A New Take on Digital Advertising

Abstract: Digital advertising has catalyzed sea changes in the structure and practice of advertising globally, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This article suggests that such changes have outstripped the existing ability to understand and explain these changes adequately. In response, this article seeks to enlarge an understanding of digital advertising, as well as to suggest new ways to understand it. It argues that an integrative social and historical approach provides important new insights into digital advertising. It then uses this approach to explain the production and reproduction of digital advertising as a technology, practice, and institution; to explore the implications of digital advertising for the professional organization and practice of advertising; and to propose key implications of digital advertising for society.