The authors suggest that advertisments, while important in our daily emotional self-management, are far more closely linked to the pragmatics of everyday life than their symbolic richness might suggest. Recent trends in advertisment content point to an important shift in our relationship to goods that reflects an increasing preoccupation with risk management.

Jackie Botterill, Iain MacRury, Barry Richards

1: Introduction; 2: The Historical Dynamics of the Advertising Industry; 3: The History of Advertisements; 4: The Academic Critique of Advertising; 5: The Dynamics of Cultural Change; 6: The Psychodynamics of Advertising 1; 7: Psycho-Social Categories for the Study of Everyday Life; 8: Driven by Passion? Car Advertisement Content 1950-1998; 9: Going to Market; 10: The Democratisation of Credit; 11: Conclusions