That Instagram ad you saw this morning? It's using persuasion tactics from 1895. The ad before your YouTube video? That emotional storytelling structure was perfected in the 1930s. In this inaugural episode of Brand Strategy & Advertising, cultural historian and author Bob Batchelor, PhD reveals why advertising doesn't really change—only the medium does—and why understanding 125 years of advertising history gives you a strategic superpower most people lack.

Discover the three major forces that made advertising the heart of consumer capitalism between 1930-1975: how consumption became identity, how every new technology gets weaponized for selling, and how advertising became art. Learn about Mary Wells Lawrence's revolutionary Braniff Airlines "Air Strip" campaign, Eisenhower's Cold War propaganda using American consumerism as a weapon, and why Coca-Cola's 1971 "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke" wasn't just a commercial—it was cultural storytelling at its finest.

Batchelor introduces a practical three-question framework for analyzing any advertisement:

• What's the underlying strategy?
• What's the historical precedent?
• How has it adapted to current culture?

You'll learn why influencer marketing is just 1920s celebrity endorsements repackaged, why "storytelling in advertising" isn't new (hello, 1930s soap operas), and why pattern recognition separates strategists from people who just react to trends.

This episode explores uncomfortable truths about manipulation and desire-creation while building the critical thinking skills that make you valuable in an AI-saturated world. Technical skills become commoditized, but human judgment—the ability to recognize patterns across time and predict what works based on cultural context—remains irreplaceable.

ABOUT YOUR HOST: BOB BATCHELOR

Bob Batchelor is a cultural historian and Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Media, & Culture at Coastal Carolina University. He's the author of 16 books exploring American culture, celebrity, and branding, including acclaimed biographies of Stan Lee, John Updike, Bob Dylan, and bootleg kind of Prohibition George Remus. He recently wrote Roadhouse Blues: Morrison, the Doors, and the Death Days of the Sixties, which won the 2023 Independent Book Award for Music.

With Keith Booker, Bob wrote Mad Men: A Cultural History, a critically-acclaimed history of the television show using the ad industry as a lens for understanding American Culture. Bob is also the co-editor of the three-volume anthology We Are What We Sell: How Advertising Shapes American Life...And Always Has (Praeger, 2014), which serves as the foundation for this podcast. His work has been translated into twelve languages and featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, BBC, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and the National Geographic Channel. Bob has been quoted in thousands of publications reaching billions of readers worldwide. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Florida.

Through this podcast, Bob makes rigorous academic analysis accessible to anyone interested in understanding how advertising actually works—connecting historical patterns to contemporary practice in every episode. Whether you're a student, marketing professional, or simply curious about how brands shape culture, you'll gain frameworks for critical thinking that AI can't replicate.

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