This article reflects an evolving anthropologist's marketing career during the 1970s, before anth... more This article reflects an evolving anthropologist's marketing career during the 1970s, before anthropology was truly welcomed as contributor to business strategy. I worked on several accounts mentored by a brilliant but conflicted creative director-guru-boss, an experience resulting in this reflexive advertising narrative punctuated by periods of liminality. I used my agency archives from the 1970s and field notes (or advertising log) as my data set to reflect this period. My field journey traversed the Mad Men era, immortalized in the AMC TV series about the 1960s and beyond, where creative directors freely crossed boundaries of sex, class and gender stereotypes. I discuss several advertising campaigns in which I was involved. The broader narrative reveals an uncomfortable divide between cultural empathy and advertising practice. While creatively stimulating, I describe the conflict in a marketing career that challenged ethical sensitivities.
Exploring Women's Brand Relationships and Enduring Themes at Mid-Life
Advances in consumer research, 1999
This humanistic research explores the brand relationships of five women surrounding the age of fi... more This humanistic research explores the brand relationships of five women surrounding the age of fifty using depth interviews to construct ethnographies of consumption at mid-life. While American women are socialized to a standard maturation blueprint and give in to purchasing ...
The Revolution in Marketing Intimate Apparel: A Narrative Ethnography
Advertising cultures, 2003
... I liked the business and ascended into account management eventually becoming a principal in ... more ... I liked the business and ascended into account management eventually becoming a principal in the firm's affiliated agencies. ... Page 133. The Revolution in Marketing Intimate Apparel work as' action researchers' in advertising, often participate in'the role of change ...
Revelations of cultural consumer lovemaps in Jamaican dancehall lyrics: An ethnomusicological eth... more Revelations of cultural consumer lovemaps in Jamaican dancehall lyrics: An ethnomusicological ethnography Barbara Olsena* and Stephen Gouldb aSchool of Business, State University of New York at Old Westbury, New York, NY, USA; bDepartment of Marketing, Baruch College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA 021o141TBCOGl01aorCs.02iyren1gMb580lns0ioa-0un8Cr3r0maya08a&_DlcO/6pnA1@Ae6tdlF0isc_roar2e(Fet3anipon5mr3cn,rla3l9.icbMencn82ieocst69ra)im0/s3r218k.04s0eg07t2sm873-a92n12d236CX8u(lotunrleine) We believe that dancehall music’s more sexually explicit lyrics, labeled “slack” and maligned as evocatively misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic, mirror historically discordant social and economic tensions that entangle men and women in contested couplings, and thus render sexuality an instrument of socioeconomic power. Applying an ethnomusicological analysis, this paper fills a void by situating the slack Jamaican dancehall/ DJ lyrics within a revitalizing indigenization socialization perspective. By probing the cultural roots of this increasingly popular yet disparaged musical tradition that disturbs moral etiquette, we hear sexual bravado and counsel on love that betray important gender codes. For a particular social class, gender socialization nurtures a cultural consumer lovemap inscribed by a harsh economy during a particular point in time. Keywords: cultural consumer lovemap; cultural history; dancehall; economy; ethnomusicological ethnography; gender; indigenization; Jamaican slack music; sexual theory
IN Women, Consumption and Paradox, edited by Timothy de Waal Malefyt and Maryann McCabe, p.144-166, London: Routledge, 2020
From birth, our perceived sensations received from the world around us are collected and cataloge... more From birth, our perceived sensations received from the world around us are collected and cataloged in body memory. We cognitively digest and process these experiences throughout life as we continue to catalog them by our perceived self. As suggested by Merleau-Ponty (2012: 224) this other self is formed from the external world experienced through body memory that informs the present.
This paper is an historical search for the source of elitist bias in advertising using research f... more This paper is an historical search for the source of elitist bias in advertising using research from J. Walter Thompson Company archives. Condemnation of popular media and audiences echo from eariy agency documents. By the 1920s advertising messages conveying upper class predilection begin setting the tone for how Americans should perceive themselves. Managerial values are refiected in advertisements that resonate from snobbery consistent with their own class-consciousness. By exploring the early dissemination of such sentiments as agency philosophy we find that contemporary invectives wielded by academics are not the only voices disparaging popular culture, consumers and advertising.
