Purpose This study introduces Claudia Jones (1915–1964) into the canon of marketing history by examining her pioneering use of media, cultural events and symbolic consumption production as strategies of marketplace reclamation and racial counter-narrative in postwar Britain. It aims to explore how Jones’s activism created alternative communicative infrastructures that challenged dominant racialized media and marketplace narratives between 1948 and 1964. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a biographical, socio-historical and historiographical methodology, this study draws on primary archival material housed at The National Archives of the UK, the British Library (London), the Wellcome Collection and the Lambeth Archives (London). Secondary literature in Black British cultural studies, postcolonial historiography and critical marketing scholarship is referenced to contextualize Jones’s cultural praxis work through the West Indian Gazette and the inaugural indoor Caribbean Carnival. Findings This examination reveals how Jones’s communicative strategies, spanning journalism, cultural organizing and public discourse, functioned as powerful interventions into dominant narratives of race and belonging. Through platforms such as the West Indian Gazette and the London Caribbean Carnival, Jones crafted cultural tools that contested the exclusionary logic of British media, government policy and commercial messaging. These acts of symbolic resistance not only reasserted diasporic presence but also forged new pathways for identity formation and collective empowerment within the British marketplace. Originality/value This study contributes to emerging scholarship that links race, empire and consumption to challenge the dominant Western-centric frameworks of marketing history. By centering a non-US, diasporic figure such as Claudia Jones, the research directly responds to calls for geographically and racially expansive marketing scholarship (Grier et al., 2024). It positions Jones as a cultural strategist whose work complicates conventional conceptualizations of marketing by showing how communication, resistance and community-building can serve as foundational market practices. In doing so, this study offers both a historiographical amplification and a theoretical provocation to reconsider the boundaries of marketing thought.
Purpose This study aims to examine how racialised and Orientalist imagery was used in early 20th-century Spanish chocolate advertising through a historical semiotic analysis of finalist posters from the Casa Amatller competition in Barcelona. Focusing on three posters by Francisco A. Gal & iacute;, Rafael de Penagos and Josep Triad & oacute; Mallol, it explores how racialised figures shaped the symbolic construction of chocolate as a colonial luxury commodity.Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a qualitative historical methodology grounded in semiotic analysis. Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Barthes, Eco, Rose and Joly, this study develops a four-level analytical framework encompassing the iconic, iconographic, tropological and enthymemic dimensions of the image. This framework is applied to a purposive sample of three posters selected for their explicit use of racialised figures.Findings The findings show that racialised bodies functioned as central mediators in the marketing of chocolate. In Gal & iacute; and Penagos, the Black Moor servant evokes colonial labour, exoticism and elite domestic consumption, while obscuring the commodity's colonial origins. In Triad & oacute;, Orientalist femininity reframes chocolate as a cosmopolitan and refined practice of consumption. Across all three posters, racialisation emerges as a deliberate marketing strategy that linked chocolate to luxury, distinction and modernity.Originality/value This study contributes to marketing history by bringing Spanish advertising into debates on commodity racism, a field largely dominated by British and American examples. It demonstrates how colonial ideologies were embedded in early branding strategies in Spain and advances the historical understanding of race in the visual marketing of colonial commodities.
Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of history as it relates to how Blackness is commodified in the context of cultural tourism in Harlem, New York. In particular, this study emphasizes the history of tourism in Harlem, how tour guides currently present this history and how reviewers on TripAdvisor evaluate and respond to these presentations. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a dual qualitative approach, specifically combining ethnographic observations and online discourse analysis concerning a prominent cultural tour company operating in Harlem. Findings The perceived quality of historical presentations being a significant factor in determining a positive or a negative review. Other findings include how Blackness is perceived by tourists to be part of Harlem’s past, but not necessarily its future. Another finding is that tour guides, due to a mostly white customer base and the economic imperatives of the tourist industry, have to be selective and strategic in how they address issues of racism and discrimination as they relate to Harlem’s Black residents. Research limitations/implications Implications of this research include the general suggestion that tourist operators, participants and marketing agents rethink how ideas of racial difference inform their approaches to practice. Limitations of this research include the fact that only one tourism company operating in Harlem is profiled here, and that tour presentations in this context may differ according to the racial makeup of tour participants. Practical implications More direct engagement with themes and patterns of racial inequality in cultural tourism may serve to further humanize community residents. Social implications While race continues to be a detrimental factor involved with larger patterns of socioeconomic inequality, it may also be used to create wealth in limited ways that work to objectify racially Othered groups. Originality/value There is a lack of available research about how cultural tourism actually operates in Harlem and how cultural tourism may help facilitate gentrification, at the same time, it is partially resistant to it.
