Marsha Cassidy, symploke
"Writing with erudition and imagination, Davis pens memorable tropes. . . ."


Janet Ward, Modernism/Modernity
"[A]n informative analysis . . . . [C]onvincing insights into gender roles toward a stronger engagement with the ad-world’s actual media, visual or otherwise."


Richard Rushton, Theory and Event
"[I]nteresting. . . . [A]bsorbing and truly important. . . ."


Michael Nowlin, Studies in the Novel
"[C]hallenging and ambitious. . . .[Davis's] work exemplifies today's cultural studies at its best."


Linda Steiner, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
"[T]he chapter in which Davis reads . . . agency archives . . . is rich and illuminating. . . ."


Book Description
The book's first premise: regardless of whether we greet it slack-jawed or shrewdly, advertising has had a massive imapct on gender construction and the modern subject. Advertisers of the Twenties took it as implicit that the ad industry was helping to shape popular notions of identity -- and, by extension, of gender, race, and class. At first, this social influence was just a byproduct of the mission to sell, but soon it became a stated goal of the commercial endeavor. LIVING UP TO THE ADS: GENDER FICTIONS OF THE 1920S is an attempt to determine what sort of identities were under construction, and how advertising's influence actually made itself felt. Davis analyzes fiction of the 1920s in conjunction with manuals, memoirs, and the archival record produced by the era's advertising industry. She engages such books as BABBITT, QUICKSAND and SAVE ME THE WALTZ in original and imaginative ways, asking each to participate in her discussion of commodity culture, gender and identity. Capturing the maverick voices of some of the decade's most influential advertisers and writers, Davis reveals the lines that were drawn between truths and lies, seduction and selling, white and black, and men and women.


From the Publisher
"A strikingly thoughtful study of a crucible period in American cultural and literary history. bristling with intelligence, highly engaged and critically informed, LIVING UP TO THE ADS investigates the shifting nature of selfhood as commodity capitalism and public relations converge on the subject." -- Jennifer Wicke, author of ADVERTISING FICTIONS: LITERATURE, ADVERTISEMENT, AND SOCIAL READING "Davis offers a new and provocative perspective on a cultural shift that, even in the 1920s, was marked as much by its subtle presence in fiction as it was by its heavyhanded presence in print media. This book will contribute a great deal to interdisciplinary studies of commodity culture." -- Jennifer Scanlon, author of INARTICULATE LONGINGS: "THE LADIES' HOME JOURNAL," GENDER, AND THE PROMISES OF CONSUMER CULTURE "A very stimulating book. Davis explores the complexity of the relations between advertising and personal identity, and between advertising and literature, with a lively, sharp, idiosyncratic style." -- Rachel Bowlby, author of SHOPPING WITH FREUD

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In Living Up to the Ads Simone Weil Davis examines commodity culture's impact on popular notions of gender and identity during the 1920s. Arguing that the newly ascendant advertising industry introduced three new metaphors for personhood—the ad man, the female consumer, and the often female advertising model or spokesperson—Davis traces the emergence of the pervasive gendering of American consumerism.

Materials from advertising firms—including memos, manuals, meeting minutes, and newsletters—are considered alongside the fiction of Sinclair Lewis, Nella Larsen, Bruce Barton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Zelda Fitzgerald. Davis engages such books as Babbitt, Quicksand, and Save Me the Waltz in original and imaginative ways, asking each to participate in her discussion of commodity culture, gender, and identity. To illuminate the subjective, day-to-day experiences of 1920s consumerism in the United States, Davis juxtaposes print ads and industry manuals with works of fiction. Capturing the maverick voices of some of the decade's most influential advertisers and writers, Davis reveals the lines that were drawn between truths and lies, seduction and selling, white and black, and men and women.

Davis's methodology challenges disciplinary borders by employing historical, sociological, and literary practices to discuss the enduring links between commodity culture, gender, and identity construction. Living Up to the Ads will appeal to students and scholars of advertising, American studies, women's studies, cultural studies, and early-twentieth-century American history.

About the Author: Simone Weil Davis is Assistant Professor of English at Long Island University

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Davis offers a new and provocative perspective on a cultural shift that, even in the 1920s, was marked as much by its subtle presence in fiction as it was by its heavy-handed presence in print media. This book will contribute a great deal to interdisciplinary studies of commodity culture. (Jennifer Scanlon, author of Inarticulate Longings: "The Ladies' Home Journal," Gender, and the Promises of Consumer Culture)  — Jennifer Scanlon

A very stimulating book. Davis explores the complexity of the relations between advertising and personal identity, and between advertising and literature, with a lively, sharp, idiosyncratic style. — (Rachel Bowlby, author of Shopping with Freud)