Reflexive introspection on sharing gifts and shaping stories
Journal of Business Research, 2012
The purpose of this paper is to convey how reflexive introspection can be used to discover new in... more The purpose of this paper is to convey how reflexive introspection can be used to discover new insights from previously recorded ethnographic data. A reflexive introspection of experiences recorded on tape, in fieldwork notebooks, personal journals and in ...
This article reflects an evolving anthropologist's marketing career during the 1970s, before anth... more This article reflects an evolving anthropologist's marketing career during the 1970s, before anthropology was truly welcomed as contributor to business strategy. I worked on several accounts mentored by a brilliant but conflicted creative director-guru-boss, an experience resulting in this reflexive advertising narrative punctuated by periods of liminality. I used my agency archives from the 1970s and field notes (or advertising log) as my data set to reflect this period. My field journey traversed the Mad Men era, immortalized in the AMC TV series about the 1960s and beyond, where creative directors freely crossed boundaries of sex, class and gender stereotypes. I discuss several advertising campaigns in which I was involved. The broader narrative reveals an uncomfortable divide between cultural empathy and advertising practice. While creatively stimulating, I describe the conflict in a marketing career that challenged ethical sensitivities.
Exploring Women's Brand Relationships and Enduring Themes at Mid-Life
Advances in consumer research, 1999
This humanistic research explores the brand relationships of five women surrounding the age of fi... more This humanistic research explores the brand relationships of five women surrounding the age of fifty using depth interviews to construct ethnographies of consumption at mid-life. While American women are socialized to a standard maturation blueprint and give in to purchasing ...
The Revolution in Marketing Intimate Apparel: A Narrative Ethnography
Advertising cultures, 2003
... I liked the business and ascended into account management eventually becoming a principal in ... more ... I liked the business and ascended into account management eventually becoming a principal in the firm's affiliated agencies. ... Page 133. The Revolution in Marketing Intimate Apparel work as' action researchers' in advertising, often participate in'the role of change ...
Revelations of cultural consumer lovemaps in Jamaican dancehall lyrics: An ethnomusicological eth... more Revelations of cultural consumer lovemaps in Jamaican dancehall lyrics: An ethnomusicological ethnography Barbara Olsena* and Stephen Gouldb aSchool of Business, State University of New York at Old Westbury, New York, NY, USA; bDepartment of Marketing, Baruch College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA 021o141TBCOGl01aorCs.02iyren1gMb580lns0ioa-0un8Cr3r0maya08a&_DlcO/6pnA1@Ae6tdlF0isc_roar2e(Fet3anipon5mr3cn,rla3l9.icbMencn82ieocst69ra)im0/s3r218k.04s0eg07t2sm873-a92n12d236CX8u(lotunrleine) We believe that dancehall music’s more sexually explicit lyrics, labeled “slack” and maligned as evocatively misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic, mirror historically discordant social and economic tensions that entangle men and women in contested couplings, and thus render sexuality an instrument of socioeconomic power. Applying an ethnomusicological analysis, this paper fills a void by situating the slack Jamaican dancehall/ DJ lyrics within a revitalizing indigenization socialization perspective. By probing the cultural roots of this increasingly popular yet disparaged musical tradition that disturbs moral etiquette, we hear sexual bravado and counsel on love that betray important gender codes. For a particular social class, gender socialization nurtures a cultural consumer lovemap inscribed by a harsh economy during a particular point in time. Keywords: cultural consumer lovemap; cultural history; dancehall; economy; ethnomusicological ethnography; gender; indigenization; Jamaican slack music; sexual theory
IN Women, Consumption and Paradox, edited by Timothy de Waal Malefyt and Maryann McCabe, p.144-166, London: Routledge, 2020
From birth, our perceived sensations received from the world around us are collected and cataloge... more From birth, our perceived sensations received from the world around us are collected and cataloged in body memory. We cognitively digest and process these experiences throughout life as we continue to catalog them by our perceived self. As suggested by Merleau-Ponty (2012: 224) this other self is formed from the external world experienced through body memory that informs the present.
