“Speaking the international language”: a transnational history of the Indian advertising industry, 1955-1969

This project traces the transnational development of Indian advertising industry between 1955 and 1969. The dissertation posits that the Indian advertising industry developed and consolidated as a response to, and accommodation of, the transnationalization of the Euro-western advertising industry around the world. This transnationalization comprised of two intertwined processes -- internationalization and indigenization -- that brought about the Indian advertising industry’s development mid-century. Chapter 1 “Worlding the World System” introduces the transnational advertising agency system (TNAA system) as one that exported a standard set of advertising agency practices in developing economies around the world to universalize advertising as a business, industry, and profession. Chapter 2 “Going International” elaborates the corporate expansion, entry, and control strategies of Euro-West multinational advertising agencies in national economies, with a focus on India. Chapter 3 “Becoming Indian” explores the role of state intervention in the indigenization of U.S-based TNAA, J Walter Thompson-India. Chapter 4 “Waging Wars” examines a broader process of capitalist transformation of the Indian advertising industry between the Sino-Indian war (1962) and Indo-Pakistan war (1965). This dissertation includes a range of primary sources from corporate archives of multinational advertising agencies, trade publications (US, UK, and India), books and speeches of advertising educators, and autobiographies and biographies of Indian advertising professionals of this era. This project set during the 1950s and 1960s explains how the development of the Indian advertising industry in this period impacted the commercialization of broadcasting with a view to trace the lesser known origins and historical actors of capitalist media development in socialist India.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Communications and Media

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Das, Susmita

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ciafone, Amanda
• Stole, Inger
• McCarthy, Cameron
• Bhattacharya-Mehta, Rini

• advertising history
• business history
• indian advertising
• transnational advertising agencies
• multinational corporations
• global business
• business services
• India
• Cold War
• socialism
• capitalism
• political economy
• cultural studies
• postcolonial theory

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Susmita Das

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115929

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F115929