Purpose This paper aims to critically revisit the iconic 1980s and 1990s California Raisins advertising campaign to examine the interplay between popular nostalgia, cultural appropriation and racial representation. It asks whether marketing practices that appear celebratory on the surface can obscure deeper structural inequalities, and what lessons this case offers for contemporary marketing ethics and memory. Design/methodology/approach Combining cultural history and critical media analysis, this study draws from a diverse range of archival materials from Will Vinton's studio archive, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, trade publications and fan ephemera to analyze the campaign's imagery, reception and lasting legacy. It also incorporates reflections from public memory institutions, social media discourse and personal fieldnotes. Findings While the California Raisins campaign was widely celebrated and commercially influential, its use of animated Black music and stylized Blackness - largely voiced and controlled by non-Black creatives - raises persistent questions about visibility without power. The Raisins embody a cultural grey zone: iconic yet problematic, beloved yet exploitative. Their afterlife in museum collections, online nostalgia and social critique emphasizes the complexity of marketing memory. Social implications By confronting the tensions between affection and appropriation, this paper encourages marketers, scholars and the public to engage more honestly with the past to shape more equitable representational futures. Originality/value This viewpoints paper provides an intersectional case study that bridges advertising history, race and cultural memory. It interrogates how aesthetics can distract from exploitation and how unresolved contradictions in legacy campaigns reveal the systemic logics of commodification in American marketing.
Purpose This paper aims to evaluate how the town of Casasimarro in La Mancha, Spain, achieved international commercial recognition for its traditional craft of producing handmade guitars. Thanks to strategic product, price, place (distribution) and promotional marketing policies (the 4Ps), these guitars have gained worldwide recognition and fame and have been purchased by renowned international customers such as Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, thus contributing to word-of-mouth recommendations.Design/methodology/approach To achieve this research objective, the authors conducted a comprehensive review, providing an historical examination of the marketing strategies used by handcrafted guitar makers in Casasimarro over the past few decades. The authors analysed these strategies and their implications throughout history. To fulfil this aim, the authors conducted an exhaustive investigation, focusing on primary sources (including testimonies from artisan guitar makers) and secondary information sources (including biographies, historical newspapers, journal articles and research articles).Findings This study demonstrates the key role played by handmade guitar manufacturers in the historical and economic development of Casasimarro. No other economic activity has contributed greater prestige to this small town at a national or international level. This prestige is related to the marketing strategies used by the manufacturing dynasties, which include producing good quality guitars; adapting communication strategies to suit the times, such as attending trade fairs, creating websites and using social media; and maintaining traditional business practices, such as taking customised orders. These marketing strategies therefore suggest a selective demarketing approach.Originality/value Studies on the marketing strategies of musical instruments remain scarce, and even more so when it comes to such traditional handmade manufacturing instruments. As a result, the small town has gained worldwide recognition thanks to this craft.
