Skip to Main Content
Los Angeles Harbor College home page Los Angeles Harbor College Library

Citations - APA: Advertisements

On This Page

Tips

Authors

An author can be a person but can also be an organization, or company. These are called group or corporate authors. Most advertisements will have a corporate author such as an advertising agency or a company name.

Titles

Some advertisements may not have an identified title. If you are citing something with no identified title, write a description of the product/brand being advertised and place it in square brackets (e.g. [Advertisement for McDonald's coffee]. Put this description in brackets where you'd normally put the title.

Formatting

Note: All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Advertisements in Print from a Magazine, Journal or Newspaper - Known Title

Name of Company That Owns the Product. (Year, Month Day of issue which contains advertisement if known). Name of advertisement [Advertisement]. Name of Journal, Magazine or Newspaper, Volume(Issue) if known, page number advertisement is found on.

Reference List Example

BMW. (2011, June 4). Diesel reinvented [Advertisement]. Fictional Magazine, 7(1), 17.

In-Text Paraphrase

(Company Name, Year)

Example: (BMW, 2011)

In-Text Quote

(Company Name, Year, p. Page Number)

Example: (BMW, 2011, p. 17)

 

Advertisements in Print from a Magazine, Journal or Newspaper - Unknown Title

Name of Company That Owns the Product. (Year, Month Day of issue which contains advertisement if known). [Advertisement for Name of Product being advertised]. Name of Journal, Magazine or Newspaper, Volume(Issue) if known, page number advertisement is found on.

Reference List Example

FedEx. (2011, May). [Advertisement for FedExCup]. Sample Magazine, 5(1), 30.

In-Text Paraphrase

(Company Name, Year)

Example: (FedEx, 2011)

In-Text Quote

(Company Name, Year, p. Page Number)

Example: (FedEx, 2011, p. 30) 

This guide is used/adapted with the permission of Seneca College Libraries.