The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to understand the role advertising played during a complex crisis. My book, Crisis Response Advertising: Insights and Implications from COVID-19 examines the effects of COVID-19 on the advertising industry to better understand crisis response advertising. Advertising professionals from a broad range of award-winning advertising agencies across the United States who experienced the crisis first-hand reflect on how COVID-19 disrupted the industry and what they learned along the way. It tells the story of three distinct phases in which the pandemic unfolded, the way a wide range of brands and agencies responded, and how the consumer landscape changed during the first 15 months of the crisis. In addition to responding to an unprecedented health crisis, advertisers navigated a marketplace complicated by economic pressures, social unrest, and political polarization, which influenced their decision-making and level of responsibility. 

Using a grounded theory research design, the book takes readers through different levels of data analysis from the exploration of broad categories to the development of a new Complex Crisis Response Advertising (CCRA) model. Each case contains themes that emerged through data analysis, along with theoretical propositions for researchers and examples of advertising practice at various stages of the pandemic. Importantly, the new theoretical model and best practices covered in the book extend beyond application to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving readers solid theoretical and practical tools to successfully maneuver future complex crises.

This book is suited for upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate courses in advertising and marketing interested in crisis communication. It is also useful as a reference for researchers and serves as a hands-on practical guide for practitioners to use during the next complex crisis.