Courses taught

Marketing, Culture and Society
Culture and Global Markets
Branding and Communications
Islamic Branding

Expertise

Consumer culture.
History of advertising and consumption.
Women and markets.
Images in advertising.
Marketing and the arts.
Religion and commerce.

Overview

Professor Linda Scott joined the Saïd Business School in 2006 from the University of Illinois where she held appointments in advertising, art, women's studies, and communications. In November 2010, the Oxford Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (OxCEI) at Saïd Business School announced her appointment to the newly created post of DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The chair, sponsored by DP World, will support the Centre’s programme of teaching and research into entrepreneurship.

Scott has written extensively on cultural issues related to advertising and consumption. She is on the board of the Advertising Educational Foundation in New York and is the editor of Advertising & Society Review. She is also on the advisory boards for G23, Omnicom’s women’s consultancy, and for the Organization for Women in International Trade, as well as for the Internationalist’s awards for media innovation.

Her current research interests focus on women's empowerment in emerging markets and changing symbol systems in the globalizing consumer culture. Her education includes bachelor's and master's degrees in American literature and history, an MBA, and a doctorate in mass communications. 

Current projects

Read more about Linda Scott's current research

Education and sanitary care in developing countries

Pampers-Unicef case study 

Research

Consumer culture.
History of advertising and consumption.
Women and markets.
Images in advertising.
Marketing and the arts.
Religion and commerce.

Grants

Green Templeton College, "Sanitary Care and Girls’ Education in Ghana," 2009.

Saïd Foundation, "Global Markets and Daily Life at the Bottom of the Pyramid," 2008-2010.

John Fell OUP Fund, "Education and Sanitary Care in Developing Countries," 2009.

ESRC/DFID Poverty Reduction Grant, "Avon in Africa," 2007-2009.

John Fell OUP Fund, " Avon in Africa, Parts I and II," 2007.

Templeton College, "Rural Sales Programme in Bangladesh," 2007.

ESRC Research Seminar Series, “Motherhood, Markets and Consumption,” 2007-2009. 

Books:

Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism (New York: Palgrave, 2005).

Persuasive Imagery: A Consumer Response Perspective (with Rajeev Batra) (Erlbaum, 2002).

Book chapters:

Linda M Scott (2007), “Markets and Audiences,” The History of the Book in America , volume 5, David Nord, Joan Shelly Rubin, and Michael Schudson, eds. (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, in press).

Linda M. Scott (2007), “Expanding Rhetoric,” Go Figure: New Directions in Advertising Rhetoric , Edward F. McQuarrie and Barbara J. Phillips, ed. (M. E. Sharpe).

Linda M. Scott (2007), “Critical Research in Marketing: An Armchair Report,” Critical Marketing , Avi Shankar and Pauline Maclaran, ed. (London: Elsevier,).

Linda M. Scott (2006), “Qualitative Research in Advertising: Twenty Years in Revolution,” Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing , Russell Belk, ed. (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar).

Linda M. Scott, Jason P. Chambers, and Katherine Sredl (2006), “The Monticello Correction: Consumption in History,” Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing , Russell Belk, ed. (Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar).

Keith Kenney and Linda M. Scott (2002), “A Review of the Visual Rhetoric Literature,” Persuasive Imagery: A Consumer Response Perspective , eds. Linda Scott and Rajeev Batra, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.

Journal articles:

Linda M. Scott (2009), "Warring Images: Women and Fashion in World War II," Advertising and Society Review, forthcoming.

Catherine Dolan and Linda M. Scott (2009), "Lipstick Evangelism: Avon Trading Circles and Gender Empowerment in South Africa," Gender and Development, July, in press.

Linda M. Scott (2008), "Subversive Consumption: Nineteenth Century Irish Immigrants to America," Irish Marketing Review, in press.

Linda M. Scott and Patrick Vargas (2007), "Writing With Pictures: Toward a Unifying Theory of Consumer Response to Visuals," Journal of Consumer Research, 34 (October).

Linda M. Scott and Patrick Vargas (2007), "Postindustrial Pictography: Learning the Coding Logics," Journal of Consumer Research, web version only.

Linda M. Scott (2006), "Advertising and the Querulous Canvas," Advertising and Society Review, Issue 6.4 (Winter).

Linda M. Scott and Lisa Penaloza (2006), "Matriarchal Marketing: A Manifesto," Journal of Strategic Marketing.

Linda M. Scott (2003), "Introduction," and Interviews with Gloria Steinem and Mary Lou Quinlan, Advertising & Society Review, special issue on women in advertising, ed. Linda Scott (December).

