essay on history of advertising

The History of Advertising, Evolution, and Future

The history of advertising has experienced several major milestones – think the emergence of the printing press in the 1440s or the huge impact of television.

Since its very first beginnings, which are thought to date back to steel carvings made by the ancient Egyptians, advertising has constantly had to adapt and change to suit new mediums and an increasingly savvy audience.

But there’s been one medium that’s had a bigger impact on advertising than anything before it.

The wonderful World Wide Web.

The internet has revolutionized advertising in the most astounding way. Not only has it changed the way ads are broadcasted, but it’s changed the way consumers act toward them.

The History of Advertising – Then: Traditional Ads

Let’s take things back to the pre-internet days.

The days when advertisements were carried out via cheesy infomercials on the radio, fuzzy old televisions, and billboards. This was the golden era of advertising – when the whole movement was considered a huge part of society – almost taking on a cultural status.

The first TV ad popped up on screens in 1941 in America – probably a lot later than you’d imagine. Before the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies played each other, viewers saw a brief commercial for Bulova clocks and watches.

Such a small moment set the precedent for the next seventy years.

Back then, adverts were a staunch part of society. Despite the 50s being a tense decade for America during the Cold War, TV viewers felt optimistic and were beginning to loosen their purse strings as prosperity began to rise .

Characters were built around products to create a semblance of connection between viewers and brands (though this idea of a consumer connection didn’t become a priority until later), and famous faces were brought to sell everything from washing machines to cigarettes. This period provides some of the earliest signs of ambassador marketing .

Take the Marlboro Man, for example, who became a recognizable cultural figure between the 1960s and 1990s. The aim was to turn filtered cigarettes from a feminine phenomenon to a more masculine one with the help of rugged cowboys and a stream of moody-looking men. Even today it’s considered one of the best advertisement campaigns of all time .

On television, products, and characters began to go hand and hand. Let’s take cereal as an example. Think Tony the Tiger and Frosted Flakes, or the Snap, Crackle, and Pop gnomes for Rice Krispies – both of which are still going strong today.

Despite the different characters and the vastly different selection of products that began to emerge, ads at this time had one purpose: to sell.

Yes, these characters were central to the ads and played a major part in creating an ad culture for consumers, but the product was always at the forefront.

It might have seemed like Tony the Tiger or the Marlboro Man were the epicenters of their aligning ad campaigns, but they simply served as a tool to sell, sell, sell.

Now : Different Motives

Today, the shift in the advertising world has seen the rise of other motives when it comes to commercials. Rather than the sell mentality, ads are now more focused on community building and brand awareness .

The History of Advertising – Now: The product is no longer the centerpiece.

Strong ads demonstrate the solution to the consumer’s problem (in a way that doesn’t feel sales-y).

Let’s consider an example that’s not too dissimilar to the character-led ads of the past. The Dairy Milk Gorilla ad in 2007 didn’t even show or mention Cadbury – the company it was supposed to be advertising.

Ad disaster? No, far from it.

The drum-playing gorilla (bashing along to Phil Collins In the Air Tonight and set against a purple background) got tongues wagging. It got people talking. This wasn’t a brazen attempt to flog more Cadbury chocolate bars. Instead, it was a strategic move that also played with brand color and psychology. It raised awareness of Cadbury and solidified it as a “cool” and “must-have” brand (because why else would everyone be talking about it?).

The simple nature of the ad lent itself perfectly to spoofs, one key way viewers can interact with a brand – almost like a back-and-forth dialogue. To date, there are more than 300 spoofs of the ad .

Taking things online, Lowe’s “Fix in Six” home improvement ads filmed through the 6-second Vine app aren’t overt. The genius videos show solutions to DIY problems in six seconds or less – not only are they fun to watch, but they are also actionable (basically, a dream combination).

The humorous take on home DIY problems has helped it create a friendly persona for its consumers , taking it a step away from “advertiser.” “Fix in Six” isn’t overtly linked to Lowe’s either. There’s no “ hey, this is Lowe’s and you need to buy everything in this ad from us ” spiel.

This idea of emphasizing a solution to consumers’ problems (like home DIY) instead of the product is becoming increasingly common. Brands have to work twice as hard to gain the trust of consumers in the internet world (which we’ll discuss more in a moment), so advertising has kind of taken on a two-step process:

Helpful content that provides a solution to a problem.
Consumers like helpful content and dig deeper to find out more about the brand (therefore building trust and a connection. Note that the consumer is actively digging to find out more themselves).

From a Passive to Active Consumers: The Biggest Changes in the History of Advertising

Our TV experiences are still littered with traditional ads, but the times are quickly a-changing. More change has happened in the past 20 years in advertising than in the previous 2,000 years – when ancient Egyptians would etch public notices into steel, right up until the 1980s when ads were a form of culture of sorts.

What has so drastically changed the ad landscape?

We’re living in the ad-blocker age.

Audiences are actively choosing not to have to sit through commercials (or be bombarded with ads while they browse the internet).

We have to look at the rise of apps that stop ads from showing up – and the emergence of pay-to-stream platforms like Netflix. Yep, people are actively choosing to pay to not have to sit through ads.

This new trend of saying no to ads is thought to have cost publishers up to $22 billion (yes, billion ) in revenue per year – and increasing – so it’s not to be taken lightly.

chart showing global ad blocking growth over time

If this isn’t a hint to advertisers that they need to change tack (if they haven’t already), I don’t know what is.

Consumers are less trusting of commercials

Millennials are the demographic of the moment, but they’re also the most skeptical when it comes to ads. According to TINT’s State of Social & User-Generated Content report, nearly seventy-six percent (76%) of consumers have used social media to search for or discover products, brands, and experiences.

Now, this is where the solution comes before the product .

Brands have to prove themselves before consumers will even consider buying from them.

It’s a far cry from the days of the Marlboro Man in the history of advertising, who just had to sit looking moody on a horse ( just imagine what he’d have to do now to build trust ).

The historical rise of user-generated content

To build trust with consumers, brands are partnering up with people brands want to purchase from them.

Essentially, consumers have become a part of advertising, rather than passive onlookers.

Brands should focus more on creating a community and getting consumers on board to help sell their products (which is why brands and consumers value sites like TripAdvisor so much).

Take GoPro , for example, a hugely popular brand that regularly pumps out user-generated content for its consumers. Instead of creating ads that simply shout “buy our awesome product”, they let their customers do the talking.

Or pelicans, in this case:

And then there’s Polaroid, a company that promotes user-generated content using TINT on their website rather than ads. They encourage consumers to get involved by asking them to carry out tasks, like “snap a photo with the new Taylor Swift album for a chance to win the Polaroid 22300 camera”.

Polaroid user generated content on website

Why does this work? Because people trust other people, not brands .

The need for loyal followers over one-time buyers

This brings me to the final biggest change.

Because brands are increasingly becoming aware that people trust other people, not brands (we’re all getting wise to that trick), they’re shifting their focus from one-time buyers to creating a loyal following.

Why? Because a loyal following sells products all by itself. A group of raving fans is one of the best advertising tools a company can have – they will shout from the rooftops about a product without any pushing.

Take Patagonia clothing, for example. One of their most famous ads does something that would have been completely bizarre back in the Marlboro Man days. They actively encourage their buyers to send back their clothing to get it fixed, rather than buy a brand-new item

Surely this lowers sales? Actually, it serves two very clever purposes.

Firstly, it creates a loyal audience because their primary aim is to make sure their customers are happy – not selling more products.

Secondly, it builds trust.

Think about it logically: if a brand is encouraging you to send back a product if it’s broken, you’re more likely to think it won’t break, because why the heck would they promise to do that if they’re selling a shoddy product?

With evidence clearly showing that audiences are doing everything in they can to avoid the dreaded ad, it’s obvious that they have more power in what they do and don’t choose to buy into it.

The history of advertising has taken it from the etchings of ancient Egypt, through the emergence of the printing press, through the golden age of cheesy infomercials and character-led sales pitches, to today, where ads are quickly being replaced by organic ways to build trust and community.

Marlboro Man might have been the man of the moment in the 1960s, but what impact would he have now in a time where delivering solutions comes way, way above the sell, sell, sell mentality?

Would he fare well with audiences that favor knowledge and authenticity? Who knows: that would be down to the consumer to decide.

Community and User-Generated Content are the future of advertising.

Learn more about how TINT can elevate your marketing efforts with beautiful, authentic content created by your biggest fans. Request a personalized demo

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The History of Advertising (With Yearly Timeline)

October 24, 2023 | By Hitesh Bhasin | Filed Under: Marketing

Advertising is a global phenomenon that has been influencing people’s ways of perceiving things around them for ages. The very first indications of advertising are said to go back to the old Egyptians’ steel carvings in 2000 BC, while the first print advertisement was published in 1472 when William Caxton printed advertisements for a book. Since then, the history of the advertising industry has been quite exciting, and it has gone through many radical changes and quantum jumps.

Key takeaways

Evolution Across Centuries : The history of advertising spans from ancient time periods with Egyptians’ steel carvings in 2000 BC, to the first print advertisement in 1472, progressing into the era of newspapers and magazines in the 16th and 17th centuries, and continuing into radio, television, and online platforms in the subsequent centuries.

A Shift in Medium Over Time : Advertising mediums have evolved over the years, beginning with print advertising, then transitioning into billboards, followed by the rise of radio and television. The significant shift from these traditional platforms to online advertising has been monumental, setting the stage for the current phase of advertising.

