An ad agency is a firm that a company contracts to assist with marketing efforts

AI is transforming the marketing and advertising industries

Many marketers argue that AI is useful in an ad agency setting. Others attribute the significant layoffs the industry has faced in recent years, at least in part, to AI. Agency leaders and big tech firms alike have supported experimenting with artificial intelligence’s capacity to create content once reserved for agency creatives.

The difference between marketing and advertising: Advertising is technically a type of marketing

While the terms are often used interchangeably, technically speaking, marketing is any effort to promote a product or service. Advertising, on the other hand, is any paid effort to promote a product or service. Learn more about the difference in this article.

Advertising-related activity may have supported roughly one in five American jobs as of 2024

That’s according to a study commissioned by The Advertising Coalition, conducted by S&P Global Market Intelligence, which also found that the advertising industry powered more than 20% of total US economic output at the time.

Explore a website dedicated to reviewing books about the advertising industry

“The Agency Review” reviews any book that touches advertising—from straight business books by the likes of David Ogilvy to a book about the history of bourbon. It has reviewed more than 200 books since the site started in 2012.

The 1960s through 1980s are generally considered the ‘Golden Age of Advertising’

This time period spawned some of history’s most well-known ad campaigns, from "I Heart NY" to Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign. In this video from the 4As (the American Association of Advertising Agencies), advertising executive Jerry Della Femina reflects on the most creative ads of the era.

In defense of the advertisement economy

Advertising is frequently reviled for how it clutters up public spaces and our everyday experiences. Nonetheless, it allows for vast amounts of goods and services to be rendered free to millions of users—and gives users the option to pay with money or time and attention.

Jane Maas was one of the first prominent female ad executives on Madison Avenue

Jane Maas started as a copywriter at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in 1964. She’s known for working on the famous "I Heart NY" tourism campaign alongside artist Milton Glaser. This interview provides a glimpse into what life was like for women like her on Madison Avenue.

Management consultants deal with solving complex business challenges

Specifically, according to an article from careers site The Muse, a management consultant can be loosely defined as someone who is “a problem solver for some of the more complex business and org structures out there.”

Advertising holding company WPP acquired Ogilvy & Mather in 1989 for $864M

It was the largest amount ever paid for an agency at the time. WPP, which acquired agency J. Walter Thompson for $566M just two years before the Ogilvy & Mather acquisition, still owns Ogilvy today.

Billboard began as an advertising industry magazine

The magazine was initially “devoted to the interests of advertisers, poster printers, bill posters, advertising agents & secretaries of fairs.” While it occasionally tracked music via sheet music, record, and jukebox sales through the 1930s, it added its first true top 10 singles chart in 1940.

Cannes Lions winners, after the awards

Rather than focusing on the brands or agencies behind winning campaigns, this list highlights the people who earned Cannes Lions. It’s a fascinating look at what wins awards and what those awards can do for the recipients.

Some argue that America is too dependent on consulting

Many major companies in America—not to mention the federal government—spend thousands of dollars a month paying to contract major consulting firms.

An ‘auteur’ is another name for the chief creative mind of a film

“Auteur” is French for author. In film studies, the word refers to a film director who is considered the principal creative mind, or author, behind a film. Directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, and Greta Gerwig are often considered auteurs.

Card issuers are financial institutions that open credit to customers, while card networks facilitate purchases between merchants and customers

Card issuers give customers credit cards, set rate limits, and collect payments. Card networks, on the other hand, dictate where credit cards can actually be used by managing relationships between the network and merchants. These networks make money on interchange fees, which merchants pay to accept a specific card network at their stores.

Diamond engagement rings were popularized via an ad campaign

In 1947, an ad agency copywriter wrote the De Beers diamond company's slogan, "a diamond is forever"—and diamond engagement rings became basically required for brides-to-be. This video tells the story of exactly how the ad campaign happened, and why it was so impactful.

It’s an investment banker’s job to raise money for the bank’s clients

Investment bankers do this in a multitude of ways, such as selling securities, or acquiring other companies.

Marketers often use psychological tactics to sway consumer action

From making someone feel as though a resource is scarce (“only one item left in stock!”) to invoking a sense of authority (“top dentists recommend this toothpaste”), marketers use a variety of psychological tactics to elicit a desired response from their target audience.

An affineur is the person in charge of aging cheese to perfection

Their duties can include washing the rind with a salt solution, monitoring mold growth, adding herbs, and more. An affineur can take care of their cheeses from anywhere between a few months to several years.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Coca-Cola operates under an asset-light, divided structure

The "company" manages the brand itself, as well as its secret formula and syrup production. The capital-intensive "system" of independent bottlers, on the other hand, handles manufacturing and distribution.

Some critics view Marina Abramović as more of a brand than an artist

As the performer became more tied to A-listers like Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and James Franco, culture critics began to consider the commercialization of performance art and how audiences may have flocked to see the “brand” of Abramović more than her actual work.

ADHD impairs working memory and limits the ability to form long-term memories

While ADHD is most often recognized for producing struggles with attention and organization, these executive functions are critical for capturing the data that creates memories in the brain. Breaking data into pieces, or chunking, helps address these struggles.

Large family offices often employ 25 to 40 people

The structure of a family office varies depending on its size and its needs, and can employ a range of workers from top executives to assistants and tax professionals.

Shares are parts of a stock that represent ownership of a company

Shares are traded on the stock market. Once you buy a single share of a company, you are considered a shareholder of that company and may have certain rights as a partial owner, such as voting on business decisions.

How to know if you're a workaholic

Are you a workaholic, or do you simply enjoy work? As it turns out, there's a big difference between putting in long hours at the office because you enjoy your job and actually having a work addiction. If you're reading this on hour 12 of your 14-hour workday and wondering which category you fall into, peruse this article to find out.

What is an AirDrop?

An Airdrop is whenever a platform sends a large majority of people a token they have created, usually as a form of advertising or to reward early adopters.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Doctors differentiate between a phobia and fear by asking patients whether their fear interferes with their day-to-day activities.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

The Beatles' US label rejected the band's first two singles, 'Please Please Me' and 'From Me to You,' with one executive calling the band 'dead in the water.'

An Ebola vaccine was developed during the 2018 west African Ebola outbreak, but the 2026 Ebola outbreak is with a different species of the virus, not the one that the vaccine is approved to treat.