This paper is an historical search for the source of elitist bias in advertising using research f... more This paper is an historical search for the source of elitist bias in advertising using research from J. Walter Thompson Company archives. Condemnation of popular media and audiences echo from eariy agency documents. By the 1920s advertising messages conveying upper class predilection begin setting the tone for how Americans should perceive themselves. Managerial values are refiected in advertisements that resonate from snobbery consistent with their own class-consciousness. By exploring the early dissemination of such sentiments as agency philosophy we find that contemporary invectives wielded by academics are not the only voices disparaging popular culture, consumers and advertising.
Reflexive introspection on sharing gifts and shaping stories
Journal of Business Research, 2012
The purpose of this paper is to convey how reflexive introspection can be used to discover new in... more The purpose of this paper is to convey how reflexive introspection can be used to discover new insights from previously recorded ethnographic data. A reflexive introspection of experiences recorded on tape, in fieldwork notebooks, personal journals and in ...
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Papers by Barbara Olsen
Barbara Olsena* and Stephen Gouldb
aSchool of Business, State University of New York at Old Westbury, New York, NY, USA; bDepartment of Marketing, Baruch College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
021o141TBCOGl01aorCs.02iyren1gMb580lns0ioa-0un8Cr3r0maya08a&_DlcO/6pnA1@Ae6tdlF0isc_roar2e(Fet3anipon5mr3cn,rla3l9.icbMencn82ieocst69ra)im0/s3r218k.04s0eg07t2sm873-a92n12d236CX8u(lotunrleine)
We believe that dancehall music’s more sexually explicit lyrics, labeled “slack” and maligned as evocatively misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic, mirror historically discordant social and economic tensions that entangle men and women in contested couplings, and thus render sexuality an instrument of socioeconomic power. Applying an ethnomusicological analysis, this paper fills a void by situating the slack Jamaican dancehall/ DJ lyrics within a revitalizing indigenization socialization perspective. By probing the cultural roots of this increasingly popular yet disparaged musical tradition that disturbs moral etiquette, we hear sexual bravado and counsel on love that betray important gender codes. For a particular social class, gender socialization nurtures a cultural consumer lovemap inscribed by a harsh economy during a particular point in time.
Keywords: cultural consumer lovemap; cultural history; dancehall; economy; ethnomusicological ethnography; gender; indigenization; Jamaican slack music; sexual theory
Barbara Olsena* and Stephen Gouldb
aSchool of Business, State University of New York at Old Westbury, New York, NY, USA; bDepartment of Marketing, Baruch College, The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
021o141TBCOGl01aorCs.02iyren1gMb580lns0ioa-0un8Cr3r0maya08a&_DlcO/6pnA1@Ae6tdlF0isc_roar2e(Fet3anipon5mr3cn,rla3l9.icbMencn82ieocst69ra)im0/s3r218k.04s0eg07t2sm873-a92n12d236CX8u(lotunrleine)
We believe that dancehall music’s more sexually explicit lyrics, labeled “slack” and maligned as evocatively misogynist, homophobic and xenophobic, mirror historically discordant social and economic tensions that entangle men and women in contested couplings, and thus render sexuality an instrument of socioeconomic power. Applying an ethnomusicological analysis, this paper fills a void by situating the slack Jamaican dancehall/ DJ lyrics within a revitalizing indigenization socialization perspective. By probing the cultural roots of this increasingly popular yet disparaged musical tradition that disturbs moral etiquette, we hear sexual bravado and counsel on love that betray important gender codes. For a particular social class, gender socialization nurtures a cultural consumer lovemap inscribed by a harsh economy during a particular point in time.
Keywords: cultural consumer lovemap; cultural history; dancehall; economy; ethnomusicological ethnography; gender; indigenization; Jamaican slack music; sexual theory