Current State of Advertising : Current advertising trends significantly involve the internet and mobile platforms, marking a significant leap from the age of physical advertising mediums. Major players like YouTube, Amazon, and Hulu have emerged, distributing content and advertisements to massive audiences worldwide.

The history of advertising has been adjusting and changing to suit new mediums different platforms and audiences throughout the industry. It has always been trying to be more customized to the target niches.

The course of events underneath shows how it has changed since the beginning. Then we will go through the history of radio, TV and online advertising. So, let us start unraveling the evolution right away-

Table of Contents

The History of Advertising

The evolution of modern advertising started with the emergence of newspapers and magazines in the 16th and 17th centuries. The maiden weekly gazettes saw the light of day in Venice in the early 16th-century, sparking the initiation of weekly publications in Italy, Germany, and Holland.

In the 1620s, Britain witnessed the printing press with the introduction of its first weeklies, and from 1702 to 1735, The Daily Courant, the country’s first daily newspaper, was in circulation. Advertisements featured almost immediately in these newspapers, aiding in offsetting printing and distribution costs. The first commercial advertisements highlighted books and fraudulent medicines.

However, by the 1650s, a significantly broader range of products started getting advertised.

Later in 1835, advertising took a new turn with the very first ever billboard advertising ad in the US showed carnival/circus posters more than 50 sq. Ft.

The next significant event in the history of advertising comes with Sears, the very first company to concentrate more on personalization by running ads through post office based mails. They came up with their vast regular postal mail ad campaign in 1892 with 8,000 postcards, and it created 2,000 new requests.

With the introduction of personalization in advertising came the personalized use of advertising. Radio and TV ads also got the most ad space at this time, and the whole world of advertisements got revolutionized.

Radio and TV ads took the personalization to the next level in which ad campaigns were designed in such a manner that specific audiences got a personalized touch.

The very first ad that was run on the radio came into existence in 1922.

Let us unfold that part of the history of mass media advertising here and now-

History of Radio Advertising

In 1922, Radio host H.M. Blackwell made his radio ad by incorporating the indirect-direct strategy. This ad campaign had a 10-minute discussion about the virtues of carrying on with a happy life at the Hawthorne Court Apartments in Jackson Heights, Queens. The expense for this 10-minute radio ad was $50.

The very first radio stations were set up by radio hardware makers and retailers in the early 1920s. Madison Avenue was amongst the first of those who perceived the significance of radio ads as one of the most useful mediums for promotions.

As per the advertising veterans, the first ad for a live radio station was supported by a milk company and published in the Los Angeles Times on May 6, 1930. In the same year, Rosser Reeves presented the possibility of USP that depicts how your business will tackle the concerns of your clients. It was another move towards personalized radio advertising potentials.

George Gallup, in the year 1935, presented statistical surveying — gathering data about potential customers to make the radio advertising more personalized and result-driven.

The next big thing in the history of advertising then occurred on July 1, 1941, when the very first commercial sprung up on TV screens on WNBT. Even though this Bulova Watch Company TV ad was just of 10-second, it set the trend for the following 70 years.

Let us now have a look at the history of advertising on TV-

History of TV Advertising

The first golden age of advertising came in the 1960s and went on to the late 1980s. This golden age was when the presence of TV Ads boomed and lot of celebrities used to come on TV ads and influence consumers.

Many businesses started assembling characters around their items to set up a favorable association to sell products with their audiences. TV advertising became a prime means of effective mass marketing and branding.

Many ads like Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes, or Pop gnomes for Rice Krispies were one of the most popular ads. Some of the well-known faces such as Marlboro Man from the 1960s to 1990s were likewise regularly used to sell items and optimize TV advertising.

The new medium of Television was so powerful, and companies started using it for TV advertising so predominantly with a sheer motive of widening the reach, increasing customer awareness, and brand loyalty and increasing sales.

Using characters in TV and print ads was mainly done for developing an ad culture, and it became quite successful in putting products at the forefront.

Cable TV Advertising from the 1980s

TV advertising saw intensive publicity in the late 1980s and mid-1990s with the popularity of cable television. MTV played a preeminent role in changing the dynamic of TV ads. Spearheading the idea of the music video, MTV came up with multiple sorts of TV ads concepts.

With the booming popularity of cable and satellite TV, many specialty channels rose to fame, including TV channels thoroughly committed to Ads, for example, QVC, ShopTV Canada, and Home Shopping Network.

Now, the time has come to have a look upon changing TV technology and associated TV advertising and how the shift from TV advertising to online advertising occurred-

Timeline of TV Advertising & shift from TV Advertising to Online Advertising

1941: FCC (Federal Communications Commission) provided business licenses to 10 US TV stations in May, while on July 1, the very first TV ad aired talking about a spot by the Bulova watch company that had a cost of $9.

1951: The spending on TV ads reached $128 million, which was $12.5 million in 1949, so an increment of a 10X.

1953: Launching of Commercially Broadcast Color TV occurred.

1955: TV advertisement spending reached $1 billion thresholds.

1963: TV outperformed the local newspapers as the information source for the very first time.

1964: “The Big 3” (CBS, NBC, and ABC) demanded $50,000 from promoters for a prime-time minute.

1968: Presidential campaign TV ad spending dramatically increased, from $10 million in 1960 to $27 million in 1968.

1971: There occurred a congressional ban on radio and TV cigarette ads that stripped broadcast business of about $220 million in television advertising.

1977: Gross Television ad incomes ascend to $7.5 billion, which, at that point, likens to 20% of all total US advertising spending.

1984: In the third quarter of the Super Bowl, Apple came up with the Macintosh PC with a $500,000 spot that transformed the NFL’s main game into a significant advertising occasion. This likewise denoted the start of a time when advertising become so significant.

1986: The Cosby Show of NBC broke the existing records for a Network series by infusing $350,000 to $400,000 for the commercial time of just 30 seconds.

1989: Because of expanded rivalry, big broadcast networks arrived at a massive low of 55% of the total TV viewership.

1994: This year, the history of advertising met with a whole new media revolution, which was online advertising. The online ad spending reached $300 million in the mid-1990s.

1997: Netflix was launched with a DVD pay-per-rental model.

1999: TiVo came up with its first Digital Video Recorder (DVR) unit via which the time of recording shows started.

2005: YouTube was launched in this year. Then in the next year, Google purchased it for $1.65 billion.

2007: Netflix streaming was launched this year, plus AMC acquainted the world with our top choice, “Mad Man”: Don Draper.

2008: Hulu was launched in this year.

2011: Amazon reintroduced its video-on-request service named as Amazon Instant Video and provided access to 5,000 films and TV shows for Amazon Prime individuals.

2017: US subscription video services channelized by Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix made around $15 billion in monthly charges only.

2017: Spending on TV advertisements succumbs to the first run-through, as more Americans make a move away from the link. Viewership of even the most mainstream organizations keeps on declining.

2018: YouTube flaunted 1.9 billion signed in monthly users who watched 180+ million hours of YouTube per day.

2018: Traditional TV ad spending decreases another 2%.

2018: 70% of the TVs sold reach consumers all over the world are “connected” TVs.

2019: Hulu flaunted about 25 million subscribers, while Netflix started approaching 150 million subscribers.

2019: The pay-TV industry says a 5% decrease in pay-TV users in 2019. YouTube TV also opened up across the nation and offered a different type of membership plan.

So, while exploring the brief history of advertising on TV, you got to know about the shifting of advertising from TV to the world wide web. Let us now, have a detailed look upon the evolution of online advertising here and now-

History of Advertising on the Web (Online and Mobile Advertising Timeline)

1978- Email marketing was used as the first instance of email spam whose purpose was advertising and commercial messages.

1980- Usenet, which was a popular discussion forum, was launched this year, and it was overwhelmed via advertising spam posts.

1984- Banner advertising was used in this year. Prodigy was launched to offer one of the first online display advertising services. However, such banner ads were most in the same spot on the screen, and they were non-clickable.

1991- There was a ban on commercial use on the NSFNET was lifted by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in this year.

1993- GNN, which was one of the first web publications and advertising services , was launched this year by O’Reilly Media.

1994- Banner advertising was again used, as the first-ever clickable advertisement was sold to a Silicon Valley law firm by GNN in this year.

1994- HotWired, which is the first commercial web magazine, was launched this year.

1994- Again, a banner advertising event, as the very first ever banner ad, was sold to AT&T and was visible on the first issue of HotWired.

1995- AOL acquired banner advertising GNN for $11 million this year.

1996- Ad serving DoubleClick, which was a prominent online advertising company, was launched.

1996- Search advertising Yahoo! introduced the very first search ads in their search engine on the web.

1997- Pop-up ads were invented by Ethan Zuckerman and considered to be a more aggressive and disliked advertising strategy .

1998- Google launched an online search engine.

1998- Ad exchange OpenX was one of the first ad exchanges that were launched as an open-source project.

1998- Search advertising GoTo (now Yahoo! Search Marketing) was launched. It was a search engine that offered search advertising.

1999- HotWired was shut down after its domain was re-purposed by Lycos.

2000- Search advertising Google came up with the prominent AdWords service this year, which allowed for advertising based on the browsing habits and search keywords of internet users.

2002- Different prominent web browsers such as Firefox, Opera, and Netscape started to roll out features to block these ads.

