From despicable to collectible: the evolution of collective memories for and the value of black advertising memorabilia.

Many advertisements from the past, including those created for particular brands (e.g., Coca-Cola, Ford) and by particular artists (e.g., Haddon Sundblom, Palmer Cox), are highly collectible. These advertisements and other promotional materials have been removed from their ordinary uses as advertisements and refrained as items in collections. This reframing process suggests attitudinal shifts have occurred and the objects have moved from serving a functional part of everyday life to serving an aesthetic purpose (see, e.g., Danet and Katriel 1989, 1994; Stewart 1984). Aesthetic items are of two types: objects that have aesthetic value by destination (i.e., paintings, statues, figurines) and objects that attain aesthetic value through transformation or metamorphosis (Malraux {1952} 1967; Maquet 1986). Our focus is on the latter category--objects that were "hand-crafted or industrially-produced {and} originally belonged to 'contexts other than art" (Maquet 1986, pp. 18-19), and later attain aesthetic value through metamorphosis. For example, the Coca-Cola advertisement is no longer viewed as simply a promotion for soda; instead, it is now an important piece in a collector's anthology or a museum's holdings.

Although there is research in marketing that examines collecting aesthetic-by-transformation promotional materials (Motley, Henderson, and Baker 2003; Slater 2000), we know little about the manner in which objects are transformed from trash to treasure (Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf 1988). An exception is Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry (1989), who describe how material objects evolve from "profane" to "sacred" through individual processes such as ritual acts, pilgrimages, quintessence, gift giving, inheritance, external sanctions, and collecting. We contribute to the understanding of the metamorphosis of objects from common, everyday commodities to items imbued with economic, symbolic, and aesthetic value by describing and interpreting the transformation of early American promotional materials depicting African Americans from "acceptable" to despicable to collectible. This evolution is particularly intriguing because of the social and cultural meanings attached to the original objects, the meanings associated with the reframed objects, and the increasing numbers of Americans who collect and appear to cherish them. Just as the Coca-Cola advertisement is reframed by a Coca-Cola collector, these materials have been transformed by both collectors and observers of the collections: Neither the slave-wanted poster nor the vintage Aunt Jemima advertisement are useful as promotional tools, but they can be appreciated for their historical and educational values.