(Re)reading Eli Acıman as a Cultural Intermediary

Recently, studies on advertising have been criticised because of their focus too much on the advertising texts and their failing in historical analyses. This kind of criticism can be made regarding the studies in Turkey, as well. The researches carried out in Turkey are also focused on the advertising texts and thus the studies on advertising remain limited only to text-centered ones. Therefore, there is a need of in-depth analyses of advertising including all the actors in the advertising sector. For example, the roles of advertisers and advertising agencies as “intermediaries” can be analysed. In this context, this study aims to (re)read Eli Acıman, known as the doyen and the father of the modern advertising in Turkey, within the scope of the concept of “the new cultural intermediaries” introduced by Pierre Bourdieu in Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Within this framework, the study puts forward that Acıman is a “cultural intermediary” in the sense that he created tastes and economic contexts, mediated between private sector and consumers, politicians and voters, and ideas and products/services.