Cynthia B. Meyers
I write and speak about the advertising industry in the history of radio and television, particularly the role of ad agencies (BBDO, JWT, B&B, Y&R, McCann, et al) and the development of "branded content"--from comedians selling Jell-O on 1930s radio to live dramas sponsored by Kraft cheese on 1950s TV to influencers pitching vitamins on social media.
Topics include blacklisting, the Creative Revolution, LSD and creativity, news dramatization, anthology dramas, soap operas, family vloggers, old time radio, sponsorship, influencers, tv commercials, Kodak, Kraft, Wrigley, Time, DuPont, General Motors, General Electric, Armstrong, US Steel, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Tumblr, AT&T, streaming, Kardashians, Ozzie Nelson, branded entertainment, TV history, radio history, advertising history.
Phone: cynthia.meyers@mountsaintvincent.edu
Address: https://www.profcynthiameyers.com
Topics include blacklisting, the Creative Revolution, LSD and creativity, news dramatization, anthology dramas, soap operas, family vloggers, old time radio, sponsorship, influencers, tv commercials, Kodak, Kraft, Wrigley, Time, DuPont, General Motors, General Electric, Armstrong, US Steel, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Tumblr, AT&T, streaming, Kardashians, Ozzie Nelson, branded entertainment, TV history, radio history, advertising history.
Phone: cynthia.meyers@mountsaintvincent.edu
Address: https://www.profcynthiameyers.com
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Papers by Cynthia B. Meyers
As comedian Jack Benny once informed his radio audience, an ad agency hires “the musicians, the writers, the actors. They do everything!” Advertisers, or “sponsors,” paid for and controlled most radio programming from the late 1920s until the early 1950s, hiring advertising agencies to create, produce, write, and manage their programs in such a way as to sell their wares.
Relying on a fresh survey of neglected archival sources, A Word from Our Sponsor revises traditional historical accounts of the “golden age” of radio by revealing the role of these sponsors and admen behind the scenes—by examining, for example, Blackett-Sample-Hummert’s soap opera “empire,” Young & Rubicam’s soft-sell comedy hits, BBDO’s corporate image building, J. Walter Thompson’s exploitation of Hollywood star-power.
A Word from Our Sponsor thus enriches and corrects our understanding not only of broadcasting history but also of advertising history, business history, and American cultural history from the 1920s to the 1950s.