2003- Yahoo! acquired – Overture (formerly GoTo)

2004- Facebook was launched this year and since then started the Social Media Advertising.

2005- YouTube was launched.

2005- Demand-side platform- Criteo was launched.

2006- YouTube was by Google for $1.65 billion.

2006- Adblocking AdBlock for web browsers was introduced.

2006- Content discovery platform Outbrain was launched.

2006- Native advertising was used with a YouTube video advertising platform.

2007- Content discovery platform Taboola was introduced in this year.

2007- Behavioral targeting, social media advertising techniques became popular when Facebook launched Beacon that tracks Facebook users’ activities on websites outside of Facebook.

2007- Ad serving became prevalent when Google acquired DoubleClick for $3.1 billion.

2007- Microsoft acquired AQuantive for $6.5 billion for ad serving.

2007- Demand-side platform MediaMath was launched in this year.

2008- Demand-side platform Rocket Fuel Inc. was launched.

2008- Rick Petnel created Easylist available for ad-blocking web browser add-ons

2009- Google came up with its ad exchange platform with DoubleClick.

2010- Google introduced DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP) as advertising software.

2010- Twitter came up with Promoted Tweets that enabled advertisers to pay for tweets to be shown to target users .

2013- Facebook acquired Atlas Solutions from Microsoft for $100 million.

2013- Instagram was introduced with features for social media platforms like sponsored posts.

2014- Pinterest as an image sharing platform was launched with Promoted Pins sorts of options for Social Media Advertising.

2014- UBlock Origin, an ad-blocking extension, was introduced.

2014- Facebook re-launched Atlas for ad serving.

2016- Snapchat was introduced, which gave Social Media Advertising a new turn.

2016- Mobile ad spend overtook desktop ad

In conclusion, the history of advertising has seen remarkable advancements and evolution through different mediums. From its early beginnings in the print media, expansion of ad content into radio and television commercials, and its eventual shift to the digital space, advertising has constantly adapted to audience preferences.

Some significant milestones in advertising history include the first print advertisement in 1472, the emergence of billboard ads in 1835, radio advertising in 1922, TV advertising in 1941, followed by the rise of cable TV advertising in the 1980s. The shift from TV to the online channels of advertising began in the 1990s and continues to thrive today with platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

Who is the father of Advertising?

The figure often recognized as the “Father of Advertising” is David Mackenzie Ogilvy. He was a British advertising tycoon and founder of Ogilvy & Mather. Ogilvy’s success in advertising was attributed to his meticulous research into consumer habits. It’s worth noting that Edward Louis Bernays, an American theorist, is also considered a significant figure in this field and is often referred to as the “father of public relations”

Who wrote the first advertisement?

The first advertisement is traced back to ancient Egyptians around 2000 BC. The first known print advertisement had its origins in England, published by William Caxton in 1472 to promote a book

What is the origin of advertising?

The first recorded form of advertising came with papyrus-based sales messages and promotional material in the ancient city of Thebes, Egypt. In the Middle Ages, advertising took the form of handbills and signs from town criers or tradesmen, intended to attract business.

Liked this post? Check out the complete series on Advertising

What is Product Design? Definition, History & How to Become a Product Designer
Baby Boomers: Definition, Years, Date range, History and Examples
Complete History of Retail Industry and the Future of Retail Industry
Gestalt Theory – Principles, History, Features and Applications
Advocacy Groups: Definition, Explanation and History
What is a Commercial? Definition and Types
Community of Practice – Definition, History and Types
What is Corporate Advertising? Examples of Corporate Advertising
What is Advertising? Advertising Methods and Advantages
Informative Advertising Vs Persuasive Advertising

About Hitesh Bhasin

Hitesh Bhasin is the CEO of Marketing91 and has over a decade of experience in the marketing field. He is an accomplished author of thousands of insightful articles, including in-depth analyses of brands and companies. Holding an MBA in Marketing, Hitesh manages several offline ventures, where he applies all the concepts of Marketing that he writes about.

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Hirshon Essay: Exploring the Complicated History of Advertising

Long before Ritz became America’s favorite cracker, there was Uneeda Biscuit. At the turn of the century, Uneeda benefited from one of the first national campaigns to brand a food product, a wave of advertising that encompassed newspapers, magazines, streetcar ads, and signs painted on the sides of buildings.

The inundation strategy worked: Demand for Uneeda soared so incredibly that the manufacturer was unable to buy enough tin for biscuit boxes and substituted cardboard. But the effort also kicked off decades of debates over a new consumer society, as documented in my recent article, “A ‘Great Power’ Defended and Denounced: An Examination of Twentieth-Century Advertising and Advertising Criticism in the United States” ( Journalism History, September 2020).

I began this research during my Ph.D. program. I was taking a course on the history of American popular culture to gain the context I would need for my dissertation on the disastrous rebranding of my favorite hockey team, the New York Islanders, in the mid-1990s. I knew a lot about sports, but not much about branding. My professor wisely recommended some classic books and articles so I could come up to speed on how brands – hockey teams included – are sold to the masses.

To supplement the article, this teaching essay offers suggested readings, discussions, and assignments for undergraduate and graduate students in courses on advertising, media history, and popular culture. The article could serve particularly useful as a primer for graduate students embarking on research projects relating to advertising history.

Suggested Class Discussions

Some advertising campaigns are so ubiquitous that they become embedded in popular culture. For example, Uneeda Biscuit is among several brands name-dropped in The Music Man , the 1957 Tony Award winner for best musical, which was adapted into a 1962 film. In the show’s opening number, a group of traveling salesmen recall how “Uneeda Biscuit in an airtight sanitary package made the cracker barrel obsolete.” Can you think of other advertising campaigns that were so effective that they inspired mainstream references? What made these initiatives work so well?

The article describes how Sprite employed basketball star Grant Hill in a successful “anti-marketing marketing campaign.” Which brands are promoting anti-marketing marketing campaigns today, and how effective have they been?

Suggested Class Activities

Turn the classroom into a courtroom where advertising itself will go on trial, with students split on the defense and prosecution teams, and the professor as the judge. The defense will argue in favor of advertising based on themes discussed in the article, such as advertising’s value in ensuring fair prices, sparking economic prosperity, and informing customers about life-bettering products. The students on the defense team could call witnesses to the stand to play the roles of historical figures cited in the article, including Edward Filene of the Filene’s department store chain and scholars such as Stanley Ulanoff and Michael Phillips. The prosecution, meanwhile, would argue that advertising is misleading and deceptive, and could call witnesses such as author Raymond Williams, Richard Wightman Fox, and T.J. Jackson Lears. Students could cite examples of historical advertisements they have found through their own research.

Examine some of the digitized advertisements created by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency for Ford Motor Company between 1944 and 2001. Identify aspects of the advertisements that you believe to be misleading, and describe why. How does the ad reflect the denouncements of advertising described in the article?

Watch this compilation of television commercials with Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, the main characters from the 1960s television series The Flintstones , promoting Winston cigarettes. Think about cartoon characters that hawked products during your childhood. Find a commercial with one of those characters to play for your class as part of an interactive 15-minute presentation on how advertising affected you growing up, and still does today.

Early Advertising

Advertising dates back to ancient Rome’s public markets and forums and continues into the modern era in most homes around the world. Contemporary consumers relate to and identify with brands and products. Advertising has inspired an independent press and conspired to encourage carcinogenic addictions. An exceedingly human invention, advertising is an unavoidable aspect of the shared modern experience.

In 79 CE, the eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius destroyed and, ultimately, preserved the ancient city of Pompeii. Historians have used the city’s archaeological evidence to piece together many aspects of ancient life. Pompeii’s ruins reveal a world in which the fundamental tenets of commerce and advertising were already in place. Merchants offered different brands of fish sauces identified by various names such as “Scaurus’ tunny jelly.” Wines were branded as well, and their manufacturers sought to position them by making claims about their prestige and quality. Toys and other merchandise found in the city bear the names of famous athletes, providing, perhaps, the first example of endorsement techniques (Hood, 2005).

The invention of the printing press in 1440 made it possible to print advertisements that could be put up on walls and handed out to individuals. By the 1600s, newspapers had begun to include advertisements on their pages. Advertising revenue allowed newspapers to print independently of secular or clerical authority, eventually achieving daily circulation. By the end of the 16th century, most newspapers contained at least some advertisements (O’Barr, 2005).

European colonization of the Americas during the 1600s brought about one of the first large-scale advertising campaigns. When European trading companies realized that the Americas held economic potential as a source of natural resources such as timber, fur, and tobacco, they attempted to convince others to cross the Atlantic Ocean and work to harvest this bounty. The advertisements for this venture described a paradise without beggars and with plenty of land for those who made the trip. The advertisements convinced many poor Europeans to become indentured servants to pay for the voyage (Mierau, 2000).

Nineteenth-Century Roots of Modern Advertising

The rise of the penny press during the 1800s had a profound effect on advertising. The New York Sun embraced a novel advertising model in 1833 that allowed it to sell issues of the paper for a trifling amount of money, ensuring a higher circulation and a wider audience. This larger audience in turn justified greater prices for advertisements, allowing the paper to make a profit from its ads rather than from direct sales (Vance).

Wikimedia Commons – public domain.

