Gleeson Library: ADVT 101 (McGrane): Advertising Research

Finding an Advertisement

These databases and web sites have images and commercials that you can browse through to get ideas!

Clio Awards
The Clio Awards are an annual recognition of excellence in advertising
D&AD Awards Archive
Use the search filters on the left to see ads from 2025 and back. D&AD is a British educational organization that promotes creativity in design and advertising.
Ad*Access Duke University Libraries Repository Collection and Archives
Over 7000 US and Canadian advertisements from 1911-1955
Ads of the World
AdForum's Ad Search
Search through over 200,000 ads from all over the world, using product name, industry, country, year, and more!
AdViews
Television commercials from the 1950s-1980s created by the advertising agency D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B).
Medicine and Madision Avenue
From the Duke archives, these are medical and health-advertisements from the years 1850-1920.
Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920
Images of ads from the early age of professional advertising
Advertising Archives
European advertisement collection from the mid-19th Century to the present.
Classic TV Ads on YouTube
Numerous collections of historical TV commercials from various decades.

Atlantic Magazine Archive
The Atlantic Magazine Archive contains indexing, abstracting, and full text (including Covers and advertisements) of this leading monthly magazine beginning in November 1857 and ending April 2014.
Ebony Magazine Archive
Digital version of Ebony Magazine, a monthly magazine with a focus on news, culture, and entertainment targeted at the Black community. Coverage includes its first issue in 1945 through 2014. This full-text archive of more than 800 issues provides analysis on Black business, history, politics, entertainment, fashion and culture.
Esquire Magazine Archive
The Esquire Magazine Archive, 1933-2014, delivers cover-to-cover content of the award-winning American men’s magazine in the areas of politics, men’s fashion, entertainment, fiction and pop culture.

On-Campus Link
LGBT Magazine Archive
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles – The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. Some publications may contain explicit content. Coverage: 1954 - 2015
Life Magazine Archive
Life Magazine Archive presents an extensive collection of the famed photojournalism magazine, spanning its very first issue in November, 1936 through December, 2000 in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format.

Published by Time Inc., the magazine has featured story-telling through documentary photographs and informative captions. Each issue visually and powerfully depicted national and international events and topical stories, providing intimate views of real people and their real life situations.

The cover-to-cover format means each issue is presented in its entirety, including the front and back covers as well as all articles and advertisements contained in the original publication. Everything has been indexed with relevant subject terms to ensure that researchers and readers can quickly and accurately find what they are looking for. Life Magazine Archive is valuable to researchers of 20th-Century current events, politics and culture, as well as those interested in the history of business, advertising, and popular culture.

On-Campus Link
New Republic Archive
The New Republic is considered one of the country's leading journals of opinion on politics and the arts. It features award-winning writers and critics from many fields and from most political viewpoints. Available from 1914 to the present.

On campus link
People Magazine Archive
People Magazine Archive presents an extensive collection of the prominent, popular magazine dating from its very first issue in March, 1974 through December, 2000, in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format.

Published by Time Inc., the magazine has focused on the stories of people in and behind the news. Each issue contains a blend of celebrity and human interest stories. Taken as a whole, the archive chronicles popular culture and trends over time.

The cover-to-cover format means each issue is presented in its entirety, including the front and back covers as well as all articles and advertisements contained in the original publication. Everything has been indexed with relevant subject terms to ensure that researchers and readers can quickly and accurately find what they are looking for. People Magazine Archive is valuable to researchers of 20th-Century current events, politics and culture, as well as those interested in the history of business, advertising, and popular culture.

On-Campus Link
Sports Illustrated Magazine Archive
Sports Illustrated Magazine Archive presents an extensive collection of the popular sports magazine dating from its very first issue in August, 1954 through December, 2000, presented in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format.

Published by Time Inc., the magazine has aimed to chronicle the weekly events in the world of sports. Each issue originally focused on more upper-class sporting activities such as polo and boating, but in the 1960s the magazine expanded its focus to include the increasingly popular professional sports of baseball, football, and, eventually, basketball.

The cover-to-cover format means each issue is presented in its entirety, including the front and back covers as well as all articles and advertisements contained in the original publication. Everything has been indexed with relevant subject terms to ensure that researchers and readers can quickly and accurately find what they are looking for. Sports Illustrated Magazine Archive is valuable to researchers of 20th-century current events, politics and culture, as well as those interested in the history of business, advertising, and popular culture.

