20 CCOT Essay Topics on Advertising in Cultural History

The importance of choosing an essay topic you truly understand and are able to work on cannot be overstated when the task at hand is writing a continuity and change-over-time essay (CCOT). This is because of the technical details that must be considered when writing such an essay. To explain further, when writing a CCOT essay, the student must pay attention to the time periods of his subject matter such as when certain things had occurred, analyse the changes since then as well as areas where continuity has been noted.

This means that a CCOT essay on advertising in cultural history must first go about discussing the history of an advertising medium or concept, proceed to discussing how the advertising medium or concept has changed over time as well as the factors that influenced these changes. Lastly, one must employ the use of the chosen historical concept to show the change and continuities that occurred over time. As you can see, writing a CCOT essay tests the student research and writing abilities in multiple ways. Therefore to successfully write your essay, you will need concrete and continuous facts to make your arguments and these facts can be found in this article on the 10 CCOT essay facts and advertising in cultural history.

This article is intended to simplify your task in choosing a topic once your initial research has been completed and these are the 20 topics for today.

20 essay topics on advertising in cultural history:

Historical Context in Advertising and its Growth Over Time
Exploring the Similarities between Ancient and Modern Advertising Techniques
Ancient and Modern Advertising: Comparing and Contrasting Techniques
The Invention of New Media and Advertising History
The Role of Media Inventions in Revolutionizing Advertising
Discussing the Effectiveness of Billboards as an Advertising Tool
A Study on Advertising and its Continuous Growth
Analyzing Salesmanship in Print and New Media
The Evolution of Advertising
Making Sense of Advertisement and its Application Through the Ages
The Origin of Branding and Its Effects on Society
A Historical Analysis of Advertising and Women Objectification
The Ever-Changing Face of Advertising in the Non-Profit Sector
Comparing Online Advertising Reach to Print Media
Children as Consumers: Studying Advertising Demographics
Historical and Modern Analysis of Sexism in Advertising
Shaping the American Woman: Feminism and Advertising in the US
A Study on Advertising to Kids in the 21^st Century
The History and Evolution of the Advertising Industry
Analyzing the Public Perception of Advertising through its History

Here we come to the end of the 20 topics we believe should inspire you to write excellently on the topic of advertising in cultural history. These topics will be preceded by a CCOT essay developed from a topic chosen off this list. This written essay on the historical and modern analysis of sexism in advertising would provide some direction on how you should go about drafting yours in such a manner that guarantees you top marks.

Sample CCOT Essay: Historical and Modern Analysis of Sexism in Advertising

The time tested phrase ‘sex sells’ has played a huge role in advertising and marketing through the years as advertising firms fought to get consumers using products regardless of the morality of long-reaching effects of marketing campaigns. In the 90s advertising had witnessed an upsurge as more people became financially capable of purchasing consumer goods and sex was used in advertisement as a means to an end. As time passed, feminism and the increased social awareness of the average individual wrought some changes on the phrase and my essay will attempt to analyse the changes in advertising sexism and the roles society played in pushing these changes.

With the advent of print media came a corresponding increase in advertising and in 1911, the first sexualized advert in the United States was created. This Woodbury Facial Soap advertisement named ‘A Skin You Love to Touch’, showed young women reclining on sofa’s while men ogled over the condition of their skin. A corresponding advert by Marlboro in 1955 created sexualized pictures of the ideal man and his smoking habits. Needless to say, these adverts led to highly increased sales of both products using subliminal messages to shape public perceptions. These adverts opened the floodgates and in the late 90s, the female form became the hallmark object for the advertising industry but this practice did not go unchallenged for long.

In 1960, feminist groups were the first organized body of individuals to bring to the public’s notice the harmful effect of creating a pseudo perfect human appearance could have on an individual’s psyche. They pointed out how the use of models pushed women to pursue unrealistic goals and how glamorising smoking and alcohol intake led others into developing unhealthy vices. As more people became aware of how manipulative and sexist modern advertising trends were becoming, certain limitations were set by the (EPA) on the acceptable advert forms that can be displayed on both print and video media platforms. Some of these measures included the publishing and highlighting of the dangers of smoking in cigarettes advertisements as well as the viewership age restriction system on video ads.

These checks on the excesses of traditional advertising formats that promoted sexism were positive to an extent for they reduced over sexualisation of the female form as well as what was considered appropriate to be shown on television. But despite this progress, forms of sexism in the advertising industry still continue as the female form is still been used to sell jewellery, clothing, sport items and perfumes. The advent of the internet as the new platform for advertising has also sprung some challenges for just about anyone can create and advertisement and there are no real ways to counter the use of inappropriate or sexist materials on the World Wide Web.

In conclusion, sex still sells and it would take a concerted effort from both government organizations and stakeholders in the advertising industry to truly tackle the far-reaching effects of sexism.

The above essay was written as a CCOT essay on advertising in cultural history. The last article in this series is written in tutorial form and provides tips on how to write a great CCOT essay on advertising in cultural history.

References:
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Dahlén, M. & Edenius, M. (2007). When is Advertising Advertising? Comparing Responses to Non-Traditional and Traditional Advertising Media. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 29(1), pp.33-42.
CURTIS, R. (1986). Product Identification and Advertising on Roman Commercial Amphorae. Ancient Society, 17(0), pp.209-228.
Feng, S. (2009). Talking about Ancient Chinese Commercial Advertising Styles. Asian Social Science, 5(12).
Leclerc, F., Schmitt, B. and Dube, L. (1994). Foreign Branding and Its Effects on Product Perceptions and Attitudes. Journal of Marketing Research, 31(2), p.263.
Cheong, Y., de Gregorio, F. and Kim, K. (2010). The Power of Reach and Frequency In the Age of Digital Advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 50(4), pp.403-415.
Sridhar, S. and Sriram, S. (2007). Is Online Newspaper Advertising Cannibalizing Print Advertising?. SSRN Electronic Journal.