In 1843, a salesman named Volney Palmer founded the first U.S. advertising agency in Philadelphia. The agency made money by linking potential advertisers with newspapers. By 1867, other agencies had formed, and advertisements were being marketed at the national level. During this time, George Rowell, who made a living buying bulk advertising space in newspapers to subdivide and sell to advertisers, began conducting market research in its modern recognizable form. He used surveys and circulation counts to estimate numbers of readers and anticipate effective advertising techniques. His agency gained an advantage over other agencies by offering advertising space most suited for a particular product. This trend quickly caught on with other agencies. In 1888, Rowell started the first advertising trade magazine, Printers’ Ink (Gartrell).

McClure’s had success in 1893 thanks to an advertising model: selling issues for nearly half the price of other magazines and depending on advertising revenues to make up the difference between cost and sales price. Magazines such as Ladies’ Home Journal focused on specific audiences, so they allowed advertisers to market products designed for a specific demographic. By 1900, Harper’s Weekly , once known for refusing advertising, featured ads on half of its pages (All Classic Ads).

P. T. Barnum and Advertising

The career of P. T. Barnum, cofounder of the famed Barnum & Bailey circus, gives a sense of the uncontrolled nature of advertising during the 1800s. He began his career in the 1840s writing ads for a theater, and soon after, he began promoting his own shows. He advertised these shows any way he could, using not only interesting newspaper ads but also bands of musicians, paintings on the outside of his buildings, and street-spanning banners.

Barnum also learned the effectiveness of using the media to gain attention. In an early publicity stunt, Barnum hired a man to wordlessly stack bricks at various corners near his museum during the hours preceding a show. When this activity drew a crowd, the man went to the museum and bought a ticket for the show. This stunt drew such large crowds over the next 2 days, that the police made Barnum put a halt to it, gaining it even wider media attention. Barnum was sued for fraud over a bearded woman featured in one of his shows; the plaintiffs claimed that she was, in fact, a man. Rather than trying to keep the trial quiet, Barnum drew attention to it by parading a crowd of witnesses attesting to the bearded woman’s gender, drawing more media attention—and more customers.

trialsanderrors – The marvelous foot-ball dogs, poster for Barnum & Bailey, 1900 – CC BY 2.0.

Barnum aimed to make his audience think about what they had seen for an extended time. His Feejee mermaid—actually a mummified monkey and fish sewn together—was not necessarily interesting because viewers thought the creation was really a mermaid, but because they weren’t sure if it was or not. Such marketing tactics brought Barnum’s shows out of his establishments and into social conversations and newspapers (Applegate, 1998). Although most companies today would eschew Barnum’s outrageous style, many have used the media and a similar sense of mystery to promote their products. Apple, for example, famously keeps its products such as the iPhone and iPad under wraps, building media anticipation and coverage.

Another ubiquitous aspect of advertising developed around this time: brands. During most of the 19th century, consumers purchased goods in bulk, weighing out scoops of flour or sugar from large store barrels and paying for them by the pound. Innovations in industrial packaging allowed companies to mass produce bags, tins, and cartons with brand names on them. Although brands existed before this time, they were generally reserved for goods that were inherently recognizable, such as china or furniture. Advertising a particular kind of honey or flour made it possible for customers to ask for that product by name, giving it an edge over the unnamed competition. 1

In the early 1900s, brand-name food items, such as this one, began making a household name for themselves.

Stuart Rankin – Payn’s Sure-Raising Flour – CC BY-NC 2.0.

Advertising Gains Stature During the 20th Century

Although advertising was becoming increasingly accepted as an element of mass media, many still regarded it as an unseemly occupation. This attitude began to change during the early 20th century. As magazines—widely considered a highbrow medium—began using more advertising, the advertising profession began attracting more artists and writers. Writers used verse and artists produced illustrations to embellish advertisements. Not surprisingly, this era gave rise to commercial jingles and iconic brand characters such as the Jolly Green Giant and the Pillsbury Doughboy.

The household cleaner Sapolio produced advertisements that made the most of the artistic advertising trend. Sapolio’s ads featured various drawings of the residents of “Spotless Town” along with a rhymed verse celebrating the virtues of this fictional haven of cleanliness. The public anticipated each new ad in much the same way people today anticipate new TV episodes. In fact, the ads became so popular that citizens passed “Spotless Town” resolutions to clean up their own jurisdictions. Advertising trends later moved away from flowery writing and artistry, but the lessons of those memorable campaigns continued to influence the advertising profession for years to come (Fox, 1984).

World War I fueled an advertising and propaganda boom. Corporations that had switched to manufacturing wartime goods wanted to stay in the public eye by advertising their patriotism. Equally, the government needed to encourage public support for the war, employing such techniques as the famous Uncle Sam recruiting poster. President Woodrow Wilson established the advertiser-run Committee on Public Information to make movies and posters, write speeches, and generally sell the war to the public. Advertising helped popularize World War I on the home front, and the war in turn gave advertising a much-needed boost in stature. The postwar return to regular manufacturing initiated the 1920s as an era of unprecedented advertising. 3 The rising film industry made celebrity testimonials, or product endorsements , an important aspect of advertising during the 1920s. Film stars including Clara Bow and Joan Crawford endorsed products such as Lux toilet soap. In these early days of mass-media consumer culture, film actors and actresses gave the public figures to emulate as they began participating in popular culture. 4

Radio became an accepted commercial medium during the 1920s. Although many initially thought radio was too intrusive a medium to allow advertising, as it entered people’s homes by the end of the decade, advertising had become an integral aspect of programming. Advertising agencies often created their own programs that networks then distributed. As advertisers conducted surveys and researched prime time slots, radio programming changed to appeal to their target demographics. The famous Lux Radio Theater , for example, was named for and sponsored by a brand of soap. Product placement was an important part of these early radio programs. Ads for Jell-O appeared during the course of the Jack Benny Show (JackBennyShow.com), and Fibber McGee and Molly scripts often involved their sponsor’s floor wax (Burgan, 1996). The relationship between a sponsor and a show’s producers was not always harmonious; the producers of radio programs were constrained from broadcasting any content that might reflect badly on their sponsor.

The Great Depression and Backlash

Unsurprisingly, the Great Depression, with its widespread decreases in levels of income and buying power, had a negative effect on advertising. Spending on ads dropped to a mere 38 percent of its previous level. Social reformers added to revenue woes by again questioning the moral standing of the advertising profession. Books such as Through Many Windows and Our Master’s Voice portrayed advertisers as dishonest and cynical, willing to say anything to make a profit and unconcerned about their influence on society. Humorists also questioned advertising’s authority. The Depression-era magazine Ballyhoo regularly featured parodies of ads, similar to those seen later on Saturday Night Live or in The Onion . These ads mocked the claims that had been made throughout the 1920s, further reducing advertising’s public standing. 5

This advertising downturn lasted only as long as the Depression. As the United States entered World War II, advertising again returned to encourage public support and improve the image of businesses. 6 However, there was one lasting effect of the Depression. The rising consumer movement made false and misleading advertising a major public policy issue. At the time, companies such as Fleischmann’s (which claimed its yeast could cure crooked teeth) were using advertisements to pitch misleading assertions. Only business owners’ personal morals stood in the way of such claims until 1938, when the federal government created the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and gave it the authority to halt false advertising.

In 1955, TV outpaced all other media for advertising. TV provided advertisers with unique, geographically oriented mass markets that could be targeted with regionally appropriate ads (Samuel, 2006). The 1950s saw a 75 percent increase in advertising spending, faster than any other economic indicator at the time. 7

Single sponsors created early TV programs. These sponsors had total control over programs such as Goodyear TV Playhouse and Kraft Television Theatre . Some sponsors went as far as to manipulate various aspects of the programs. In one instance, a program run by the DeSoto car company asked a contestant to use a false name rather than his given name, Ford. The present-day network model of TV advertising took hold during the 1950s as the costs of TV production made sole sponsorship of a show prohibitive for most companies. Rather than having a single sponsor, the networks began producing their own shows, paying for them through ads sold to a number of different sponsors. 8 Under the new model of advertising, TV producers had much more creative control than they had under the sole-sponsorship model.

Advertising research during the 1950s had used scientifically driven techniques to attempt to influence consumer opinion. Although the effectiveness of this type of advertising is questionable, the idea of consumer manipulation through scientific methods became an issue for many Americans. Vance Packard’s best-selling 1957 book The Hidden Persuaders targeted this style of advertising. The Hidden Persuaders and other books like it were part of a growing critique of 1950s consumer culture. The U.S. public was becoming increasingly wary of advertising claims—not to mention increasingly weary of ads themselves. A few adventurous ad agencies used this consumer fatigue to usher in a new era of advertising and American culture (Frank, 1998).

The Creative Revolution

Burdened by association with Nazi Germany, where the company had originated, Volkswagen took a daring risk during the 1950s. In 1959, the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) agency initiated an ad campaign for the company that targeted skeptics of contemporary culture. Using a frank personal tone with the audience and making fun of the planned obsolescence that was the hallmark of Detroit automakers, the campaign stood apart from other advertisements of the time. It used many of the consumer icons of the 1950s, such as suburbia and game shows, in a satirical way, pitting Volkswagen against mainstream conformity and placing it strongly on the side of the consumer. By the end of the 1960s, the campaign had become an icon of American anticonformity. In fact, it was such a success that other automakers quickly emulated it. Ads for the Dodge Fever, for example, mocked corporate values and championed rebellion. 9

This era of advertising became known as the creative revolution for its emphasis on creativity over straight salesmanship. The creative revolution reflected the values of the growing anticonformist movement that culminated in the countercultural revolution of the 1960s. The creativity and anticonformity of 1960s advertising quickly gave way to more product-oriented conventional ads during the 1970s. Agency conglomeration, a recession, and cultural fallout were all factors in the recycling of older ad techniques. Major TV networks dropped their long-standing ban on comparative advertising early in the decade, leading to a new trend in positioning ads that compared products. Advertising wars such as Coke versus Pepsi and, later, Microsoft versus Apple were products of this trend. 10

Innovations in the 1980s stemmed from a new TV channel: MTV. Producers of youth-oriented products created ads featuring music and focusing on stylistic effects, mirroring the look and feel of music videos. By the end of the decade, this style had extended to more mainstream products. Campaigns for the pain reliever Nuprin featured black-and-white footage with bright yellow pills, whereas ads for Michelob used grainy atmospheric effects (New York Times, 1989).

