This database project originated in equal parts from a research initiative ("Landscapes of Capital") in which we sought to analyze 2400 corporate television ads, and a pedagogical initiative that involve the issue of how to better teach a course on critical semiotics and the study of advertising culture.

Our pedagogical goals dovetail with the methodological matters that we have detailed here. Pedagogically, we have constructed an approach to the study of advertising semiotics that begins with the framing of meanings; then introduces the basic categories of semiotics - signifier, signified, referent, and appropriation. A third layer of conceptualization introduces students to concepts that derive from critical theory - e.g., alreadyness, appellation, bricolage, meta-communication, meta-structure, male gaze, myth, hegemony, and simulacrum.

In class use of the digital database permits the rapid accessing of videos that are appropriate to a particular discussion. The ads can thus be used to illustrate conceptual relationships, chart patterns, or be used to inquire into difficult matters of interpretation.

The size and scope of the database permit a teacher to lead a discussion without 'stacking the deck' by choosing texts that fit an argument.

Similarly the scope of the database permits us to allow students to construct their own multimedia, critical ad analyses.

We seek to continue to build out the database in such a way that it permits a diverse community of teachers (drawing on a variety of theoretical perspectives) to make use of these textual materials in a wide range of courses - from those that seek to examine representations of gender, race and class to those that seek to study changing visual metaphors in our culture, to those seeking to discuss shifting patterns of branding commodities.