Purpose This study aims to examine the interplay of race and advertising in South Africa's National Heritage Day campaigns to uncover irresponsible practices.Design/methodology/approach Via Imagined Intergroup Contact and Social Semiotic theories, the authors conduct three studies - longitudinal campaigns analysis, consumer interviews and focus groups and marketer interviews.Findings The campaigns unsuccessfully portray a diversified narrative and disconnect from consumers' lived realities. Reusing safe concepts results in ineffective narratives and superficial opportunities to create meaningful intergroup interactions, effectively reinforcing marginalization and racial hierarchies.Practical implications Expectations to innovate beyond apologetically African narratives task marketers with more concerted efforts to build and manage diversified narratives.Social implications Responsible narratives can help shape more informed and empathic, less biased interpretations and interactions. In turn, these can contribute to connecting fragmented meanings into a shared living heritage and community building.Originality/value The authors contribute to research on marketing practices from the Global South. The authors present responsible practices, such as strategic use and management of heritage influencers, to connect with broader audiences; focusing on community initiatives that facilitate meaningful interaction; and potentially addressing transgenerational trauma via interventions in advertising safe spaces.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how quotes from historical figures are used in antiracist campaigns: how they work, what they highlight and what they leave out. Building on Trouillot's analysis of the power embedded in historical narratives and on research on the mobilization of history in marketing, antiracism and quotemanship, the authors describe the political logics behind the seemingly simple act of linking a historical figure to a powerful statement.Design/methodology/approachUsing tools from critical discourse analysis, the authors focus on posters produced by French antiracist organizations. The authors analyze both the form (i.e. who is quoted, how and from which original context) and the content of the quotes (e.g. what kind of action the quote encouraged, the emotions it evoked, its historical and moral references and its tone).FindingsThe results of this study show that fewer than half of the quotes are authentic. More importantly, they reveal four recurring logics in how antiracism marketing uses history: gendered invisibilizing (erasing women and their struggles), externalizing (linking racism to other countries), whitewashing (telling France's antiracism history through white voices) and domesticating (rerouting anticolonial ideas to make them fit organizational agendas).Originality/valueMany marketing historians have studied how history is used in branding, but little attention has been paid to its role in the non-profit sector, especially in "social marketing." Likewise, while historians have debated how historical memory should be used, avoided or prioritized in antiracist work, few have looked at how these tensions play out in the marketing materials of antiracist organizations. This study bridges these gaps through a multidisciplinary approach, inspired by Trouillot, that apprehends the production of history through the lens of power relations, showing how historical marketing research can enrich our understanding of debates on antiracism, historical memory and their commodification.
Purpose This paper aims to examine the history of trading stamps in the USA – an early form of customer-directed loyalty programs once described as a “national mania” – to reveal the interplay of consumer psychology, retailer strategy and economic conditions in shaping modern marketing practices. It traces how this foundational loyalty mechanism emerged, rose to national prominence and ultimately declined as consumer priorities shifted. Design/methodology/approach This study uses archival material from the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising and Marketing History at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina, USA) to examine the rise and fall of trading stamps in the USA from 1891 to 2008. Through qualitative analysis of historical records, it investigates key behavioral and strategic components that underpinned the program’s longevity and ultimate downfall. Findings Trading stamps reveal how retailers incentivized repeat purchases, balanced short-term sales boosts with long-term customer loyalty and embedded consumer incentives within broader cultural narratives. They also illustrate the creation of value beyond direct monetary transactions and the emotional connections formed with customers through perceived rewards. Consumer responses to these incentives offer insights into evolving marketing dynamics. Practical implications This paper underscores the enduring relevance of trading stamps to understanding loyalty strategies across time, showing how their evolution reflects fundamental principles of customer engagement, incentive design and emotional connection that persist in modern loyalty programs. By revealing historical patterns and consumer behaviors, it offers a valuable lens through which to examine contemporary practices and challenges in loyalty management. Originality/value This paper enhances our understanding of several key areas: how consumers respond to incentives, the strategies encouraging repeat purchases, the balance between short-term sales boosts and building long-term relationships with customers, creating value beyond direct monetary transactions, embedding loyalty programs within broader cultural narratives and fostering emotional connections with customers.
