A Pioneer in Advertising and Society Studies: An Interview with William O’Barr on Anthropology and Advertising

This is the first of three interviews published in this issue with Advertising & Society Quarterly ’s founding editor William “Mack” O’Barr. The series covers his prolific career as an anthropologist and a founder in the field of advertising and society studies. In this particular interview, anthropology professor Shalini Shankar asks O’Barr to reflect on his time as an anthropologist when he did groundbreaking work in communication, power dynamics, culture, and audiences. Although he was trained as an anthropologist, his work spanned various disciplines, including linguistics, sociology, law, business, and gender studies. O’Barr shares his early influences and experiences, including his upbringing in the Deep South, which ignited his fascination with languages and cultures. His trajectory led him to study linguistics, sociolinguistics, and eventually, the intersection of language and law, culminating in a seminal National Science Foundation-funded study on language in the courtroom. Shankar and O’Barr further explore his influential work on the portrayal of Otherness in advertising, as exemplified in his book Culture and the Ad (Westview, 1994).