on that success and releasedReckless, which reached
number one on the chart and was certified quintu-
ple platinum. The complete list of Adams’s 1980’s al-
bums also includesInto the Fire(1987) andLive! Live!
Live!(recorded in 1988 but released in the United
States in 1994). He became an activist during this
period as well, partly to combat the stereotypical
rock-star image being assigned to him by critics. He
donated his music to a number of charities, includ-
ing Greenpeace.
Impact While many rock critics considered Ad-
ams’s work unoriginal and generic, his music still ap-
pealed to a huge fan base in the United States and
Canada. The success ofRecklessand some of Adams’s
other albums gave him the distinction of having the
widest distribution of any Canadian rock act. Adams
took advantage of the youth-oriented 1980’s with his
rock anthems and ballads. Most of his songs focused
on young love in its various stages and incarnations.
Further Reading
Betts, Raymond.A Histor y of Popular Culture: More of
Ever ything, Faster and Brighter. New York: Rout-
ledge, 2004.
Blythe, Daniel.The Encyclopedia of Classic 80’s Pop.
London: Allison & Busby, 2003.
Saidman, Sorelle.Br yan Adams: Ever ything He Does.
Toronto: Random House, 1993.
Thompson, Graham.American Culture in the 1980’s.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Jessie Bishop Powell
See also Music; Music videos; Pop music.
Advertising
Definition Public promotion of goods and
services
The 1980’s witnessed the creation of potentially lucrative
new consumer demographics and the simultaneous frag-
mentation of both the media landscape and consumers’ at-
tention spans. As a result, advertisers had to reconceive
and reinvent both their target audiences and their methods
of reaching those audiences.
The 1980’s was a decade obsessed with self-advance-
ment, exploration, and improvement. It was a de-
cade rife with technological advancements in the
workplace and in the home and one that saw dereg-
ulation and corporate mergers change the indus-
trial and media landscapes. As a result of President
Ronald Reagan’s “trickle-down” economic theory, as
well as the deregulation of the banking industry
and the stock market, many Americans—especially
those between twenty-five and thirty-five—enjoyed
high-paying jobs that provided them with new levels
of disposable income. The decade’s higher dispos-
able incomes combined with the redistribution of
wealth to younger professionals to change not only
the daily lives of wealthier Americans but also the
strategies of advertisers seeking to reach potentially
lucrative audiences.Shifts in Demographics In advertising, fundamen-
tal questions every advertiser or agency must ask
are: Who are the intended recipients, or the de-
mographic, of the ad? and What vehicle will be em-
ployed to enable the ad to reach that desired de-
mographic? In general, the key demographics are
groups most likely to need or desire the product and
groups who can be convinced to desire the product.
The most desirable demographics are those people
who not only make purchasing decisions for them-
selves but also influence the decisions of other con-
sumers, such as members of their household or
peers who wish to emulate them.
The 1980’s saw a great shift in wealth, redefining
traditional advertising demographics. Traditionally,
Americans gained wealth with age, as they rose
through the ranks to occupy more senior positions
in their chosen fields. By 1984, however, 23 percent
of America’s disposable income belonged to ambi-
tious, young, upwardly mobile professionals, the so-
called yuppies. This segment of society found itself
with high-paying jobs relatively early in life as a result
of deregulation and mergers, and it was obsessed
both with workplace advancement and with per-
sonal improvement. Unlike the self-improvement
trends of the 1970’s, however, the self-improvement
goals of 1980’s yuppies were often superficial, con-
sisting largely of purchasing products that func-
tioned as status symbols to their peers. Advertisers
were all too glad to help this demographic achieve
such goals.
It did not take long for Madison Avenue (the tra-
ditional home of the major U.S. advertising firms) to
recognize, embrace, and start to define the new class
of wealthy, young, status-conscious consumers as a
highly prized demographic. Advertisements, whichThe Eighties in America Advertising 15