ABSTRACT
This chapter traces both classic and contemporary approaches to advertising within the political economy tradition. The critical political economy tradition is guided by critical social theory to identify and address problems. Critical scholarship from the 1970s established studies of advertising finance but tended to provide an aerial view, with limited close observation of advertising practices and processes. The rise of sociological and culturalist studies of advertising fills the gap but tends towards an uncritical, descriptive account of marketing, partly in its effort to distinguish itself from earlier critical discourses. Culturalist approaches to advertising have emphasized, and often celebrated, peoples immersion in branding and brand culture. In doing so they turned away from what they regarded as crude, Marxian domination theories. The extension of advertiser power in the digital age, as well as its limits, cries out for further analysis and public debate. Smythes audience commodity concept has renewed relevance in contemporary critical political economy (CPE) studies of digital media.