The Rise of Digital Media

Twenty-first-century advertising has adapted to new forms of digital media. Internet outlets such as blogs, social media forums, and other online spaces have created new possibilities for advertisers, and shifts in broadcasting toward Internet formats have threatened older forms of advertising. Video games, smartphones, and other technologies also present new possibilities. Specific new media advertising techniques will be covered in the next section.

Types of Advertising

Despite the rise of digital media, many types of traditional advertising have proven their enduring effectiveness. Local advertisers and large corporations continue to rely on billboards and direct-mail fliers. In 2009, Google initiated a billboard campaign for its Google Apps products that targeted business commuters. The billboards featured a different message every day for an entire month, using simple computer text messages portraying a fictitious executive learning about the product. Although this campaign was integrated with social media sites such as Twitter, its main thrust employed the basic billboard (Ionescu, 2009).

Danny Sullivan – Ask Versus Google In Billboards – CC BY 2.0.

Newspapers and Magazines

Although print ads have been around for centuries, Internet growth has hit newspaper advertising hard. Traditionally, newspapers have made money through commercial and classified advertising. Commercial advertisers, however, have moved to electronic media forms, and classified ad websites offer greater geographic coverage for free. The future of newspaper advertising—and of the newspaper industry as a whole—is up in the air.

Print magazines have suffered from many of the same difficulties as newspapers. Declining advertising revenue has contributed to the end of popular magazines such as Gourmet and to the introduction of new magazines that cross over into other media formats, such as Food Network Magazine . Until a new, effective model is developed, the future of magazine advertising will continue to be in doubt.

Compared to newspapers and magazines, radio’s advertising revenue has done well. Radio’s easy adaptation to new forms of communication has made it an easy sell to advertisers. Unlike newspapers, radio ads target specific consumers. Advertisers can also pay to have radio personalities read their ads live in the studio, adding a sense of personal endorsement to the business or product. Because newer forms of radio such as satellite and Internet stations have continued to use this model, the industry has not had as much trouble adapting as print media have.

TV advertisement relies on verbal as well as visual cues to sell items. Promotional ad time is purchased by the advertiser, and a spot usually runs 15 to 30 seconds. Longer ads, known as infomercials, run like a TV show and usually aim for direct viewer response. New technologies such as DVR allow TV watchers to skip through commercials; however, studies have shown that these technologies do not have a negative effect on advertising (Gallagher, 2010). This is partly due to product placement. Product placement is an important aspect of TV advertising, because it incorporates products into the plots of shows. Although product placement has been around since the 1890s, when the Lumière brothers first placed Lever soap in their movies, the big boom in product placement began with the reality TV show Survivor in 2000 (Anderson, 2006). Since then, product placement has been a staple of prime-time entertainment. Reality TV shows such as Project Runway and American Idol are known for exhibiting products on screen, and talk-show host Oprah Winfrey made news in 2004 when she gave away new Pontiacs to her audience members (Stansky, 2008). Even children’s shows are known to hock products; a cartoon series on Nickelodeon featured characters that represent different Sketchers sneakers (Freidman, 2010).

Digital Media

Emerging digital media platforms such as the Internet and mobile phones have created many new advertising possibilities. The Internet, like TV and radio, offers free services in exchange for advertising exposure. However, unlike radio or TV, the Internet is a highly personalized experience that shares private information.

Government Regulation of Advertising

Advertising regulation has played an important role in advertising’s history and cultural influence. One of the earliest federal laws addressing advertising was the Pure Food and Drug Law of 1906. A reaction to public outcry over the false claims of patent medicines, this law required informational labels to be placed on these products. It did not, however, address the questionable aspects of the advertisements, so it did not truly delve into the issue of false advertising. 12

The Formation of the FTC

Founded in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) became responsible for regulating false advertising claims. Although federal laws concerning these practices made plaintiffs prove that actual harm was done by the advertisement, state laws passed during the early 1920s allowed prosecution of misleading advertisements regardless of harm done. 13 The National Association of Attorneys General has helped states remain an important part of advertising regulation. In 1995, 13 states passed laws that required sweepstakes companies to provide full disclosure of rules and details of contests (O’Guinn, et. al., 2009).

During the Great Depression, New Deal legislation threatened to outlaw any misleading advertising, a result of the burgeoning consumer movement and the public outcry against advertising during the period (Time, 1941). The reformers did not fully achieve their goals, but they did make a permanent mark on advertising history. The 1938 Wheeler-Lea Amendment expanded the FTC’s role to protect consumers from deceptive advertising. Until this point, the FTC was responsible for addressing false advertising complaints from competitors. With this legislation, the agency also became an important resource for the consumer movement.

Truth in Advertising

In 1971, the FTC began the Advertising Substantiation Program to force advertisers to provide evidence for the claims in their advertisements. Under this program, the FTC gained the power to issue cease-and-desist orders to advertisers regarding specific ads in question and to order corrective advertising. Under this provision, the FTC can force a company to issue an advertisement acknowledging and correcting an earlier misleading ad. Regulations under this program established that supposed experts used in advertisements must be qualified experts in their field, and celebrities must actually use the products they endorse. 14 In 2006, Sunny Health Nutrition was brought to court for advertising height-enhancing pills called HeightMax. The FTC found the company had hired an actor to appear as an expert in its ads, and that the pills did not live up to their claim. Sunny Health Nutrition was forced to pay $375,000 to consumers for misrepresenting its product (Consumer Affairs, 2006).

In 1992, the FTC introduced guidelines defining terms such as biodegradable and recyclable . The growth of the environmental movement in the early 1990s led to an upsurge in environmental claims by manufacturers and advertisers. For example, Mobil Oil claimed their Hefty trash bags were biodegradable. While technically this statement is true, a 500- to 1,000-year decomposition cycle does not meet most people’s definitions of the term (Lapidos, 2007). The FTC guidelines made such claims false by law (Schneider, 1992).

Advertising’s Influence on Culture

Discussing advertising’s influence on culture raises a long-standing debate. One opinion states that advertising simply reflects the trends inherent in a culture, the other claims advertising takes an active role in shaping culture. Both ideas have merit and are most likely true to varying degrees.

Advertising and the Rise of Consumer Culture

George Babbitt, the protagonist of Sinclair Lewis’s 1922 novel Babbitt , was a true believer in the growing American consumer culture:

Just as the priests of the Presbyterian Church determined his every religious belief…so did the national advertisers fix the surface of his life, fix what he believed to be his individuality. These standard advertised wares—toothpastes, socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters—were his symbols and proofs of excellence; at first the signs, and then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom (Lewis, 1922).

Although Lewis’s fictional representation of a 1920s-era consumer may not be an actual person, it indicates the national consumer culture that was taking shape at the time. As it had always done, advertising sought to attach products to larger ideas and symbols of worth and cultural values. However, the rise of mass media and of the advertising models that these media embraced made advertising take on an increasingly influential cultural role.

Automobile ads of the 1920s portrayed cars as a new, free way of life rather than simply a means of transportation. Advertisers used new ideas about personal hygiene to sell products and ended up breaking taboos about public discussion of the body. The newly acknowledged epidemics of halitosis and body odor brought about products such as mouthwash and deodorant. A Listerine campaign of the era transformed bad breath from a nuisance into the mark of a sociopath (Ashenburg, 2008). Women’s underwear and menstruation went from being topics unsuitable for most family conversations to being fodder for the pages of national magazines. 15

Creating the Modern World

World War I bond campaigns had made it clear that advertising could be used to influence public beliefs and values. Advertising focused on the new—making new products and ideas seem better than older ones and ushering in a sense of the modernity. In an address to the American Association of Advertising Agencies in 1926, President Coolidge went as far as to hold advertisers responsible for the “regeneration and redemption of mankind (Marchand, 1985).”

Up through the 1960s, most advertising agencies were owned and staffed by affluent white men, and advertising’s portrayals of typical American families reflected this status quo. Mainstream culture as propagated by magazine, radio, and newspaper advertising was that of middle- or upper-class White suburban families (Marchand, 1985). This sanitized image of the suburban family, popularized in such TV programs as Leave It to Beaver , has been mercilessly satirized since the cultural backlash of the 1960s.

A great deal of that era’s cultural criticism targeted the image of the advertiser as a manipulator and promulgator of superficial consumerism. When advertisers for Volkswagen picked up on this criticism, turned it to their advantage, and created a new set of consumer symbols that would come to represent an age of rebellion, they neatly co-opted the arguments against advertising for their own purposes. In many instances, advertising has functioned as a codifier of its own ideals by taking new cultural values and turning them into symbols of a new phase of consumerism. This is the goal of effective advertising.

