This groundbreaking work explores media scholar Sut Jhally's thesis that advertising functions as a religion in late capitalism and relates this to critical theological studies. Sheffield argues that advertising is not itself a religion, but that it contains religious dimensions--analogous to Durkheim's description of objects as totems.
"Sheffield's book is meticulously researched and provides an excellent bibliography and overview of the work of key scholars of theology, communication, sociology, and cultural history."
--Journal of Media and Religion
"The Religious Dimension of Advertising is much more than an academic critique. Drawing on anthropology, religious studies, and feminist theory, Tricia Sheffield demonstrates how advertising mediates matters of "ultimate concern" in U.S. society. And, Sheffield also suggests ways that critical consumption can disrupt the panoptic gaze through which advertising would have us develop our sense of self and our relations to others. She, thus, opens the door to means of fulfilling needs and desires that contribute not to hierarchy but to justice."
--Janet R. Jakobsen, Director, Barnard Center for Research on Women
"Sheffield's sparkling interdisciplinary analysis blends historical, theological, and other cultural approaches to show how advertising works. Ads, she claims, enchant us into a sense of belonging by creating totemic clans of consumption around certain products. Sheffield pushes beyond facile claims that advertising is a religion by providing a nuanced analysis of how advertising has taken on some of the functions of religion in the modern world. This smart work provides historical and theoretical tools to understand advertising and the intellectual energies to resist its dispiriting effects."
--Jesse Terry Todd, Associate Professor of American Religious Studies, Drew University
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