PurposeThis paper aims to trace how the cultural memory of Prohibition continues to shape how distillers approach the advertising and marketing of their products, despite the already well-established American custom of enjoying cocktails as part of an acceptable lifestyle. It proposes that the liquor industry pursued a strategy of dismantling the lesson Prohibition taught Americans, which was to treat liquor as "hard" and more dangerous when compared to other types of beverage alcohol. By establishing a self-regulatory advertising code, positing alcohol equivalency, airing its advertisements on network television after a 40-year voluntary ban and associating liquor with the nation's heritage, the industry has pursued an advertising and public relations strategy not only to increase market share but to move beyond its demon drink past.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a qualitative analysis drawing on a close reading of the internal and external liquor industry documents including policy memos, advertising collections, public relations strategies, press releases and published reports. Direct interviews were also conducted with industry executives, a museum preservationist and a former government official for the Federal Trade Commission.FindingsThe manuscript provides insights into four important public relations strategies that the liquor industry adopted in the wake of Prohibition Repeal. It documents how the liquor industry adopted a self-regulatory advertising model; created an "alcohol equivalency" theme in its advertising; established advertising on network television and cable following a 40-year self-imposed ban; and linked its products to the country's history and heritage.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper limited its focus to documents from the Distilled Spirits Council of the USA, the chief lobbying association for the liquor industry, and the Seagram advertising campaigns in the USA. Researchers are encouraged to study other individual advertising campaigns by American liquor companies.Practical implicationsThis paper includes implications for how persuasive communication can be used to influence public perception of a brand and image.Originality/valueThis study highlights how the liquor industry has historically framed attempts to regulate its products differently and restrict its ability to advertise as an ongoing American culture war between prohibitionists and temperance advocates. This perspective is important for cultural historians, consumers and regulators to understand given beverage alcohol's influence on public health. Distillers have used advertising and public relations strategies that appeal to individual rights and embrace the traditional view of drinking as a positive social good. Examining these advertising and public relations strategies has important implications for marketing history and for stakeholders interested in developing regulatory and ethical frameworks.
Purpose This paper aims to explore the marketing of radium-based beauty products, focusing particularly on the French brand Tho-Radia, to explore how the beauty industry operates as a site of ongoing negotiation between commercial interests and medical authority. And how science and modernity intersected in early 20th century cosmetic advertising. Design/methodology/approach The design of this paper is a historical analysis grounded in visual and material culture methodologies, with a particular focus on marketing. It draws on a self-assembled archive of primary sources – including printed advertisements, packaging, postcards and surviving products – supplemented by materials from museums and private collections, to examine how scientific language and symbolism were used to market radium-based beauty products. Much of the evidence for these products comes from contemporary newspaper advertisements, though a number of physical examples have survived and continue to appear on online auction sites. Additional documentation is available through resources such as the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity (Link to the cited article) and the author’s own Museum of Radium (Link to the cited article). These collections represent a valuable, though as yet underexplored, archive of early radioactive beauty products. It is hoped that future research will further investigate these materials to enrich our understanding and contextualisation of this unique chapter in cosmetic history. Findings This study finds that Tho-Radia’s success relied on a sustained and adaptable use of scientific language and authority to legitimise cosmetic consumption and maintain its market position. Initially, the brand capitalised on early 20th century enthusiasm for radioactivity by explicitly framing its products as scientifically advanced and medically endorsed. As regulatory scrutiny and public health concerns intensified – particularly following the French government’s reclassification of radioactivity as a poison in 1937 – société d'exportation, commission, représentation strategically adjusted its marketing. While explicit references to radioactive ingredients diminished, the brand preserved its scientific identity in different ways. This trajectory and the brand’s adaptability, illustrates how beauty marketing could remain resilient by reconfiguring scientific claims in response to changing cultural and scientific conditions. Originality/value More broadly, the paper contributes to the historiography of beauty by situating radium within a longer tradition of using emerging scientific discourses to legitimise and encourage cosmetic use. The originality and value of this paper lie in its focused exploration of radium-based beauty products – a niche yet revealing subject that has received little scholarly attention in histories of science, medicine or beauty. By centring on the French brand Tho-Radia, the paper offers new insights into how early 20th century marketing co-opted scientific language as well as authority and imagery to sell products.
