[ecrea] Call for chapter proposals: Animation and advertising

Proposals are invited for chapters in a new edited collection on the 
topic of ‘Animation and Advertising’.
Animation and advertising have a shared history and affinity, and they 
have a common social and historical context in modernity. Animators and 
studios have relied upon regular income from the advertising industry 
and seized the creative and technical challenges of this form of 
filmmaking. Corporations and advertising agencies have embraced 
animation as a way to distinctively embody products, brands, and values, 
and engage consumers in factual or affective ways. Animated advertising 
has expanded beyond the cinema screen, ranging from early illuminated 
billboards to new media ubiquity.

Despite this, cinema studies have until recently attached little value 
to animated advertising. Commercials have been an important part of the 
work of famous animation studios (Aardman, Disney, Fleischer, Ghibli, 
Pixar) and celebrated artists (Lye, Plympton, Quinn, Reiniger, Ruttmann) 
yet this is either ignored or marginalised by simple art/commerce 
binaries. Large volumes of animated advertisements have been produced 
and seen, yet these are accorded no place in histories of cinema and are 
often marginalised in archival practices.

Sharing in the growing interest in and theorisation of ‘films that work’ 
(Hediger and Vonderau, 2009), or indeed ‘films that sell’ (Florin, De 
Klerk and Vonderau, 2016), this book will address this nexus between 
advertising and animation to better understand how each has been 
fundamental to the other’s development.

Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

•	The place of advertising in the histories of famous studios and animators.
•	The role of animation in the history of advertising.
•	Studies of advertising animation studios (e.g. Jam Handy, Nathan 
Love). •	Animation theory and advertising: the role of animism, 
anthropomorphism, graphic design, and commodity fetishism in advertising.
•	The affective power and appeal of animated advertising.
•	‘Many-sited’ and historically specific animated advertising: magic 
lantern slides and other optical toys, animated billboards, 2D and 3D 
analogue and digital displays, web animation, advertising in video 
games, music videos, television, mobile apps, interstitials and logos.
•	Animated advertising and paracinematic and protocinematic place (the 
cinema lobby, the public square, specific spaces like Times Square, the 
Akihabara district and many others), and/or as site of consumption 
(nibble nook/candy counter, illustrated songs and lobby sheet music 
sales) and social or temporal practice (cinema intermission, 2D and 3D 
pop up advertising; TV/streaming web commercials and multitasking, etc).
•	Animation in the new global economy and the growth of transnational 
corporate marketing. •	Nationally or regionally specific animated 
advertising.
•	Animated advertising broadly defined: product placement, sponsored, 
industrial, propaganda, documentary, and educational animation. •	The 
impact of new primary materials/research documents on our understanding 
of animated advertising and the challenges of archival practices: 
digitised publications, corporate archives, online video repositories. • 
Animated advertising and its theorisation across disciplinary 
boundaries: Animation studies, Cinema and Media Studies, Marketing and 
Business Administration. •	Animated stars in advertising and advertising 
characters who become stars (The Flintstones and Winston cigarettes, 
Bugs Bunny and Kool Aid, Wallace and Gromit and PG Tips tea). • 
Advertising and product placement/synergy/cross promotion across media. 
•	Animation and specific advertising technologies, from mechanical 
devices to electricity to digital and virtual/augmented forms
•	Animation and commercial television.
•	Intermedial connections of animated advertising: print cartooning, 
graphic art, performance. •	Advertising and the digital: augmented 
reality/virtual reality/360°. •	Animated advertising and surveillance.

Proposals for chapters (7000-8000 words) in this edited collection 
should include a chapter title, a brief abstract (400 words), and 
academic biography (100 words). These should be sent to the editors 
Professor Kirsten Thompson (thompski[at]seattleu.edu) and Dr Malcolm 
Cook (m.cook[at]soton.ac.uk) before 15th May 2017.


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