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Consumer Advertising During the Great Depression: A Resource Guide

Agencies and Organizations

This page describes how to find publications produced by advertising agencies and organizations during the Great Depression, and directories for finding lists of advertising agencies.

Advertising Agencies

As the marketing industry began to integrate normally separate tasks of sales, advertising, and market research, businesses began to outsource to advertising agencies who worked on campaigns to entice consumers, even in the midst of a depression, to purchase products and services. Some agencies that existed during 1929-1933 are listed below. The following links go to the corresponding author heading in the Library of Congress catalog, which shows works they published in the Library's collection.

Directories of Advertising Agencies

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog

Histories of Advertising Agencies

While many of the titles in the general and historical resources of this guide include sections on advertising agencies, the following are books that focus on the work of one particular agency. These titles are linked to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

Organizations

A number of industry association and consumer groups existed at the start of the Great Depression. The following is a select list, highlighting only a few. Searching for publications by or about these organizations may lead you to additional sources. The following links go to the corresponding author heading in the Library of Congress online catalog.