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Transformative Advertising Research
Transformative Advertising Research, or TAR is a new subfield of advertising. TAR examines problems and opportunities across the advertising system with the goal of transforming it toward better outcomes, namely cultivating individual, institutional, and societal well-being.
In the TAR conceptual framework, informed by institutional theory, the researchers highlight the transformational insights revealed in the intersections and interactions between institutional actors at the micro level, advertising institutions at the meso level, and sociocultural forces at the macro level and the resulting well-being outcomes.
TAR scholarship seeks to advance research that allows for a clear vision of potential transformative outcomes in the advertising ecosystem, which can guide and inspire scholars and practitioners with directions to engage in social change.
The TAR was initially conceptualized by a co-author team of Drs. Coleman, Gurrieri and Zayer, who contributed equally to its development. It is based on the scholarship of the authors who have engaged in advertising research for decades, as well as their extensive engagement with multiple stakeholders including advertising professionals, public policy makers, and non-profit institutions.
Winner of the 2025 Innovations in Marketing Communications Award from the American Marketing Association MarCom SIG
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Transformative Advertising Research took inspiration from Transformative Consumer Research (TCR). TCR is a movement that seeks to encourage, support, and publicize research that benefits consumer welfare and quality of life for all beings affected by consumption across the world.
What Inspired Transformative Advertising Research?
Meet The Team
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Dr. Linda Tuncay Zayer
is the John F. Smith Chair in Business Administration and Professor of Marketing at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago. Her research adopts a transformative perspective, examining issues at the intersection of advertising and media, marketing, and well-being, with a focus on social impact. Her work spans areas such as transformative advertising research and ethical concerns related to gender representation, social media, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies. She is the editor of the book, Transformative Advertising Research: Driving Positive Social Change and Well-Being.
She has published in leading journals in the field, and her scholarship has been featured widely across television, newspapers, radio, books, podcasts, and digital media, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Fortune, and Forbes. Committed to bridging academia, industry, and the nonprofit sector, she actively engages diverse stakeholders, including serving on the boards of the Association of National Advertisers Educational Foundation, SeeHer Education, and GENMAC and is a part of the United Nations Principles of Management Education working group on emerging technologies. She is also on the editorial review boards of Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Consumer Psychology, International Journal of Advertising, and Advertising & Society Quarterly.
In 2025, she was awarded the Wayne Danielson Award for significant contributions to the field of communications.
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Dr. Lauren Gurrieri
is a Associate Professor in Marketing at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research examines gender, consumption and the marketplace, with a focus on gender-based inequalities in consumer and digital cultures. Her research has been featured across local and international media, including ABC News, The Guardian and Financial Times. She serves on the board of GENMAC and is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Marketing Management. She is involved in shEqual, a gender equality coalition led by Women’s Health Victoria in Australia.
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Dr. Catherine Coleman
is Professor and Chair in the Department of Strategic Communication, Bob Schieffer College of Communication, TCU in the USA. Her research focuses on transformative consumer research, consumer culture, and advertising, with attention to representation, gender and consumer vulnerability. Dr. Coleman’s current research uses institutional and ethical theories to advance transformative goals related to gender and advertising. She has professional experience in marketing, advertising, PR, and political and public policy research. She serves on the Association of National Advertiser’s SeeHer Education Advisory Board, GENMAC, and on various editorial boards.