My final project is about analyzing skincare advertisements over time from 1980s to 2000s. I am yet to specify the time frame.

I have a couple of research questions: Is there a shift in who is presenting the product over time?

What are the gender trends?

Who is the product marketed for? Are there any changing health claims? Scientific language trends?

Is there a change in the “marketing” words and taglines over time?

I want to think more about whether the tensions involved are historical, cultural or human (gender). Currently, I am aiming towards gender as an issue or something worth exploring from different angles. I may come up with something cultural.

My primary Digital Humanities track is Canva. I thought it would be best to create a digital exhibit of the advertisements over time and possible one that can be scrolled through and zoomed in on (for some detailed context). I am taking ads from Duke’s digital Ad collection or Penn State University archives for now. I will look at when they were shared, who they are for, who or what is on the ad and put the findings in a digital exhibit.

Some of my preliminary sources are found in the Moodle under our course: Nathan Yau: Understanding data

Duke Digital Repository and the Penn State University archives

ch 1 “The Basics” from The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics 

Mikel Djukic “Perception Deception” Data + Design 

The Data Visualization Catalog “What Do You Want to Show?

Canva tutorials

Citations

Library guides: Advertising: History and archives: Archives: Digital collections. (2014). Psu.Edu. https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/adhistory/archives

Home. (2025). Library.Duke.Edu. https://library.duke.edu/