Hirschman, Elizabeth C., Linda M. Scott, and William D. Wells (1998), "A Model of Product Discourse: Linking Consumer Practice to Cultural Texts," Journal of Advertising, 27 (Spring): 33-50.

Otnes, Cornelia and Linda M. Scott (1996), "Something Old, Something New: Exploring the Interaction between Ritual and Advertising," Journal of Advertising, 25 (Spring), 33-50.

Scott, Linda M. (1995), "Representation and Narrative," Advances in Social Cognition, ed. Robert Wyer, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Scott, Linda M. (1994), "Images in Advertising: The Need for a Theory of Visual Rhetoric," Journal of Consumer Research, September, 252-273.

Scott, Linda M. (1994), "The Bridge from Text to Mind: Adapting Reader-Response Theory for Consumer Research," Journal of Consumer Research, December, 461-490.

Scott, Linda M. (1993), "Fresh Lipstick: Rethinking the Images of Women in Advertising," Media Studies Journal, Winter/Spring, 144-155.

Scott Linda M. (1993), "Spectacular Vernacular: Literacy and Commercial Culture in the Postmodern Age," International Journal of Research in Marketing, 10 (June), 251-275.

Scott, Linda M. (1991), "For the Rest of Us: A Reader-Oriented Interpretation of Apple's '1984' Commercial," Journal of Popular Culture, 25(1), 67-82.

Scott, Linda M. (1991), "Playing with Pictures: Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, and Advertising Visuals," Advances in Consumer Research, ed. John Sherry and Brian Sternthal, vol. 19, 596-612.

Scott, Linda M. (1990), "Understanding Jingles and Needledrop: A Rhetorical Approach to Music in Advertising, Journal of Consumer Research, 17 (September), 223-236.

Tharp, Marye and Linda M. Scott (1990), "The Role of Marketing Processes in Making Cultural Meanings," Journal of Macromarketing, Fall, 47-60.

Scott, Linda M. (1990), "The Troupe: Celebrities as Dramatis Personae in Advertising," Advances in Consumer Research, ed. Michael Solomon and Rebecca Holman, vol. 18, 355-363. 

Working papers:

“The Double X Economy"

"Using ‘Revolution': A Study in Conflicting Intentions” with Alan Bradshaw

"Reason and Realism: Image as Argument" with Patrick Vargas

"Consumer Culture and Religious Choice" with Pauline Maclaran

"Sanitary Care and Girls’ Education in Ghana" with Catherine Dolan, Paul Montgomery, and Sue Dopson

"Avon in Africa" with Catherine Dolan.

Visit Linda Scott's personal website >

Honours and Awards:

Finalist, University of Illinois, Campuswide Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Spring 2002

Fellow, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, 1999/2000. Topic: "Institutions of the Visual."

Finalist, Best Article Award, Journal of Advertising, 1998

Best Article Award, Journal of Advertising, 1997

Reviewer Award, Journal of Advertising, 1996

Finalist, Best Article Award, Journal of Consumer Research, 1996

Research Fellow, American Academy of Advertising, 1993.

Visiting Scholar, Smithsonian Institution, 1992.

University Fellow, The Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin, 1990/1991

Graduate, School of Criticism and Theory, Dartmouth College, 1990

University Fellow, The Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin, 1989/90

Ray B. Hall Advertising Fellowship, University of Texas at Austin, 1990

Jesse H. Jones Fellowship in Communication, University of Texas at Austin, 1988/89

Clio Award, U.S. Television, 1984

Clio Award, U.S. Television, 1983

Invited Presentations:

"Avon in Africa," Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, September 2009.

"Avon in Africa," Notre Dame University, USA, October 2008.

"The Global Goddess," presented for Omnicom, New York, November 2007.

"Avon in Africa," University of Exeter, United Kingdom, March 2008.

"Subversive Consumption," Keynote Speaker, Celtic Consumption Conference, Dublin City University, October 2007.

"Avon in Africa," EDHEC-Lille, 2007.

"The Fashion Forward Feminist," Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA, October 2006.

"Fresh Lipstick" and "The New Femininity," Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, VA, April 2006.

"Fresh Lipstick," University of Colorado at Boulder, March, 2006.

"Materialism and Gender," Aspen Chapel, Aspen, Colorado, March 2006.

"Critique of Cognitive Approaches to Consumer Behavior," Doctoral Consortium, Association for Consumer Research, San Antonio, Texas, 2005.

Keynote Speaker, "For the Greater Good: A Positive Philosophy of Markets," Academy of Marketing Annual Conference/AMA Global Conference, Dublin, Ireland, July 2005.

