Great Times Down South examines advertising materials from 1976 to 1981, including brochures, booklets, advertisements, and radio and TV spots, used by state tourism bureaus in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. The chosen period, known as the Carter era, marked "southern fashion" and economic prosperity in the Sunbelt.
Analyzing the strategies, rhetoric, images, and themes employed by these tourism bureaus domestically and internationally offers a unique look into the prevailing conception of the South as marketed and perceived externally. A noticeable shift in the tourist image of the South occurred in the late 1970s, aligning with significant changes in southern culture and society. While the 1970s are acknowledged for altering the perception and symbolic role of the South in American culture, little research explores how these changes influenced the region's promotional image. Prevailing views extend the classic Old South imagery into the 1970s, but Giuliano Santangeli Valenzani contends that the roots of the current, elusive image of the South can be precisely traced in advertising materials designed to attract visitors during the 1970s.