institutional theory, that highlights the transformational insights revealed in the intersections and interactions between institutional actors at the micro level, advertising institutions at the meso level, and sociocultural forces at the macro level and the resulting well-being outcomes. To illustrate our framework, we focus on a long-standing topical issue within advertising—gender inequality—that holds significant implications for well-being. In conceptualizing advertising as an institution, (1) we propose a new subfield of advertising we name TAR and (2) we present a framework that reveals the system complexities within the advertising ecosystem and allows for a clear vision of potential transformative outcomes, which (3) can guide and inspire scholars and practitioners with directions to engage in social change.

摘要

《广告杂志》创刊50周年发布是过去、现在和未来之间对话的好时机，并为广告的可能性提供了富有成效的愿景。在本文中，我们推进了一个新的子领域，我们称之为变革性广告研究 (TAR)。TAR 检查整个广告系统的问题和机会，旨在将其转变为更好的结果，即培养个人、机构和社会福祉。我们提出了一个以制度理论为依据的关于 TAR 的概念框架，该框架强调了在微观层面的制度参与者、中观层面的广告机构和宏观层面的社会文化力量之间的交叉和互动中揭示的变革性见解以及由此产生的井——结果。为了说明我们的框架，我们专注于广告中一个长期存在的话题——性别不平等——它对福祉有重大影响。在将广告概念化为一个机构时，（1）我们提出了一个新的广告子领域，我们将其命名为 TAR；（2）我们提出了一个框架，该框架揭示了广告生态系统中的系统复杂性，并允许对潜在的变革成果有一个清晰的认识，其中（ 3）能够引导和启发学者和实践者有方向的参与社会变革。