Guide to the Fred/Alan MTV Network Advertising Collection

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials created by the Fred/Alan advertising agency between 1981 and 1992 for the MTV network, which includes Music Television, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, VH-1, and Ha! Comedy Network. Also included are advertising and promotional material for the Disney Channel, the Movie Channel, Showtime, Home Box Office and other Fred/Alan clients including Miller Beer, General Foods and Myers Rum. The materials demonstrate the intersection between American popular culture and advertising in several ways. First, because many of the advertisements were designed for trade publications of the cable television and advertising industries, they reveal some of the thinking behind the cable television industry's attempts to establish and stabilize its market during the 1980s, a decade which witnessed the emergence and spectacular rise of cable programming. Secondly, because MTV Networks began as a commercial proposition to attract a difficult-to-reach teenage audience and later, to capture the baby boom generation, the collection also provides evidence of the 1980s trend toward market segmentation. Finally, both in content and style, MTV Networks pioneered a new aesthetic which has had repercussions throughout American popular culture, and particularly in television programming and advertising.

Arrangement

the collection is arranged into three series.

Subseries 1.1: Music Television, 1981-1991

Subseries 1.2: Nickelodeon, 1988-1992

Subseries 1.3: Nick at Nite, 1987-1991

Subseries 1.4: Video Hits-1, 1987-1991

Subseries 1.5: Ha! Comedy Network, 1990-1991

Subseries 1.6: The Disney Channel, 1981

Subseries 1.7: The Movie Channel, 1982

Subseries 1.8: Fred/Alan and other clients, 1987-1989

Subseries 3.1: 2x2 color slides

Subseries 3.2: Still photos