Irresistible empire or innocents abroad? American advertising agencies in post-war Italy, 1950s-1970s

The Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence and influence of US advertising in Italy between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s. Design/methodology/approach – The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence and influence of US advertising in Italy between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s. Findings – The paper argues that there is a need to further qualify and deconstruct the notion of “Americanization” by integrating the now well-established notions of “hybridization” and “mediation” with more specific attention to the competing “hearts and souls”, the different strategies and discursive practices that different individual actors (American, British and Italian) operating within the Italian advertising business tried to instil into goods and consumers and the economic and cultural results that they achieved. Originality/value – This is the first research on the history of Italian advertising that fully places it within a transnational and comparative perspective using so far unpublished records, aiming at moving beyond traditional, eastbound Americanization frameworks through a detailed empirical investigation.