Apple’s 1984 campaign is one of the most well-known examples of defining a product in terms of new cultural trends. A fledgling company compared to computer giants IBM and Xerox, Apple spent nearly $2 million on a commercial that would end up only being aired once (McAloney, 1984). During the third quarter of the 1984 Super Bowl, viewers across the United States watched in amazement as an ad unlike any other at the time appeared on their TV screens. The commercial showed a drab gray auditorium where identical individuals sat in front of a large screen. On the screen was a man, addressing the audience with an eerily captivating voice. “We are one people, with one will,” he droned. “Our enemies shall talk themselves to death. And we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail (McAloney, 1984)!” While the audience sat motionlessly, one woman ran forward with a sledgehammer and threw it at the screen, causing it to explode in a flash of light and smoke. As the scene faded out, a narrator announced the product. “On January 24, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984 (Freidman, 1984).” With this commercial, Apple defined itself as a pioneer of the new generation. Instead of marketing its products as utilitarian tools, it advertised them as devices for combating conformity (Freidman, 1984). Over the next few decades, other companies imitated this approach, presenting their products as symbols of cultural values.

In his study of advertising’s cultural impact, The Conquest of Cool , Thomas Frank compares the advertising of the 1960s with that of the early 1990s:

How [advertisers] must have rejoiced when the leading minds of the culture industry announced the discovery of an all-new angry generation, the “Twenty-Somethings,” complete with a panoply of musical styles, hairdos, and verbal signifiers ready-made to rejuvenate advertising’s sagging credibility…. The strangest aspect of what followed wasn’t the immediate onslaught of even hipper advertising, but that the entire “Generation X” discourse repeated…the discussions of youth culture that had appeared in Advertising Age , Madison Avenue , and on all those youth-market panel discussions back in the sixties. 16

To be clear, advertisers have not set out to consciously manipulate the public in the name of consumer culture. Rather, advertisers are simply doing their job—one that has had an enormous influence on culture.

Advertising Stereotypes

The White, middle-class composition of ad agencies contributed to advertisements’ rare depictions of minority populations. DDB—the agency responsible for the Volkswagen ads of the 1960s—was an anomaly in this regard. One of its more popular ads was for Levy’s rye bread. Most conventional advertisers would have ignored the ethnic aspects of this product and simply marketed it to a mainstream White audience. Instead, the innovative agency created an ad campaign that made ethnic diversity a selling point, with spots featuring individuals from a variety of racial backgrounds eating the bread with the headline “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.”

During the 1950s, stereotypical images of African Americans promulgated by advertisers began to draw criticism from civil rights leaders. Icons such as Aunt Jemima, the Cream of Wheat chef, and the Hiram Walker butler were some of the most recognizable black figures in U.S. culture. Unlike the African Americans who had gained fame through their artistry, scholarship, and athleticism, however, these advertising characters were famous for being domestic servants.

During the 1960s, meetings of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) hosted civil rights leaders, and agencies began to respond to the criticisms of bias. A New York survey in the mid-1960s discovered that Blacks were underrepresented at advertising agencies. Many agencies responded by hiring new African American employees, and a number of Black-owned agencies started in the 1970s. 17

Early advertising frequently reached out to women because they made approximately 80 percent of all consumer purchases. Thus, women were well represented in advertising. However, those depictions presented women in extremely narrow roles. Through the 1960s, ads targeting women generally showed them performing domestic duties such as cooking or cleaning, whereas ads targeting men often placed women in a submissive sexual role even if the product lacked any overt sexual connotation. A National Car Rental ad from the early 1970s featured a disheveled female employee in a chair with the headline “Go Ahead, Take Advantage of Us.” Another ad from the 1970s pictured a man with new Dacron slacks standing on top of a woman, proclaiming, “It’s nice to have a girl around the house (Frauenfelder, 2008).”

An advertising profile printed in Advertising Age magazine gave a typical advertiser’s understanding of the housewife at the time:

She likes to watch TV and she does not enjoy reading a great deal. She is most easily reached through TV and the simple down-to-earth magazines…. Mental activity is arduous for her…. She is a person who wants to have things she can believe in rather than things she can think about (Rodnitzky, 1999).

The National Organization for Women (NOW) created a campaign during the early 1970s targeting the role of women in advertisements. Participants complained about the ads to networks and companies and even spray-painted slogans on offensive billboards in protest.

Representation of minorities and women in advertising has improved since the 1960s and ’70s, but it still remains a problem. The 2010 Super Bowl drew one of the most diverse audiences ever recorded for the event, including a 45 percent female audience. Yet the commercials remained focused strictly on men. And of 67 ads shown during the game, only four showed minority actors in a lead role. Despite the obvious economic benefit of diversity in marketing, advertising practices have resisted change (Ali, 2010).

Advertising to Children

The majority of advertisements that target children feature either toys or junk food. Children under the age of eight typically lack the ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality, and many advertisers use this to their advantage. Studies have shown that most children-focused food advertisements feature high-calorie, low-nutrition foods such as sugary cereals. Although the government regulates advertising to children to a degree, the Internet has introduced new means of marketing to youth that have not been addressed. Online video games called advergames feature famous child-oriented products. The games differ from traditional advertising, however, because the children playing them will experience a much longer period of product exposure than they do from the typical 30-second TV commercial. Child advocacy groups have been pushing for increased regulation of advertising to children, but it remains to be seen whether this will take place (Calvert, 2008).

Positive Effects of Advertising

Although many people focus on advertising’s negative outcomes, the medium has provided unique benefits over time. Early newspaper advertising allowed newspapers to become independent of church and government control, encouraging the development of a free press with the ability to criticize powerful interests. When newspapers and magazines moved to an advertising model, these publications became accessible to large groups of people who previously could not afford them. Advertising also contributed to radio’s and TV’s most successful eras. Radio’s golden age in the 1940s and TV’s golden age in the 1950s both took place when advertisers were creating or heavily involved with the production of most of the programs.

Advertising also makes newer forms of media both useful and accessible. Many Internet services, such as e-mail and smartphone applications, are only free because they feature advertising. Advertising allows promoters and service providers to reduce and sometimes eliminate the upfront purchase price, making these services available to a greater number of people and allowing lower economic classes to take part in mass culture.

Advertising has also been a longtime promoter of the arts. During the Renaissance, painters and composers often relied on wealthy patrons or governments to promote their work. Corporate advertising has given artists new means to fund their creative efforts. In addition, many artists and writers have been able to support themselves by working for advertisers. The use of music in commercials, particularly in recent years, has provided musicians with notoriety and income. Indeed, it is hard to imagine the cultural landscape of the United States without advertising.

1 Mierau, 42.

2 Hood, 28–51.

3 Fox, 74–77.

5 Fox, 121–124.

6 Fox, 168.

7 Fox, 173.

8 Fox, 210–215.

9 Frank, 60–67, 159.

10 Fox, 324–325.

11 Klein, 12–22.

12 Fox, 65–66.

13 Hood, 74–75.

14 O’Guinn, Allen, and Semenik, 131–137.

15 Fox, 95–96.

16 Frank, 233–235.

17 Fox, 278–284.

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New York Times, “How MTV Has Rocked Television Commercials,” October 9, 1989, http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/09/business/the-media-business-how-mtv-has-rocked-television-commercials.html .

O’Barr, William M. “A Brief History of Advertising in America,” Advertising & Society Review 6, no. 3 (2005), http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/asr/v006/6.3unit02.html .

O’Guinn, Thomas, Chris Allen, and Richard Semenik, Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2009), 133.

Rodnitzky, Jerome. Feminist Phoenix: The Rise and Fall of a Feminist Counterculture (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999), 114–115.

Samuel, Lawrence. Brought to You By: Postwar Television Advertising and the American Dream (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2001), 88–94.

Schneider, Keith. “Guides on Environmental Ad Claims,” New York Times , July 29, 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/29/business/guides-on-environmental-ad-claims.html .

Shields, Mike. “Pitching Self-Regulation,” Adweek , February 15, 2010.

Stansky, Tanner. “14 Milestones in TV Product Placement,” Entertainment Weekly , July 28, 2008, http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20215225,00.html .

Sterling, Bruce. “More Newspaper Calamity,” Wired , March 15, 2010, http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2010/03/more-newspaper-calamity/ .

Time, “The Press: Advertising v. New Deal,” September 1, 1941, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,850703,00.html .

Vance, Jennifer. “Extra, Extra, Read All About It!” Penny Press , http://iml.jou.efl.edu/projects/Spring04/vance/pennypress.html .

Media Communication, Convergence and Literacy Copyright © by Enyonam Osei-Hwere and Patrick Osei-Hwere is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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A Brief History of Advertising in America

ADText: Advertising Curriculum Unit 2: A Brief History of Advertising in America

Long before America was colonized, commerce flourished in the Old World where various methods were used to promote trade. Notice boards placed outside houses indicated what could be had within. Wine sellers gave free samples in the streets. And actors paraded in the streets attempting to entice onlookers into theatres. The idea of commerce is very old indeed, and the means of inducing others into exchange relationships was not far behind in its development.

Once transplanted, advertising eventually flourished in the United States to rival other countries in prevalence and economic importance. Although some forms — radio and television commercials and Internet advertising, for example — are uniquely American, the history of advertising must begin in Europe.

This unit surveys key moments in the development of modern American advertising practice. It focuses on two key themes: the development of advertising techniques, and the story encoded in advertisements about the society that produced them.