Purpose This study aims to examine how sociocultural changes in early 20th-century Sweden, particularly regarding the roles and expectations of women, gave rise to class anxieties and specific performances of femininity. Specifically, it examines how these tensions were constructed and mobilised through the marketing of Maniol hand cream. Design/methodology/approach Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, this study examines Maniol’s print advertisements from 1920 to 1940, focusing on how linguistic, visual and other semiotic resources were used to navigate and respond to evolving social norms and gender expectations. Findings Three key themes emerge: the burden of respectable domesticity; the performance of professional femininity; and hands as a marker of feminine attractiveness. It shows how advertisements constructed both domestic labour and professional life as threats to femininity – threats that could be concealed or corrected through consumption. They also underscored the social risks of neglecting one’s hands in terms of female civic responsibilities as workers, mothers and wives, arguing that true femininity required hands untouched by visible labour. In doing so, the brand articulated broader anxieties around gender performance, class mobility and the visibility of domestic work in a society undergoing profound transformations in labour, gender roles and social expectations. At the same time, these discourses reinforced whiteness as the normative standard of beauty, positioning racialised bodies as outside the normative boundaries of modern femininity. Originality/value This study uniquely foregrounds the cultural and symbolic significance of women’s hands in early 20th-century Swedish marketing, revealing how Maniol hand cream advertisements became a focal point for negotiating class anxieties, femininity and social respectability. Focusing on class – a vital but often overlooked aspect of Swedish marketing history – this paper provides a fresh and critical examination of how marketing strategies in early 20th-century Sweden shaped and reflected class relations and gender dynamics. It, thus, emphasises the importance of situating advertising discourse within its broader sociohistorical context, showing how marketing both mirrors and actively shapes cultural anxieties, ideals and social hierarchies, while also reinforcing whiteness as the embodied norm of beauty and respectability.
PurposeThis paper aims to study how a local beauty brand, Mustika Ratu, was able to compete with foreign companies by discursively constructing an ideal of Indonesian beauty that drew on cultural heritage and history, indigenous knowledge, nature and pre-colonial royalty, all of which represented alternative sources of authority to Western science but also reinforced the political and cultural priorities of the long New Order regime in Indonesia (1965-1998).Design/methodology/approachThis research uses a historical case study drawing on archival, textual, visual and autobiographical data spanning 1940s to the 1990s. This contextualises beauty marketing in Indonesia leading up to the birth of Mustika Ratu in the 1970s and the trajectory of its growth up until the New Order era from 1965-1998.FindingsThis paper shows that while domestic brands can mobilise alternative sources of authority in their construction of beauty, including selective use of pre-colonial heritage and history, in doing so they can also reproduce existing cultural, ethnic and social hierarchies and political hegemony that exist within the "local".Originality/valueWhile the global beauty industry has been marked by "scientification", we show how history and indigenous systems of knowledge can function as alternative forms of authority in the construction of beauty ideals. However, we also draw attention to the ways in which versions of history and culture are constructed for political purposes, and how this can find expression in products and marketing rarely associated with the State but which still reproduce existing power relations. Countries in Southeast Asia have been little studied by scholars of beauty history, and this paper shows how the evolution of beauty ideals expresses and reflects both versions of national identity as well as broader political and economic changes in the macro environment.
