'Nixon's study is a major contribution to the cultural sociology of the new service sector professionals and their gendered identities.It's importance lies in it's skilful synthesis of detailed ethnographic research and social theory. This is a genuinely innovative book which reopens cultural debate about advertising and society' - Frank Mort, Professor of Cultural History, University of East London 'Advertising Cultures is a lucid, thorough and highly engaging account of advertising creatives that unlocks two crucial issues for understanding the culture industries: creativity and gender. It marks a major new contribution to the cultural study of economic life' - Don Slater, London School of Economics The economic and cultural role of the 'creative industries' has gained a new prominence and centrality in recent years. This new salience is explored here through the most emblematic creative industry: advertising. Advertising Cultures also marks a significant contribution to the study of gender and of commercial cultures through its detailing of the way gender is written into the creative cultures of advertising and into the subjective identities of its key practitioners.
Acknowledgements
Introduction 1
Pt. 1 Advertising, Cultural Intermediaries and Cultural Analysis 13
1 Advertising and Commercial Culture 15
Pt. 2 Commerce and Creativity 37
2 'Purveyors of Creativity': Advertising Agencies, Commercial Expertise and Creative Jobs 39
3 Declasse and Parvenus? The Social and Educational Make-up of Creative Jobs 57
4 The Cult of Creativity: Advertising Creatives and the Pursuit of Newness 74
Pt. 3 Gender, Creativity and Creative Jobs 93
5 A Homosocial World? Masculinity, Creativity and Creative Jobs 95
6 Between Men: Masculinity and the Dynamics of Creative Partnerships 116
7 Pleasure at Work: The Gender Ambivalences of Work-based Sociability 139
Conclusion 160
Endnotes 168
Appendix 173
Bibliography 174