Madison Avenue

American  

noun

1. a street in New York City that is a center of the advertising and public relations industries and that has become a symbol of their attitudes, methods, and practices.

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Madison Avenue British  

noun

1. a street in New York City: a centre of American advertising and public-relations firms and a symbol of their attitudes and methods

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Madison Avenue Cultural  

1. A street in Manhattan on which many advertising and public relations firms have offices.

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“Madison Avenue hype” carries the connotation of misrepresentation or deliberate dishonesty.

The name of the street is often used to refer to the high-pressure techniques of the advertising business.

Example Sentences

Paul Smith is re-entering Nordstrom and opening a Madison Avenue store, but an analyst sees difficulty standing out.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026

To do so, the design house is refining its strategy—re-entering the market through Nordstrom department stores, opening a retail store on Madison Avenue and investing in a distribution facility in New Jersey.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026

Madison Avenue Furs' Instagram features Cowit's niece posing on the shop's balcony in a variety of plush coats recalling "Sopranos"-esque fashion.

From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026

Business owners like Larry Cowit -- who inherited and runs his family's Madison Avenue Furs -- are celebrating a sales spike.

From Barron's • Apr. 24, 2026

We run down the clean, even sidewalks on Madison Avenue, passing State Street, toward Michigan Avenue.

From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth