Advertisement Citation Generator
Cite a magazine or newspaper ad, a TV or radio commercial, an online ad or a billboard in APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago 18. Enter the advertiser, the headline if there is one, and where and when the ad ran — an untitled ad gets the description each style asks for. Free, no sign-up.
Advertisement details
APA and Chicago start with the advertiser. MLA starts with the ad's title or a description.
Type it in sentence case. Leave it blank if the ad has no headline; the generator describes it instead.
Name it as you would in a sentence, brand included: GE refrigerator. It describes an untitled ad: Advertisement for Head and Shoulders.
Its title is then set in italics.
Your citations
Enter the advertiser or the ad's title, and the date it ran, to see your citations.
How to Use the Advertisement Citation Generator
- 1. Choose where the ad appeared. Print, TV or radio, online, or outdoors — each points readers to a different kind of source.
- 2. Enter the advertiser and the headline. The brand or company behind the ad, and its title or tagline if it has one. Without a headline, name the product and the generator writes a description.
- 3. Say where and when it ran. The issue date and page of a publication, the network and air date of a commercial, the website and URL of an online ad, or the place and the day you saw a billboard.
- 4. Cite the version you saw. If you watched an old commercial on YouTube, cite that video instead, with the YouTube Citation Generator.
How the Styles Cite an Ad
| Part | APA 7 | MLA 9 | Chicago 18 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starts with | The advertiser | The ad's title or a description | The advertiser |
| An untitled ad | [Advertisement for …] in place of a title | Advertisement for … as the title | advertisement for … after the advertiser |
| The medium | [Advertisement] or [Television commercial] | A closing element, such as Billboard. or Pop-up ad. | television advertisement, billboard advertisement |
| Where it ran | Publication, volume(issue) and page; network; site and URL; or place | Publication, date and page or URL; for a billboard, the day seen and the place | Publication and date, or aired … on the network |
Only MLA has published advertisement examples. MLA 9 begins with the ad's title in quotation marks, or with a description — Advertisement for Head and Shoulders, GE refrigerator commercial — then where and when it appeared; a billboard is dated by the day you saw it, with the medium added at the end. APA 7 has no advertisement example, so the generator applies APA's general author–date–title–source pattern with a bracketed description of the work (§9.21). Chicago 18 has no rule for print ads. The Chicago Style Q&A gives one form for a television ad — advertiser, title in quotation marks, Television advertisement, producer, date — and adds that a well-known ad can simply be described in your text. The generator uses that pattern for every medium.
Advertisement Citation Examples
A print ad
Patagonia's “Don't Buy This Jacket,” a full-page ad in The New York Times on Black Friday, November 25, 2011:
APA 7th edition
Reference list:
Patagonia. (2011, November 25). Don’t buy this jacket [Advertisement]. The New York Times.
In-text (parenthetical):
(Patagonia, 2011)
MLA 9th edition
Works Cited:
“Don’t Buy This Jacket.” The New York Times, 25 Nov. 2011. Advertisement for Patagonia.
In-text citation:
(“Don’t Buy This Jacket”)
Chicago 18th edition (notes and bibliography)
Footnote:
Patagonia, “Don’t Buy This Jacket,” advertisement, New York Times, November 25, 2011.
Shortened note:
Patagonia, “Don’t Buy This Jacket.”
Bibliography:
Patagonia. “Don’t Buy This Jacket.” Advertisement. New York Times, November 25, 2011.
A television commercial
Apple's “1984” commercial for the Macintosh, made by the agency Chiat/Day and aired on CBS during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984:
Commercial in three styles
APA reference:
Apple Computer. (1984, January 22). 1984 [Television commercial]. CBS.
MLA Works Cited:
“1984.” Super Bowl XVIII, CBS, 22 Jan. 1984. Television commercial for Apple Computer.
Chicago footnote:
Apple Computer, “1984,” television advertisement, Chiat/Day, aired January 22, 1984, on CBS.
Chicago bibliography:
Apple Computer. “1984.” Television advertisement. Chiat/Day, aired January 22, 1984, on CBS.
Common Mistakes
- Making the magazine the author. In APA and Chicago the advertiser is the author; the publication is only where the ad ran.
- Inventing a title. If the ad has no headline, describe it — Advertisement for … — rather than promoting a line of small print to a title.
- Citing a broadcast you never saw. If you watched a commercial on YouTube or in an online archive, cite that copy: its channel or archive, date and URL.
- Leaving out the date. Campaigns run in many versions. The issue, the air date or the day you saw a billboard identifies yours.
- Using MLA's description in APA. APA puts an untitled ad's description in square brackets, in the title position after the date.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do you cite an advertisement in APA 7?
- APA has no advertisement template, so use its general pattern: advertiser, date, title or bracketed description, then where it ran. For a newspaper ad: Patagonia. (2011, November 25). Don’t buy this jacket [Advertisement]. The New York Times. In text: (Patagonia, 2011). Add the volume, issue and page for a magazine.
- How do you cite an advertisement in MLA?
- Start with the ad's title in quotation marks, or with a description if it has none, then give the publication, date and page: Advertisement for Head and Shoulders. Newsweek, 17 Mar. 2008, p. 2. That is the MLA Style Center's own example. In text, cite the first words of the entry: (Advertisement for Head and Shoulders).
- How do you cite a TV commercial?
- Name or describe the commercial, then the network and the air date. MLA's example is GE refrigerator commercial. CBS, 10 Oct. 2019. APA starts with the advertiser and adds [Television commercial]; Chicago writes television advertisement and aired with the date and network.
- How do you cite a billboard?
- Give the date you saw it and the place. MLA's example is Advertisement for School of Rock: The Musical. 29 Jan. 2017, Times Square, New York City. Billboard. MLA dates a billboard by the day you saw it because, like a broadcast or a live performance, it is ephemeral.
- How do you cite an ad from YouTube or an advertising archive?
- Cite the copy you used, not the original broadcast or printing. A commercial on YouTube is cited as a video, with the channel that posted it, the upload date and the URL. An ad in a library database or archive is cited with that collection as its source.
- Do I always need to cite an advertisement?
- If you analyze, quote or reproduce an ad, cite it. The Chicago Style Q&A notes that a famous ad mentioned in passing can simply be described in your text, but a paper that uses ads as evidence should cite each one so readers can find it.