This groundbreaking work explores media scholar Sut Jhally's thesis that advertising functions as a religion in late capitalism and relates this to critical theological studies. Sheffield argues that advertising is not itself a religion, but that it contains religious dimensions - analogous to Durkheim's description of objects as totems.

his book brings together cutting-edge research by leading African communication and media theorists to provide a broad but detailed survey of the history and present state of the art of advertising in Africa. The book is a thought-provoking reminder of the variety of approaches to the study of marketing communication on a continent where advertising is often taken for granted. From indigenous African forms of advertising – by street criers, wall paintings, and even olfactory appeals – to the latest experiments in integrated marketing communication via the Internet, home videos, smartphones, and social media, Dimensions of Advertising Theory and Practice in Africa is a comprehensive survey both of Africa's contributions to the globalized advertising industry and of the industry's profound affect on African economies and cultures. The first collection of its kind, the book marks an important moment in the study of marketing communication in Africa. It will be an essential text for years to come.

Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. Volumes deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complimenting the Academy’s flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review. Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science. This volume includes the full proceedings from the 2013 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference held in Monterey, California, entitled Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing the Old.

This groundbreaking work explores media scholar Sut Jhally's thesis that advertising functions as a religion in late capitalism and relates this to critical theological studies. Sheffield argues that advertising is not itself a religion, but that it contains religious dimensions - analogous to Durkheim's description of objects as totems.

Religion and popular culture is a fast-growing field that spans a variety of disciplines. This volume offers the first real survey of the field to date and provides a guide for the work of future scholars. It explores: key issues of definition and of methodology religious encounters with popular culture across media, material culture and space, ranging from videogames and social networks to cooking and kitsch, architecture and national monuments representations of religious traditions in the media and popular culture, including important non-Western spheres such as Bollywood This Companion will serve as an enjoyable and informative resource for students and a stimulus to future scholarly work.

Advertising and Reality: A Global Study of Representation and Content offers, for the first time, an extensive study of the way our life is represented in advertising. Leading scholars from different countries, who specialize in marketing communication and media studies, review and analyze different advertising contents and give us a truly cross-cultural view of the matter. Among the contents that are thoroughly discussed throughout the book one finds sexuality, violence, family activities, gender roles, vocations, minorities roles, periodical reconstruction and more. This book provides an up-to-date picture of the way modern life is portrayed in the most popular format of marketing communication worldwide.

This volume focuses on the intersection of religion and media in China, bringing interdisciplinary approaches to bear on the role of religion in the lives of individuals and greater shifts within Chinese society in an increasingly media-saturated environment. With case studies focusing on Mainland China (including Tibet), Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as diasporic Chinese communities outside Asia, contributors consider topics including the historical and ideological roots of media representations of religion, expressions of religious faith online and in social media, state intervention (through both censorship and propaganda), religious institutions’ and communities’ use of various forms of media, and the role of the media in relations between online/offline and local/diaspora communities. Chapters engage with the major religious traditions practiced in contemporary China, namely Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, and new religious movements. Religion and the Media in China serves as a critical survey of case studies and suggests theoretical and methodological tools for a thorough and systematic study of religion in modern China. Contributors to the volume include historians of religion, sinologists, sociologists, political scientists, anthropologists, and media and communication scholars. The critical theories that contributors develop around key concepts in religion—such as authority, community, church, ethics, pilgrimage, ritual, text, and practice—contribute to advancing the emerging field of religion and media studies.