"Nowhere Else to Work": Advertising and the Left in Australia

Abstract

From the late 1930s to the early 1970s, a noticeable cluster of left activists (both women and men, and all, at some point, members of the Communist Party) could be found working in the Australian advertising industry, using their artistic and writing skills to support themselves and pursue their political goals. The article explores the complex relationship between left politics and consumer culture in this period by examining the careers of a handful of these activists. It finds that the shift away from revolutionary politics in the late 1930s to mobilisation around anti-fascism made it possible for left activists to work in advertising without attracting significant criticism from their f..