PurposeThis paper aims to explore the history of marketing the concept of glow, or, glowing skin, within the American cosmetics sphere from the early 20th century and into the 21st to understand why glow has increased so dramatically in the beauty industry within the past 10 years. The paper investigates the origins of glow's contemporary significance as a status symbol and luxury commodity by analyzing the various categories of glow that were advertised, as well as their underlying meanings. How did the marketing of glow products from the 1900s through the 2010s shift over time, shape consumer associations with glow and lead to what can only be described as a cultural obsession with the concept?Design/methodology/approachThe paper focused on the marketing of complexion products, i.e. facial skincare and color cosmetics such as powder, foundation, bronzers, blush and highlighter. An analysis of 102 ads from newspaper archives and women's magazine archives in the USA and the UK, along with online descriptions of 38 products from two of the largest US beauty retailers, Sephora and Ulta, was conducted. Beauty columns and trend pieces are included alongside ads and product descriptions for additional context.FindingsHistorically, glow has been segmented into nine categories, some of which overlap in their advertising. While beauty culture has changed significantly since the birth of the industry in the early 1900s and the meaning of glow carries more emotional and psychological weight than ever before, companies are using the same tactics and advice to sell glow in the 21st century. The ambiguity of the term and the fact that skin glow cannot yet be scientifically measured means that it can be applied to an infinite number of products intended for any demographic or occasion. Additionally, as skin glow has traditionally been recognized as the external expression of positive internal feelings or states (health, love, happiness, etc.), glow products may be perceived by consumers as substitutes for the absence of such states.Practical implicationsBy harnessing glow's unclear, internal/external nature in product names and descriptions, the beauty industry can expand its reach into the wellness sector and seize on consumers' desires to not only look better, but feel better.Originality/valueTracing the evolution of glow's marketing provides a better understanding of its significance for consumers today and why it has essentially become its own industry in the 21st century. Additionally, presenting an example of how marketing a particular category of cosmetics can reach beyond the beauty industry and become a broader cultural phenomenon. Future research can build on this analysis of glow for other cosmetic buzzwords and any deeper, more emotional meanings that may be associated with them.
PurposeThe purpose of this study is to recount how toys based on fictional outer space heroes and their adventures were marketed in the United States from the early 1930s through the later 1950s.Design/methodology/approachThe primary data for this research include surviving artifacts (the toys themselves and their consumer packaging), associated promotional ephemera (print ads and catalogs), and visual records of space adventure comics, movies and television shows. Photographs and videos of these sources come from books in print and via online museum catalogs, eBay and other auction sites, Wikimedia Commons, collector websites, and YouTube.FindingsSpace adventure toys of this period included ray guns and rocket ships, figurines and robots, playsets and puzzles and many more related goods. They typically were made from pressed and printed metals, paperboard, and plastics. Toy companies licensed the names and images of popular space heroes, starting with Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, who appeared in comic strips, children's books, movie serials and on radio and early television shows. Competing firms sold similar, but nonspecific space toys that were not character driven. These playthings referenced science fiction texts and images while undoubtedly amplifying interest in space exploration, science, the atomic age and the future.Originality/valueThis research presents an account of space adventure toys and heroes from a marketing history perspective that investigates products and branding in terms of their formative cultural contexts and societal implications.
Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to present a case for the incorporation of cosmetic products in studies of medical advertisements and marketing. Through a study of advertisements published between 1800 and 1810 in the London daily newspaper The Morning Chronicle, linguistic, organisational and visual analysis illustrates the similarities between the advertising of cosmetics and medications advocating for the inclusion in studies of medical professionalisation and narratives of medical authority. Design/methodology/approach - In all, 292 issues of The Morning Chronicle were analysed using the British Library Newspaper Database. In all, 2,092 published advertisements were categorised as relating to "health and medicine". Of these advertisements, over 450 different products, services and providers were identified. Advertisements were analysed regarding linguistic, organisational and visual elements. Findings - Over 9% of all advertisements in The Morning Chronicle between 1880 and 1810 were categorised in this paper as "health and medicine", split across six "subcategories". The categories of "medication" and "cosmetic" displayed the most similarities in their language and visuality. This study suggests that the organisation of advertisements across the pages of The Morning Chronicle reveals further similarities in the marketing of commercial medicines and cosmetic goods. Originality/value - This paper advocates for including cosmetics in studies of 19th-century medicine, justified by not only the branding and composition of these products but also the advertisements of these products in print media. This paper offers a novel approach to analysing newspaper advertisements through mise-en-page and organisational features, demonstrating the use of shared language and cohesive organisation of cosmetics and medications in print advertisements.
