Modern advertising in Turkey developed after the proclamation of the Republic in 1920’s, but it has been considered an indispensable business since 70’s. However, the advertising industry in Turkey has grown immensely with the liberal economic policy adopted in 80’s. Following this period, foreign partnerships, global brands entering the country’s market and developing communication technologies have led to global integration. In this respect, the study investigates how advertisers’ representations change in Turkish films, as popular culture products, over time. Therefore, the representation of the advertisers in “Yüz Numaralı Adam (1978)” and “Recep İvedik 2 (2009)”, two different Turkish comedy films from 70’s and 2000’s, resembling each other thematically, an ordinary guy entering the advertising sector, are examined qualitatively. The representations in both films are evaluated in relation to their times' economic and social conditions within the content analysis applied in the direction of demographic, psychological, physical, and socio-economic characteristics of the advertisers and the agency practices themes. The findings reveal that the representations of the advertisers in both films differ from each other based on these themes. In the micro-level, the economic and social changes within the liberal economic policy adopted in 80’s, and the globalizing economy and developing communication technology in the macro level are supposed to have a role in the differentiation of advertisers’ representations between sample films.
Keywords: Advertiser, advertiser representation, advertising in Turkey