This history of advertising technique chronicles the movement from face-to-face selling messages to the stilted, repetitive, printed advertisements of early newspapers to the dynamism of mass communication by radio and television to the re-personalization of messages via cable, Internet, and direct mail. It is a story of sellers struggling to find the best means to attract buyers, and a parallel story of the public’s reception, resistance, amusement, and annoyance.

The social history preserved in advertisements is like an archaeological record. It is not a simple, faithful chronology of society but an assortment of bits and pieces on which the passage of social life is inscribed. By their very nature, advertisements are fleeting and ephemeral. Once they serve their intended purpose, they are typically discarded and quickly replaced. But some ads survive, preserved in old newspapers and magazines, on wire and tape recordings, and in kinescopes and videotapes. These preserved advertisements can be studied in the present for what they reveal about our collective past. From them, we learn not only about the techniques of past advertising but also about the society that produced them and the lives of the people who wrote, read, and heard their messages.

1. European Precedents

We begin our story in the 1600s. Like the present, it was an age of globalization. A world that had seemed very grand and unknowable was being made smaller through exploration and discovery in the Elizabethan age. Sailing ships in unprecedented numbers set out from London to distant ports around the world — a conquest that would eventually lead to the development of the British Empire. At its height, British colonies around the world would form an empire on which, it would be said, the sun never set. This expansion included colonies in the New World that would later become the United States of America.

Continue reading Unit 2 >> Revised 2010

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HISTORY OF ADVERTISING

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Essay on world history of advertising (2382 words).

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Essay on World History of Advertising!

In ancient times the most common form of advertising was by word of mouth. The archaeologists have found Babylonian clay tablet dated 3000 BC having inscription of a shoemaker, a scribe and an ointment dealer. Commercial messages and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii, where little shops used to have inscriptions on walls near the entrance to inform the pedestrians about the products to be purchased.

Egyptians used papyrus to create sales messages and wall posters. Such one document found in the ruins of Thebes bears announcements offering rewards for the return of fugitive slaves. In Greece and Rome, lost-and-found advertising on papyrus was common. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is manifestation of ancient outdoor advertising form, which, is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America.

For instance, the tradition of wall paintings can be traced back to Indian rock-art paintings that goes back to 4000 BC. Phoenicians used to pain commercial messages on prominent rocks along the frequently travelled trade routes. The other mode of advertising was town crying that was used in Greece and India, where town criers were paid to go around town spreading news and making announcements in the streets.

As printing developed in the 15th and 16th century especially after the invention of movable type by Johann Gutenberg in 1438 AD, advertising flourished. The first known print advertisement in English appeared nearly 40 years after this inventions in the form of handbill of rules for the guidance of clergy at Easter released by William Caxton of London. In about 1525, one ad eulogising the virtues of mysterious drug printed on a circulated sheet appeared in German news pamphlets.

This was followed by a rapid spurt in the growth of newspapers the first of which in English came out in 1622 named Weekly News of London. The first advertisement appeared in an English newspaper in 1625. The first ad in America appeared in 1704 in Boston Newsletter offering a reward for the capture of a thief. In the 17th century, weekly newspapers called ‘mercuries’ started to be published in England, which used to feature many advertisements most of which were in the form of announcements made by the importers of products new to England like coffee in 1652, chocolate in 1657 and tea in the next year.

The other print ads were used mainly to promote books (which became increasingly affordable thanks to the printing press) and medicines (which were increasingly sought after as disease ravaged Europe). However, false advertising and so-called “quack” ads became a problem, which ushered in regulation of advertising content.

As the economy was expanding during the 19th century, the need for advertising grew at the same pace. In the United States, classified ads became popular, filling pages of newspapers with small print messages promoting all kinds of goods. The success of this advertising format led to the growth of mail-order advertising such as the Sears Catalog, at one time referred to as the “Farmer’s Bible”.

In 1843 Volney Palmer established the first advertising agency in Philadelphia, who worked as an agent for around 1400 newspapers. He only used to sell space to advertisers and did not provide any creative or account planning services to clients. But by the 20th century, agencies started to take over responsibility for the content also in addition to being just brokers for ad space in newspapers.

The Early years of Advertising in America:

1. 1843 – Volney B. Palmer opens the first American advertising agency, in Philadelphia.

2. 1852 – First advertisement for Smith Brother’s Cough Candy (drops) appears in a Poughkeepsie, New York paper – the two brothers in the illustration are named “Trade” and “Mark.”

3. 1856 – Mathew Brady advertises his services of “photographs, ambrotypes and daguerreotypes” in the New York Herald paper. His inventive use of type in the ad goes against the newspaper industry standard of all-agate and all same-size type used for advertisements in the papers.

4. 1856 – Robert Bonner is the first to run a full-page ad in a paper, advertising his own literary paper, the New York Ledger.

5. 1861 – There are twenty advertising agencies in New York City.

6. 1864 – William James Carlton begins selling advertising space in newspapers, founding the agency that later became the J. Walter Thompson Company, the oldest American advertising agency in continuous existence.

7. 1865 – George P. Rowell and his friend Horace Dodd open their advertising agency in Boston.

8. 1867 – Lord & Taylor is the first company to use double-column advertising in newspapers.

9. 1869 – N. W. Ayer and Sons advertising agency is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the following year begins advertising its own agency in both general and trade publications.

10. 1869 – E. C. Allan starts the People’s Literary Companion, marking the beginning of the “mailorder” periodical.

11. 1869 – The first advertisement for Sapolio soap is published.

12. 1869 – George P. Rowell issues the first Rowell’s American Newspaper Directory, providing advertisers with information on the estimated circulation of papers and thus helping to standardize value for space in advertising.

13. 1860s – Advertising begins to appear in nationally distributed monthly magazines.

14. 1870 – 5,091 newspapers are in circulation, compared to 715 in 1830.

15. 1872 – Montgomery Ward begins mail order business with the issue of its first catalog.

16. 1879 – John Wanamaker places the first whole-page newspaper advertisement by an American department store.

17. 1870s – Charles E. Hires begins advertising Hires Root Beer in the Philadelphia Ledger, expanding over the next two decades into national magazines.

18. 1870s – $1 million dollars is spent annually advertising Lydia Pinkham’s Pink Pills.

19. 1870s – Louis Prang, a lithographer and printer, develops the idea of mass-producing small “trade cards” that could be adapted to the needs of individual advertisers at low cost. Thread companies, such as Clark’s O.N.T., are among the first to begin nationwide distribution of advertising trade cards.

20. 1870s – In response to the high volume of outdoor advertising (including posters and signs painted on rocks, buildings and barns) in cities and rural areas, several states begin to impose limitations to protect natural scenery from sign painters.

21. 1880 – John Wanamaker hires John E. Powers, who brings a fresh style to advertising – an honest, direct and fresh appeal emphasizing the style, elegance, comfort and luxury of products. Powers is later called “the father of honest advertising.”

22. 1886 – Sears, Roebuck & Company begins mail-order business.

23. 1880s – Illustrated trade cards reach the height of their popularity, not only with advertisers but also with the American public, which becomes remarkably interested in collecting them.

24. 1890 – J. Walter Thompson Company’s billings total over one million dollars.

25. 1891 – The precursor organization to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA) is created under the name Associated Bill Posters Association of United States and Canada. OAAA is not used as the organizational name until 1925.

26. 1891 – Batten and Co. advertising agency is founded by George Batten in New York, merging with another agency in 1928 to form Batten, Barton, Durstine and Osborne (BBDO).

27. 1891 – Nathan Fowler, in Advertising Age, recommends that because women make most of the purchasing decisions of their household, manufacturers would do well to direct their advertising messages to them.

28. 1900 – 1920

29. 1902 – Packard begins use of the long-lasting slogan “Ask the man who owns one.”

30. 1902 – Unilever hires the J. Walter Thompson Company for advertising Lifebuoy Soap and later Lux and other products in America. Unilever is still with J. Walter Thompson and represents the oldest client relationship in the advertising industry.

31. 1904 – Cigarette coupons are first used as a draw for a new chain of tobacco stores.

32. 1914 – The first full-length feature comedy motion picture, Tillie’s Punctured Romance, stars Marie Dresser, Mabel Normand, and newcomer Charlie Chaplin.

33. 1917 – A massive advertising campaign for Lucky Strike tobacco gets underway, employing the slogan “It’s Toasted.”

34. 1917 – The American Association of Advertising Agencies is formed.

The 1960s saw advertising transform into a modern, more scientific approach in which creativity was allowed to shine, producing unexpected messages that made advertisements more tempting to consumers’ eyes. The Volkswagen ad campaign featuring such headlines as “Think Small” and “Lemon” ushered in the era of modern advertising by promoting a “position” or “unique selling proposition’ designed to associate each brand with a specific idea in the reader or viewer’s mind.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV. Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of advertising: the consumer tunes in for the advertisement, rather than it being a byproduct or afterthought. As cable (and later satellite) television became increasingly prevalent, “specialty” channels began to emerge, and eventually entire channels, such as QVC and Home Shopping Network and Shop TV, devoted to advertising merchandise, where again the consumer tuned in for the ads.

Marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and led to the “dot-com” boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising revenue, offering everything from coupons to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st century, the search engine Google revolutionized online advertising by emphasizing contextually relevant, unobtrusive ads intended to help, rather than inundate, users. This has led to a plethora of similar efforts and an increasing trend of interactive advertising.

