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Off the Books: Oral History and Transnational Advertising Agencies in Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2019

ROBERT CRAWFORD
ROBERT CRAWFORD*
Affiliation:
Robert Crawford is Professor of Advertising and Communication History at RMIT University, in Melbourne, Australia. His recent books include Behind Glass Doors: The World of Australian Advertising Agencies 1959–89 (Crawley, Western Australia: UWA Publishing, 2016; coauthored with Jackie Dickenson); and Global Advertising Practice in a Borderless World (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2017; coedited with Linda Brennan and Lukas Parker). E-mail: Robert.Crawford@rmit.edu.au
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Abstract

This article reflects on the contribution that oral history can make to business historians by examining the Australian advertising professionals’ experiences of working in Southeast Asia from the 1960s to the 1980s. Interviews with these advertising professionals examined the processes by which they entered the region as well as their experiences of working there. In addition to documenting information and insights that are altogether absent from official records, the interviews offer an opportunity to reflect on broader social, cultural, and economic contexts and the degree to which they impacted on interviewees’ actions. By illustrating the transmission of business cultures through advertising agency networks as well as their impact on global business, this article also demonstrates oral history’s capacity to connect personal experience with business history.

Type
Special Section on Oral History
Information
Enterprise & Society , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 47 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2019. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

Anderson, Michael. Madison Avenue in Asia: Politics and Transnational Advertising. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press.Google Scholar
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Thompson, Paul. The Voice of the Past, 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Crawford, Robert. “Relocating Centers and Peripheries: Transnational Advertising Agencies and Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s.” Enterprise & Society 16, no. 1 (2015): 51–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Andrea. “Voices Passed.” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing 3, no. 4 (2011): 469–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fridenson, Patrick. “Business History and History.” In The Oxford Handbook of Business History, edited by Jones, Geoffrey and Zeitlin, Jonathan, 9–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Frisch, Michael. “Oral History and Hard Times: A Review Essay.” In The Oral History Reader, edited by Perks, Robert and Thomson, Alastair, 40–47. Abingdon Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Keulen, Sjoerd, and Kroeze, Ronald. “Back to Business: A Next Step in the Field of Oral History—The Usefulness of Oral History for Leadership and Organizational Research.” Oral History Review 39, no. 1 (2012): 15–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perks, Rob. “Interviewing in Corporate Environments.” In The Oral History Reader, edited by Perks, Robert and Thomson, Alastair, 281–298. Abingdon Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Perks, Rob, and Thomson, Alistair. “Critical Developments.” In The Oral History Reader, edited by Perks, Robert and Thomson, Alastair, 1–21. Abingdon Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Ryant, Carl. “Oral History and Business History.” Journal of American History 75, no. 2 (September 1988): 560–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Alistair. “Memory and Remembering in Oral History.” The Oxford Handbook of Oral History, edited by Ritchie, Donald A., 77–95. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Broadcasting and TelevisionGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Michael. Madison Avenue in Asia: Politics and Transnational Advertising. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press.Google Scholar
Dickenson, Jackie. Australian Women in Advertising in the Twentieth Century. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Karl, and Lewis, David. Birth of the Multinational: 2000 Years of Ancient Business History from Ashur to Augustus. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Portelli, Alessandro. Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Roman, Kenneth. The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.Google Scholar
Thompson, Paul. The Voice of the Past, 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Crawford, Robert. “Relocating Centers and Peripheries: Transnational Advertising Agencies and Singapore in the 1950s and 1960s.” Enterprise & Society 16, no. 1 (2015): 51–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Andrea. “Voices Passed.” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing 3, no. 4 (2011): 469–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fridenson, Patrick. “Business History and History.” In The Oxford Handbook of Business History, edited by Jones, Geoffrey and Zeitlin, Jonathan, 9–36. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Frisch, Michael. “Oral History and Hard Times: A Review Essay.” In The Oral History Reader, edited by Perks, Robert and Thomson, Alastair, 40–47. Abingdon Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Keulen, Sjoerd, and Kroeze, Ronald. “Back to Business: A Next Step in the Field of Oral History—The Usefulness of Oral History for Leadership and Organizational Research.” Oral History Review 39, no. 1 (2012): 15–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perks, Rob. “Interviewing in Corporate Environments.” In The Oral History Reader, edited by Perks, Robert and Thomson, Alastair, 281–298. Abingdon Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Perks, Rob, and Thomson, Alistair. “Critical Developments.” In The Oral History Reader, edited by Perks, Robert and Thomson, Alastair, 1–21. Abingdon Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2016.Google Scholar
Ryant, Carl. “Oral History and Business History.” Journal of American History 75, no. 2 (September 1988): 560–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, Alistair. “Memory and Remembering in Oral History.” The Oxford Handbook of Oral History, edited by Ritchie, Donald A., 77–95. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Broadcasting and TelevisionGoogle Scholar