On-Campus Link
Harper's Bazaar Archive
A comprehensive, searchable archive of every page, advertisement, and cover of the Harper's Bazaar US and UK editions, from 1867 to the present. The issues are reproduced as high-resolution color page images and supported by fully searchable text and article-level indexing. This resource comprises a chronicle of American, British, and international fashion, culture, and society, supporting researchers by offering unique insights into the events, attitudes, and interests of the modern era. Coverage: 1867 - current
Time Magazine Archive
The Time Magazine Archive presents an extensive collection of the prominent weekly news magazine dating back to its first issue in March 1923 through December 2000, presented in a comprehensive cover-to-cover format.

Published weekly by Time Inc., the magazine has focused on conveying to a broad audience both domestic and international news and analysis on a spectrum of subjects.

Intended to be read in under an hour, each issue of Time contains reports of national and international current events, politics, sports, and entertainment. Capturing the relevant news for a given week, the magazine remains an important resource for researchers studying just about any aspect of 20th-Century history and life.

The cover-to-cover format means each issue is presented in its entirety, including the front and back covers as well as all articles and advertisements contained in the original publication. Everything has been indexed with relevant subject terms to ensure that researchers and readers can quickly and accurately find what they are looking for. The Time Magazine Archive is valuable to researchers of 20th-Century current events, politics and culture, as well as those interested in the history of business, advertising, and popular culture.

On-Campus Link
Vanity Fair Magazine Archive
The Vanity Fair Magazine Archive contains indexing, abstracting and full text (including Covers and Advertisements) beginning in September 1913 to February 1936 and March 1983 to October 2015.
Vogue Archive
American Vogue, from the first issue in 1892 to the current month, reproduced in high-resolution color page images. Every page, advertisement, cover and fold-out has been included, with rich indexing enabling you to find images by garment type, designer and brand names. The Vogue Archive preserves the work of the world's greatest fashion designers, stylists and photographers and is a unique record of American and international fashion, culture and society from the dawn of the modern era to the present day.
Women's Magazine Archive
Full backfiles of leading women’s interest consumer magazines. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.

Advertising and Marketing Campaigns and Strategies

Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns
Online. An annual publication that profiles important marketing campaigns of the 20th century. Search using product, brand, or company names for information on marketing campaigns and branding for a particular product or company.
Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Strategies
Online. A continuation of Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns (1999 and 2007), this new volume expands its international coverage through its 100 essays covering some of the top global and emerging brands that appeared from 2010 to 2013. Search using product, brand, or company names for information on marketing campaigns and branding for a particular product or company.
Encyclopedia of Global Brands
From Timex to Rolex and from Levis to Liz Clairborne, brand names conjure up definite images in the minds of most Americans. While brand loyalty may be going the way of the Edsel, the importance of product brands cant be easily dismissed. The 2-vol. Encyclopedia of Global Brands is the first reference of its kind to compile the origin, evolution and current market status of some of the worlds most recognizable consumer brands.
Meet Mr. Product by Warren Dotz; Masud Husain
Call Number: HF6146.A27 D68 2003

Here in Meet Mr. Product you'll find a vibrantly colorful tribute to such pop-culture icons as the Jolly Green Giant, Mr. Peanut, the Morton Salt Girl, and the countless other advertising characters who have been helping us navigate the grocery aisles and choose our products for years. This book charts the origins and development of over 500 familiar advertising characters.

AdAge
Search AdAge for brands, companies, and ad campaigns to find articles and analysis.
AdWeek
Search your brand or product for articles on ad campaigns and more!

International Directory of Company Histories
Provides histories of companies that are a leading influence in a particular industry or geographic location. For students, job candidates, business executives, historians and investors.

Plus your company's website!

Context and Analysis for Ads

Fusion
Fusion allows you to search, in one place, the majority of the library’s books, articles, videos, etc. It includes all the materials in our library catalog Ignacio, as well as the content of the majority of our many databases.
Questions and Answers:

Does Fusion include everything the library has?
No, but it includes so much of what the library has that it will almost always be a good place to start a search.

When would Fusion not make sense as the first place to search?
Some examples:
- If you’re interested in finding only books, or a specific book title, then our library catalog Ignacio might be a more appropriate place to begin.
- If you’re looking specifically for statistical data, or encyclopedia/dictionary entries, or images, it would be better to use databases devoted to those specific types of information.
- If you're looking for a specific Journal title, you should use our Journal Finder.
- I’m very proficient using the subject-specific databases in my field. Is there any reason I should use Fusion?
- Because Fusion will have such broad coverage, it may locate relevant materials published in other fields that you wouldn’t otherwise find in a subject-specific database.
So then why would I want to choose a subject-specific database anymore—can I just use Fusion instead?
Fusion is not replacing any of our subject-specific databases. These databases offer valuable advanced searching capabilities tailored to their subject areas.