"The New Femininity," Leo Burnett, Chicago, June 2005.

"The New Femininity," Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, April 2005.

"Expressing the Self through Dress: Psychology and the Politics of Appearance," Department of Psychology, University of Houston, April 18, 2005.

"Shocking Mom: American Girls in Historical Perspective," Keynote Speaker, Women’s History Month, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, March 2005.

"Reappropriating Femininity: New Ideals and the Third Wave," Bryn Mawr College, Sponsored by the Women’s Center and Gender Studies, February 2005.

"The New Femininity," Advertising that Works, a three-day event sponsored by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, the Association of National Advertisers, and USA Today, October 2004.

"Visible Dreams: Inspiration, Aspiration, and Expression," The New Femininity, a symposium sponsored by the Advertising Educational Foundation, October 2004.

"Metatheory and Microtheory," Doctoral Consortium, Association for Consumer Research, Portland, Oregon, Fall 2004.

"History and Sociology in Consumer Behavior: The Case of the Postwar ‘Book Boom,’" Research Series, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado, March 2002.

"Curriculum for the 21st Century," Advertising Education Summit, University of Texas at Austin, April 2001.

Lecture Series on Marketing and Culture, University of Hanover, Germany, June 2000.

"Culture and the Reception of Images," 1999 American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium, Los Angeles, California.

"Advertising Pictography," University of Edinburgh and Dublin City University, April 1998.

"Fashion and Feminism: Rethinking the Conventional Wisdom," University of Ulster, April 1998.

"Advertisements as Fields of Visual Information," Harvard Business School Research Series, Fall 1997.

"Reading Images of Women," Association for Consumer Research Gender Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 1996.

"Reading the Popular Image," Pennsylvania State University, March 1996.

"Reading the Popular Image," University of Wisconsin, April 1996.

"Rethinking the Beauty Business," Northwestern University Faculty Research Camp, Fall 1995.

"Fragrance and the Female: Images of Women in Twentieth-Century Perfume Advertising." Series on "Women in Popular Culture," University of Colorado at Boulder, School of Journalism. Summer 1990.

"Expansible Thoughts." Subject of the talk was interdisciplinary study. Given at the convocation of The Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin, by invitation of the Dean. December 8, 1991.

Service:

Editor, Advertising and Society Review, published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Term began July 1, 2005.

Track Chair, "Social Justice," Transformative Consumer Research Conference, 2009.

National Board of Directors, Advertising Educational Foundation, New York.

Advisory Board, The Internationalist awards for media innovation, 2008.

Advisory Board, G23, women’s consultancy for Omnicom Group, 2008.

Advisory Board, Organization for Women in International Trade, 2007-2009.

Faculty, Qualitative Data Workshop for Doctoral Students, Association for Consumer Research, Omaha, Nebraska, May 2005.

"Developing an Art Community," a multimethod investigation of the market for visual art in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Sponsored by the local arts council. Spring 2005.

Chair, Advertising that Works: Symposium on applying anthropology to the practice of advertising, sponored by the Association of American Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, the Association of National Advertisers, and USA Today, October 2005.

Co-chair, Symposium: The New Femininity: Exposing the Myths and Midriffs of Today's Young Women, Advertising Educational Foundation, New York, October 2004.

Faculty, Doctoral Consortium, Association for Consumer Research, Portland, Oregon, October 2005.

Conference Co-chair, Association for Consumer Research Gender Conference, Summer 2004.

Chair, How Does Advertising Shape the Image of Women?, a symposium held October 18, 2003 at Northwestern University, under the auspices of the Advertising Educational Foundation.

"Special Initiative for Chicago," a year-long project to research and develop a marketing plan for the City of Chicago. Sponsored by the University of Illinois and the Mayor’s Council on Technology. Calendar 2003.

Chair, Sandage Symposium 2000, "Advertising History."

Co-chair, 19th Annual Advertising and Consumer Psychology Conference, University of Michigan, Spring 2000. Conference sponsored by the Society for Consumer Psychology (Div. 23 of the American Psychological Association), the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (Division 8), the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Division 9) and the Yaffe Center for Persuasive Communication at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor.

Faculty, American Marketing Association Doctoral Consortium, 1999.

Board of Advisors, Yaffe Center for Persuasive Communication, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2000-2003.

Co-editor for the advertising and marketing sections of the International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Conference Co-chair, Association for Consumer Research, for 1998 conference.

Editorial Board Member, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Marketing, 1992-2005.

Resident Faculty, Doctoral Consortium, American Marketing Association, 1993.

Program Committee, Association for Consumer Research, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2005.

Steering Committee, Council on Advertising History, New York.