Marketing: Search for Ads

From Duke University, this site contains images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955, concentrating on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty & Hygiene, and World War II.

Also provided by Duke University, this site is a free digital archive of more than 12,000 television commercials from the 1950s-1980s created or collected by the ad agency Benton & Bowles.

An archive of CLIO award winners dating back to the '60s

A worldwide advertising archive (submitted by the creators). Browse ads by media type, country, region, or industry.

Adforum's online creative library offers ad examples for TV, print, cinema, magazine, out of home, radio, web, interactive, newspaper, direct marketing print, and more. Large number of US ads, but also international. Can be searched by combination of keyword, country, media type, & year. You can also find creative examples by agency. Some parts of the site require a subscription.

A portal to more than 30,000 historical images of outdoor advertisements from five different source collections - collected by Duke University.

OAAA's web site has a large image library that can be searched by product category, brand, advertiser, or agency.

Over 100,000 ads from the 19th century through the 2000's. Browseable by product type.

Historical newspapers can give you a glimpse into old ads as well.