On-Campus Link
Communication Source
Developed from a merger of the EBSCO databases Communication and Mass Media Complete and Communication Abstracts (formerly published by Sage), this is the premier research database for Communication Studies. This comprehensive resource offers worldwide full-text content pertaining to communication, linguistics, rhetoric and discourse, speech-language pathology, media studies and related fields and includes many unique sources previously not available.

Communication Source features full text for more than 800 titles, including over 600 active full-text titles.

Indexing and abstracting is included for more than 1000 Core titles. Also featured is backfile coverage of top titles in Communication, reaching deep into the 20th century. Content is derived from academic journals, conference papers, conference proceedings, trade publications, magazines and periodicals. Content development for Communication Source is guided by expert advisors who are academic librarians and Communication bibliographers from leading international institutions.

On-Campus Link
APA PsycInfo
APA PsycInfo is the American Psychological Association's renowned resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations. It is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health, and contains over 3 million citations and summaries dating as far back as the 1600s, with one of the highest DOI matching rates in the publishing industry. Ninety-nine percent of its content is peer-reviewed. Formerly called PsycINFO.

Included is information on the psychological aspects of related fields such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, technology, linguistics, anthropology, business, law and others. Journal coverage, which spans from the 1800s to the present, includes international material selected from around 2,500 periodicals in dozens of languages. APA PsycInfo is indexed with controlled vocabulary from APA's Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms.

On Campus Link
Opposing Viewpoints
"Pro" and "con" arguments on controversial issues. Search the word: advertising to get information on issues in ads and related topics like influencers, body image, and more!
ProQuest One Business
A comprehensive business database containing millions of full-text items across scholarly and popular periodicals, newspapers, market research reports, dissertations, books, videos and more. Includes the full text of the Wall Street Journal. Formerly called ABI/INFORM Collection
Ethnic NewsWatch
Ethnic NewsWatch covers 1990 to present and includes newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The publications offer both national and regional coverage

Ethnic NewsWatch is the only current database devoted to presenting multi-ethnic and multi-cultural publications in one resource. Coverage begins in 1990 and is updated daily with new content. Many of the titles are not found in any other aggregated resource.

And More: Books and Ebooks

Ignacio: Library Catalog
The library catalog lets you search across the holdings of Gleeson Library and Zief Law Library, including books, videos, and other materials.
Gale eBooks
A great place to begin your research, Gale eBooks offers thousands of authoritative articles published in academic encyclopedias, and written by subject experts. Gale eBooks provides information you can not only trust, but cite in a paper as well. Formerly called GVRL: Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Citing Your Sources

Whenever you do research, you will need to cite the information sources that you use. Most business scholars use APA style. Here are some tools that can help you with this task:

Gleeson Library's guide to citations: How? Why? When?

Tip: Look for citation tools within the databases that you use! These can be so helpful in helping you formulate your citations and works cited/bibliography. NOTE: Sometimes there are errors in these database-created citations, so it is a good idea to review them before submitting your paper/project/slides!!!

APA 7th Edition Citations for Business Sources
An excellent guide to using APA 7th edition style for popular business sources. Scroll through the guide to find an example for the business source you are using in your research. Compiled by librarians Naomi Schemm, Marcia Dellenbach, Zachary Grisham, Marianne Hageman, Natalia Tingle, Matt Trowbridge, and Amanda Wheatley
Citing Business Databases in APA: Michigan State University Guide
This guide was created to help with citing some common business databases
Citing Business Databases from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro
This guide has some additional business database examples in APA style.
MLA Business Citations: Youngstown State University
Scroll down the page to see citations for specific business web sites, reports, and databases cited in MLA style.
Purdue OWL
Our favorite style guide web site is the OWL from Purdue University.

RefWorks
RefWorks allows users to create personal databases to manage, store, and share the information citations/references. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds. See our RefWorks Guide for information about creating accounts, adding references, and using add-ons.

Getting Help!

There are several ways to obtain assistance with your research. Read on!

You have your very own librarian! She is Penny Scott, and you can contact her for help.

Her contact information is: email: plscott@usfca.edu * phone: 415-422-5389

It is best to email ahead, or make an appointment, to make sure she is available! Appointments are available virtually via Zoom, or in person, and are great for groups or individuals. If you don't see a time that works for you, email Penny.

If Penny is not available, or any time you need help, you can always get help, just Ask a Librarian!

You can also take a look at our Research Guides on many topics!

ADVT 101 (McGrane)

Reference Librarian/Business Liaison