The formation of professional identity in the British advertising industry, 1920-1954
From 1920 to 1954 British advertising practitioners spoke readily about achieving professional status. Studies have examined sociological processes of professionalization within the advertising industry. This thesis instead addresses the question of what professionalism meant in the context of advertising, a modern occupation whose practitioners claimed expertise in persuasion itself. The meaning of professionalism in advertising matters because the formation of professional identity was fundamental to the way that advertising agents understood, marketed, and sought to develop their practice in the years following the First World War. This is important because their practice â the creation of marketing campaigns based on advertisements â was significant in shaping and supporting the economic growth of twentieth-century consumer culture in Britain. The thesis has three main dimensions. First, it examines the advertising industryâs changing professional narrative by considering how practitioners described their occupation, and the ways in which professionalism was experienced and enacted on an everyday basis in the advertising agency. Second, taking the development of advertising institutions and education
Haughton, Philippa Lucy
The formation of professional identity in the British advertising industry, 1920-1954. From 1920 to 1954 British advertising practitioners spoke readily about achieving professional status. Studies have examined sociological processes of professionalization within the advertising industry. This thesis instead addresses the question of what professionalism meant in the context of advertising, a modern occupation whose practitioners claimed expertise in persuasion itself. The meaning of professionalism in advertising matters because the formation of professional identity was fundamental to the way that advertising agents understood, marketed, and sought to develop their practice in the years following the First World War. This is important because their practice â the creation of marketing campaigns based on advertisements â was significant in shaping and supporting the economic growth of twentieth-century consumer culture in Britain. The thesis has three main dimensions. First, it examines the advertising industryâs changing professional narrative by considering how practitioners described their occupation, and the ways in which professionalism was experienced and enacted on an everyday basis in the advertising agency. Second, taking the development of advertising institutions and education
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