This research project explores the changing meaning and importance of emotions in Advertising and Marketing in the 20th century. During the last 100 years emotions played an increasingly important role for Marketing and Advertising and this constantly growing emotional charging corresponded with certain fundamental cultural changes in society. In the past one hundred years Advertising professionals have taken an interest in human emotions like few other specialists. With the on-going scientific progress, groundbreaking innovations in the Media sector, growing markets, changing consumer habits and users’ increasing technical skills, those professionals changed dramatically their preconceptions regarding the interrelation between Advertising and emotions as far as the public is concerned. By analysing those shifts the project aims to demonstrate the strong links between developments in history and culture on one hand and emotions, as well as how those are perceived on the other. One must point out that those changing processes often took place from the bottom upwards and not the other way round; moreover they did not seem to follow a linear, but rather a circular progress pattern and they were at the same time extremely dynamic and conflict ridden.
