Advertising and Public Relations

Advertising

Comprehensive, or 'meta', sites

• Advertising World: from the University of Texas at Austin--a very good site.
• Advertising Library: from About.com, has some decent links.

Dictionaries, etc.

• AdTerms: "a dictionary of advertising terminology", from the University of Texas at Austin.
• MarketingTerms.com: Despite the title, also includes lots of advertising definitions.  A neat site, because it also links to online articles on topics.

Online archives of ads

• Ad*Access: an online archive of advertisements from 1911-1955 at Duke University.
• ad-awards.com: "a website presenting the finest TV ads worldwide".
• Adflip:  "the world's largest archive of classic print ads."  Login required.  A commercial archive of ads from the 1940's-present.  Not comprehensive by any means (the ads collected are chosen simply because they appealed to the database compilers), but still a neat site.
• Adverlicio.us.  An archive of online ads.
• Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920.   (Duke University)  Complements their online archive Ad*Access.
• Philip Morris Advertising Archive:  an archive of color "images includ[ing] print ads, outdoor ads, point-of-sale and direct marketing materials dating back to the early 1990's ..."  Awkward to use, not at all intuitive, but still has lots of interesting stuff, and on a controversial subject.

Media research companies: Here are links to some of the big name companies in the field.  As a general rule, there is little or no free content on these sites.

• Arbitron for radio, TV and cable.
• Cohorts a "household-based segmentation tool".
• Mediamark Research Inc. Their cd-rom product MediaMark Reporter is available in Raynor Memorial Libraries only.
• Monroe Mendelsohn Research focuses on the affluent market.
• Nielsen Media Research for TV audience research.
• Scarborough Research for local market research.
• Simmons Market Research Bureau. Their National Consumer Survey and Teen studies are available in Raynor Memorial Libraries only, via software from IMS Media Solutions.
• SRDS (Standard Rate & Data Service)   Raynor Memorial Libraries has their book Lifestyle Market Analyst in print, and subscribes to their online database SRDS Media Solutions.

Advertising awards

• Advertising Awards list of links from UT Austin.
• Advertising Awards list of links from Advertising.about.com
• Clio Awards

Associations, trade organizations, etc.

• Advertising Research Foundation:  professional organization in the field of advertising, marketing and media research.  Sponsors advertising research awards.
• American Academy of Advertising: "an organization of advertising scholars and professionals with an interest in advertising and advertising education".
• American Association of Advertising Agencies
• Audit Bureau of Circulations.  "... is a not-for-profit organization established in 1914. ABC is the leading third party auditing organization in the U.S. ..."
• Direct Marketing Association
• Interactive Advertising Bureau:  "dedicated to helping online, Interactive broadcasting, email, wireless and Interactive television media companies increase their revenues."

Magazines, publications

• Publications: a more comprehensive list of links from UT Austin's Advertising World
• Advertising Age
• Adweek Online
• Brandweek
• Communication Arts: Creative resources for graphic designers, art directors, photographers.

Governmental sites

• Federal Communications Commission (FCC): The broad focus of the FCC is to regulate interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. This can also include advertising.
• Federal Trade Commission (FTC):  within its Bureau of Consumer Protection is the Division of Advertising Practices, which enforces federal "truth-in-advertising" laws.  Try a keyword search to find useful pages on the site.
• Small Business Administration: A keyword search on 'advertising' can bring up some good material.

Advertising and ethics

• Advertising Law & Ethics from UT Austin.
• Catholic Church's Handbook on Ethics in Advertising again, from UT Austin.
• Consumer Protection: Advertising from the FTC.
• Ethics and Self-Regulation a list of links from UT Austin.
• Federal Communications Commission This site doesn't have a designated link for advertising ethics, but a search using the terms "advertising and ethics" or "advertising and children" or a similar search may yield useful information.

Public service announcements (PSA's):  in addition to the link to the Ad Council below, a search in Google on the phrase "public service announcements" will bring up links to PSA's available on the websites of many non-profit organizations.

• Ad Council:  the leading provider of public service advertising.

Jobs

• Advertising and Media Jobs Page Comprehensive collection of job listings from Nationjob site.
• MediaFinder a publisher's web site, with a searchable database of publications, that can help to identify audiences for writing or ads.

Public Relations

Comprehensive, or 'meta', sites

• All About Public Relations from Steven R. Van Hook.
• Online-PR
• PR Place: a commercial site sponsored by Media Distribution Services. Includes "addresses and hot links to PR organizations and publications, on-line news services and databases, journalism interest groups, and more."
• Public Relations Links by Kirk Hallahan at Colorado State University.
• Public Relations Resources from About.com.  Has links to some basic, but interesting articles.

Directories

• Holmes Report Agency Directory
• PR Firms Database from ODwyerPR.com.

Associations, trade organizations, etc.

• Arthur W. Page Society: for senior PR executives.
• Council of Public Relations Firms: has case studies and other useful material under Industry Resources.
• Institute for Crisis Management really a consulting firm, but they have useful material on their site; see especially the section called Essence of Crisis Management.  Their Crisis Report: News Coverage of Business Crises is also very interesting.
• Institute for Public Relations a research and education organization.
• International Association of Business Communicators
• Public Relations Society of America
• Public Relations Student Society of America
• Women Executives in Public Relations

Video

• Medialink A producer and distributor of video news and PR segments for corporations and other organizations.

PR newswires

• Business Wire
• PR Newswire
• PRWeb

Online publications

• Holmes Report: Paul Holmes' PR news, etc. site--works best with Internet Explorer.  The newsletter and other content is now fee-based only (sigh ...). Also has the SABRE awards (Superior Achievement in Branding and Reputation).  The Holmes Report Blog is free for now though.
• The New PR/Wiki started by Constantin Basturea.
• O'Dwyer's PR News website for Jack O'Dwyer's trade newsletter.
• PR Watch (a quarterly newsletter from the Center for Media & Democracy).  Public interest reporting on the PR/Public Affairs industry from a watchdog organization. See especially their list of annotated links on the public relations industry.
• PRWeek web site for the weekly trade publication (US edition; there are also web sites for the UK, Asian, and German editions).

Awards

• Silver Anvil Resource Center Award for excellence in public relations from the PRSA.

PR history

• Museum of Public Relations. An interesting site with material on some of the founders of the PR industry: Edward L. Bernays, Moss Kendrix, Carl R. Byoir, Arthur W. Page, and Chester Burger.  More 'exhibits' are planned.  Originally sponsored by Spector & Associates.

Jobs

• WorkinPR

Search Aids and Bibliographic Tips

• Search the Internet
  Want more? Here you'll find a collection of search engines, indexes and directories.
• Internet Resources Citation Guides
  Learn how to cite information found on the Net in a bibliography.
• Evaluating Information Sources
• Writer's Handbook
  Produced by the Writing Center at UW-Madison. Contains tips on style, grammar, punctuation, and citing sources.
• Research and Documentation Online
  Information on finding and documenting sources in the humanities, social sciences, history, and the sciences.

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