Purpose – This paper aims to explore the relationship between childhood, consumption and the Cold War in 1950s America and the Soviet Union. The author argues that Soviet and American leaders, businessmen, and politicians worked hard to convince parents that buying things for their children...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to revisit Russell Belk’s (1988) landmark paper “Possessions and the extended self”. The authors provide a prehistory of related ideas and then examine the controversy it triggered regarding the different paradigms of research in marketing (Cohen,...

Purpose – This paper aims to describe the relationship between subliminal advertising and the Cold War to have a better understanding of the cultural dynamics of postwar America. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a review of primary and secondary materials from the period...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review Advertising in a Free Society – a defence of the advertising industry – by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and to evaluate its status as a justifiable forgotten classic of the marketing literature. Design/Methodology/Approach – Advertising...