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This paper aims to track how African-American or black male advertising models are viewed by male consumers within the context of dramatic ongoing cultural and legal change. It provides broader implications for other ethnic minorities.

A content analysis of black male advertising images culled from over 60 years of issues of two male-targeted magazines assesses these changes. The analysis contextualizes the imagery in African-American history and general media portrayals periodized into seven historical phases.

Results indicate that the number of black male advertising representations has exploded in the past 30 years from virtual invisibility to over 20 per cent of all male ad images. Roles have migrated from representations of black ad models as servants and porters to a wide range of images of black men in professional contexts. However, black males, relative to white males, are disproportionately presented in ads as athletic figures and celebrities and rarely depicted in romantic situations.

This research focuses on two popular male-targeted publications, thereby limiting its scope. Relatively few black male images (relative to white male images) are to be found in print advertisements in these publications.

This research assists business practitioners as they create business and marketing strategies to meet the needs of an ever more diverse marketplace.

The disproportionately large number of black male depictions as athletes and sports celebrities is indicative of remnant racism and minority stereotyping in American society.

This research builds upon work done by Kassarjian (1969, 1971) on black advertising images. Its originality stems from a specific focus on male models as viewed by male consumers, the addition of historic context and periodization to this history and the updating of past research by almost half a century.

The purpose of this study is to examine negative depictions of male homosexuality in US print and video advertising during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It answers three research questions: What sorts of negative depictions of homosexuality are presented? How, if at all, have pejorative depictions of gay men evolved in the past 100 years? and Why have they changed?

The authors specify eight depictions of negative imagery in advertising and, using content analysis, assess 88 print and video advertisements featuring 133 depictions culled from a large sample.

Analysis reveals that, once rare, there has been a rapid expansion of negative gay imagery in advertisements beginning in 2000, even as gays are gain increasing acceptance and visibility. Typical advertisement depictions have evolved from men dressed as woman early in the twentieth century to men reacting with fear, revulsion or even violence to concerns that they might be gay or be subject to homosexual advances.

Given the paucity of available imagery, data collection was opportunistic and resulted in a relatively small sample.

Practitioners can benefit from explication of how various audiences can view certain advertisement depictions of gay men as insulting or threatening. They can then become more attuned to the impact of negative minority depictions in general.

Society can benefit from heightened awareness of the impact imagery can have on minority or marginalized groups. Results further illustrate society’s evolving and ambivalent views on homosexuality, the visibility of gay imagery in media in general and changing notions of manhood and masculinity.

The authors are aware of no other study that specifically categorizes and assesses negative depictions of gay advertisement imagery.

This study aims to examine different consumption attitudes between two age-based cohorts of female consumers as it relates to the processing of marketing communications.

Three studies use 10 iterations of an ad for an alcoholic beverage. Ads vary in the number of models, age of those models and ad value message. Cohorts are divided into pre-millennial (35 and older) and millennial (18–34) age groups. Subjects respond to a variety of statements associated with the ads. ANOVAs are run to determine significant differences or similarities between cohorts.

Women of different ages have different value systems. Pre-millennials prefer ads featuring other-focused value messages and containing multiple female models. That preference is moderated for those who feel a strong closeness to other women. They prefer ads featuring single female models with other-focused messages. Millennials express no preference for the number of models or value messages. Those with high perceptions of closeness to women, however, express a preference for ads featuring multiple models, irrespective of value message. Further, perceived age similarity between consumers and models moderates the pre-millennial’s versus millennial’s attitude toward ads featuring mature female models and single versus multiple models.

Only American women were surveyed for this research. Further, only one product was used to assess attitudes.

Advertisers must be cognizant of the age of targeted consumers. Further, any cultural values expressed in ads have different impacts depending on consumer age. Finally, the number of models can have an impact on consumer attitude depending on viewers’ age and preference.

This research fills an existing lacuna in studies involving female consumers by exploring and testing significant differences among women of different ages and value systems and their attitudes toward marketing communications.

The purpose of this paper is to recount the history of the marketing of the maritime passenger industry (known today as the cruise industry). This is a unique industry that has survived and thrived for almost 175 years despite dramatic environmental changes. This history focuses on passenger shipping in and out of the USA first from/to European ports, later focusing on cruises from the USA to the Caribbean, today’s most popular cruise destination.

This study adapts the Hollander et al. (2005) approach and incorporates primary data such as fare lists, advertisements and promotional materials, as well as secondary data from a variety of expert works and government reports.

This study finds that the industry’s marketing history can be divided into six periods or phases: immigration and luxury (mid-nineteenth century to 1914); World War I (1914-1918); tourism, alcohol and luxury (1918-1939); World War II (1939-1946); jet age emergence (1946-1970); and cruising for all (1970 to the present day). Continuing industry growth; increasing focus on new geographic, and every-smaller demographic and psychographic markets; promotional emphasis on cuisine and activities; and positioning as a mass-consumed luxury are trends for the future.

Space constraints limit the information mostly to Europe-to-North America sailings of British and German transatlantic lines early in the paper, and to USA-to-Caribbean cruises in later phases.

This study illustrates how an industry can completely reinvent all elements of its marketing strategy in response to changing social and technological forces. It adds to a growing body of industry marketing histories.

Although much has been written about maritime history, no known work has examined the history of the marketing of the maritime passenger industry. It augments the growing body of industry-specific marketing histories.

The purpose of this paper is to periodize the history of the US senior market segment, a large, lucrative target market.

The paper uses a four‐step adaptation of an existing framework, periodizing the segment's history into three phases: independence phase, mid‐nineteenth century‐1935; growing affluence phase, 1935‐1965; and maturity phase, 1965 to present.

The senior market began with urbanization resulting from the industrial revolution. The growth of private pensions, two World Wars, a variety of governmental programs such as the GI Bill and Social Security and Medicare Acts, political power resulting from the establishment of groups such as the American Association of Retired Persons, and increasing stress on inclusiveness in marketing accelerated the growth of the market. As baby boomers age, the market is sure to grow in scope and market power.

Time and space limitations require that this paper focus on the senior market only in the USA, and analyze only broad activities, events, and trends.

This paper contributes to the study of marketing history and market segmentation in particular by analyzing the origins and growth of this very large and unique market segment – largely due to the fact that it currently represents about 12 percent of the US population, unique in that all Americans are or likely will be members. It illustrates the confluence of government policy, marketers' never‐ending drive to find new target markets via product differentiation, and the importance of demographic change.