Purpose In 1959, the Kul-e-Tuk brand parka made its debut on the Canadian mass-market and was a near-instant commercial success. Promoted as a quintessentially Canadian winter style, the Kul-e-Tuk was in fact appropriated from traditional parkas of Western Arctic Inuit. This study, a general review, aims to delve into the Kul-e-Tuk’s complicated history, the matrix of mid-20th century socio-political and economic factors and settler Canadian identity projects that contributed to it becoming, as the Hudson’s Bay Company (The Star Phoenix, 1959) called: “the coat of the age.” Design/methodology/approach The methodology for this paper includes: archival research focusing on manufacturer and department store advertisements and promotional articles published in newspapers and magazines; object-based study of garments held by Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum’s Indigenous Cultures and Dress, Fashion and Textiles collections, including extant Kul-e-Tuk brand parkas, sourced and collected by the author from 2020 to 2024 and traditional Inuit parkas; a survey of appropriated Inuit-style outerwear found on vintage resale websites; contemporary research sources to support contextualization and critical analysis. Findings Tracing the complicated history of the Kul-e-Tuk brand and its marketing to consumers reveals that in settler colonial states like Canada, the appropriation of land and cultural belongings function in tandem to eradicate Indigenous people while simultaneously transferring their identity onto, and their resource rich territories into, the hands of settler Canadians. Originality/value This decolonial research broadens understandings of both Canada’s colonial processes at work and the creation of appropriated settler Canadian identity through nationalistic branding practices and the marketing of winter fashion with Indigenous origins during the mid-20th century.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how late 19th- and early 20th-century cosmetic advertisements used natural ingredients to enhance product appeal. This study examines the visual rhetoric and semiotic strategies that symbolised naturalness and sustainability during this period, as well as the ethical implications of these marketing practices, particularly regarding consumer deception and their connection to modern greenwashing. Design/methodology/approach Using a qualitative approach, this study applies multimodal critical discourse analysis, integrating visual rhetoric, semiotic analysis and historical contextualisation. A data set of 118 vintage cosmetic advertisements from archives is analysed to identify key themes. Findings The findings of this study reveal that advertisers romanticised natural ingredients by depicting idyllic nature scenes and associating products with purity, health and beauty. Visual and linguistic strategies were used to create a dual appeal of nature and science, enhancing consumer trust. However, these practices often mask the realities of production processes and ingredient authenticity, leading to potential consumer deception. Research limitations/implications This study focuses on a specific data set of historical advertisements, limiting generalisability across industries. Future research could expand to other sectors or regions. Originality/value This research contributes to understanding the historical roots of greenwashing, offering a transhistorical perspective on the use of nature in advertising. This study highlights the ongoing ethical challenges related to consumer manipulation through deceptive environmental claims.
Purpose This article aims to explore the marketing and retailing of clothing by The Salvation Army since its establishment as a church and charity in the mid-nineteenth century. Its particular focus is on the ways in which Salvation Army garments worked to advertise the organisation and contribute to its branding. Design/methodology/approach The article examines the historical context in which The Salvation Army’s production, marketing and retailing of clothing developed. It reviews existing literature before using periodical sources to examine two case studies: The Salvation Army uniform and the organisation’s extensive commercial production and retailing of secular garments. Findings The Salvation Army’s marketing and retailing of clothing lines exemplifies the organisation’s key strategy of recasting secular items, ideas and processes in a religious context. Clothing has long been central to The Salvation Army’s expression of faith and its trading activities, functioning both to build organisational identity and reputation and to generate revenue. These purposes have remained largely constant but adaptable over time. Social implications The article demonstrates various ways Salvation Army clothing has had wider social impact: through its manufacturing, which created jobs; its marketing, which encouraged consideration of working conditions and spending power; and its wear, which influenced social status. Originality/value The Salvation Army’s extensive production and sale of secular clothing has received little prior academic attention, while the uniform’s long-standing secondary purpose of bringing in revenue for the organisation is less well known than its other functions.
