Since little empirical research has been conducted on adoption of currently available information technology by the advertising industry, a study explored the extent of advertising agencies' adoption of selected information technologies such as online database services and electronic mail. The study discussed data from earlier studies and analyzed results of a 1994 mail survey of the top 500 United States advertising agencies consisting of questions designed to elicit information about: (1) adoption of information technologies and services, and (2) beliefs about those technologies and services. A 25% sample was drawn systematically from "Advertising Age's" listing of American advertising agencies and a sampling frame consisting of 125 agencies was developed. Of those, 77 were returned. Results concluded that 54.5% subscribed to at least 1 online database, with 31.2% using 1 service, 19.5% using between 2 and 4, and 3.9% with 5 or 6; 45.5% of the agencies did not subscribe to any database service. Findings suggest that a surprising number of advertising agencies are not fully investing in technology that is currently available and many have yet to take advantage of the information revolution that is already here. They further suggest that failure to adopt new technologies may be a result of resistance to innovation, rather than solely a lack of financial resources. Such information should be of use to students in university advertising departments who are future advertising professionals. (Contains 8 tables and 35 references.) (CR)