The share of advertising spending relative to total economic output (GDP) has changed little across large changes in media. For example, in the U.S. in 1925, the main advertising media were newspapers, magazines, signs on streetcars, and outdoor posters. Advertising spending as a share of U.S. GDP was about 2.6% in 1925. By 1998, television and radio had become major advertising media. Nonetheless, advertising spending as a share of GDP was slightly lower — about 2.4%.

A recent advertising innovation is “guerrilla promotions”, which involve unusual approaches such as staged encounters in public places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with brand messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer can respond to become part of the advertising message. This reflects an increasing trend of interactive and “embedded” ads, such as via product placement, having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social networking sites such as MySpace and Orkut.

An early advertising success story is that of Pears Soap. Thomas Barratt married into the famous soap making family and realised that they needed to be more aggressive about pushing their products if they were to survive. He launched the series of ads featuring cherubic children which firmly welded the brand to the values it still holds today, he took images considered as “fine art” and used them to connote his brand’s quality, purity (ie untainted by commercialism) and simplicity (cherubic children). He is often referred to as the father of modern advertising.

However, it was not until the emergence of advertising agencies in the latter part of the nineteenth century that advertising became a fully-fledged institution, with its own ways of working, and with its own creative values. These agencies were a response to an increasingly crowded marketplace, where manufacturers were realising that promotion of their products was vital if they were to survive. They sold themselves as experts in communication to their clients – who were then left to get on with the business of manufacturing.

World War 1 saw some important advances in advertising as governments on all sides used ads as propaganda. The British used advertising as propaganda to convince its own citizens to fight, and also to persuade the Americans to join. No less a political commentator than Hitler concluded (in Mein Kampf) that Germany lost the war because it lost the propaganda battle: he did not make the same mistake when it was his turn. One of the other consequences of World War I was the increased mechanisation of industry – and hence increased costs which had to be paid for somehow: hence the desire to create need in the consumer which begins to dominate advertising from the 1920s onward.

Advertising quickly took advantage of the new mass media of the first part of the twentieth century, using cinema, and to a much greater extent, radio, to transmit commercial messages. You can listen to some early radio advertising here (RealPlayer req’d). This was beginning to show signs of working effectively in the 1920s but the Wall St crash put an end to widespread affluence, and the Great Depression and World War Two meant that it was not really until the 1950s that consumers had enough disposable income to really respond to the need creation message of advertisers.

The 1950s not only brought postwar affluence to the average citizen but whole new glut of material goods for which need had to be created. Not least of these was the television set. In America it quickly became the hottest consumer property – no home could be without one. And where the sets went, the advertisers followed, spilling fantasies about better living through buying across the hearthrug in millions of American homes.

The UK and Europe, with government controlled broadcasting, were a decade or so behind America in allowing commercial TV stations to take to the air, and still have tighter controls on sponsorship and the amount of editorial control advertisers can have in a programme. This is the result of some notable scandals in the US, where sponsors interfered in the content and outcome of quiz shows in order to make their product seem, by association, sexier.

Unhappy with the ethical compromise of the single-sponsor show, NBC executive Sylvester Weaver came up with the idea of selling not whole shows to advertisers, but separate, small blocks of broadcast time. Several different advertisers could buy time within one show, and therefore the content of the show would move out of the control of a single advertiser – rather like a print magazine. This became known as the magazine concept, or participation advertising, as it allowed a whole variety of advertisers to access.

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Advertising & Society Review

Volume 6, Issue 3, 2005
Advertising Educational Foundation

Additional Information

A Brief History of Advertising in America
William M. O’Barr (bio)

[ Editor’s Note: This article is a part of ADText . A revised version of this article is available here .]

An English Ad Promoting Migration to America, 1609 [ Source ]

FYI: Wire recording (dating from the late 1800s) preceded the audio tape recorder (which became available around 1950) as a way to record speech and music. The kinescope was the first used in 1947 to record TV programs. Videotape came on the scene as a practical replacement for the kinescope in the late 1950s.

1. European Precedents

FYI: Globalization has a very long history — ever since people began crossing boundaries and making connections across long distances.

FYI: British imperialism changed the world forever politically, economically, and culturally. Mercantilism was the most important motivating force in its early stages.

A careful reading of the text provides a window on 17th-century advertising techniques and tells a story about the social life and cultural beliefs of the England into which coffee was introduced. The ad explains what coffee is, how it grows, and

Fig. 2. An Early Handbill Introducing Coffee to Londoners, 1657 []

An Early Handbill Introducing Coffee to Londoners, 1657 [ Source ]

The Grain or Berry called Coffee, groweth upon little Trees, only in the Deserts of Arabia. It is brought from thence.. .

...and drunk generally throughout all the Grand Seigniors Dominions .

The ad explains that the upper classes (the grand seigniors , or lords) drink coffee. Endorsement by high-status consumers is also often used in contemporary advertising, but celebrities rather than feudal lords are held up as models to emulate.

It is a simple innocent thing, composed into a Drink, by being dryed in an Oven, and ground to Powder, and boiled up with Spring water, and about half a pint of it to be drunk, fasting an hour before, and not Eating an hour after, and to be taken as hot as possibly can be endured; the which will never fetch the skin off the mouth, or raise any Blisters by reason of that Heat .

A Recent Brazilian Commercial for Nescafé Coffee [ Source ]

Click to view video

The Turks’ drink at meals and other times, is usually Water, and their Dyet consists much of Fruit and the Crudities whereof are very much corrected by this Drink.... It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally drunk, that they are not trobled with the Stone, Gout, Dropsie, or Scurvey, and that their Skins are exceeding clear and white .

The quality of this Drink is cold and Dry.. . It neither heats nor inflames.. . It closeth the Orifice of the Stomack and fortifies the heat.. . It’s very good to help digestion.. . It’s of great use about 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon, as well as in the morning.. . It quickens the Spirits.. . It makes the heart Lightsome.. . It is good against sore Eys (better if you hold your Head over it and take in the Steem that way).. . It supplieth Fumes exceedingly, and therefore good against the Head-ach.. . It will very much stop any Defluxion of Rheums.. . It will prevent and help Consumption and the Cough of the Lungs.. . It is excellent to prevent and cure the Dropsy, Gout, and Scurvy.. .

It is known by experience to be better then any other Drying Drink for People in years, or Children that have any running humors upon them...It is very good to prevent Mis-carryings in Child-bearing Women.. .

And finally the claims return to the general.

It is a most excellent Remedy against the Spleen, Hypocondriack, Winds, or the like . It will prevent Drowsiness, and make one fit for busines, if one have occasion to Watch, and therefore you are not to Drink it after supper, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will hinder sleep 3 or 4 hours .

Modern readers might be skeptical about many of these claims, but the warning about the stimulating effects of coffee works well today. “Drink it to stay awake, and don’t drink it if you want to sleep.” And finally, the ad includes a brief warning about the (few) things coffee cannot do as well as a notice as to where it can be found.

It is neither Laxative nor Restringent. Made and Sold in St. Michael’s Alley in Cornhill, by Pasqua Rosee, at the Signe of his own Head .

2. Colonial America

FYI: Following the story of a commodity like salt , sugar , coffee , or cod is a way to learn about society, culture, politics, and the economy.

A key figure in colonial American advertising was none other than Benjamin Franklin. As publisher of The Philadelphia Gazette and Poor Richard’s Almanac , he changed advertising style by including simple illustrations (for example, a woodcut of a sailing ship or a spinning wheel) to accompany the words in ads. He

Fig. 4. A Simple Woodcut Like This Illustrated Some American Ads in the Late 1700s []

A Simple Woodcut Like This Illustrated Some American Ads in the Late 1700s [ Source ]

began also to provide more details about benefits and uses than many of the ads that preceded him. He promoted his own famous stove in this way:

Fireplaces with small openings cause drafts or cold air to rush in at every crevice, and ‘tis very uncomfortable as well as dangerous to sit against any such crevice.... Women, particularly, from this cause (as they sit much in the house) get colds in the head, rheums, and defluxions which fall into their jaws and gums, and have destroyed early, many a fine set of teeth in these northern colonies. Great and bright fires do also very much contribute to damaging the eyes, dry and shrivel the skin, bring on early the appearance of old age . 1

Ads that appeared in Franklin’s newspaper, the Philadelphia Gazette , give a virtual description of life in Pre-Revolutionary America. All of the following appeared on a single page on 1735:

Fig. 5. A Page of Advertisements from Franklin’s Philadelphia Gazette, 1735 []

A Page of Advertisements from Franklin’s Philadelphia Gazette, 1735 [ Source ]

ODRAN DUPUY, next Door to the Bell in Arch-street, on Monday Feb. 10 opened a FRENCH SCHOOL. Where whoever enclines to learn the French Language, may be taught it on reasonable Terms. His Wife also teaches young Ladies Needle Work .

A SERVANT Man’s Time for 3 Years and Four Months, to be disposed of. He is a likely hearty young Fellow. Enquire of the Printer hereof .

Antigua Rum, St. Kits Mellasses, Chocolate, Cotton, Ginger and Pepper, and sundry other Sorts of Goods Sold by wholesale or Retail, by William Graham, at the House where Henry Hodge lately dwelt .

FYI: The term triangular trade stands for the complex trading patterns that involved the British Isles, West Africa, the Caribbean, and the American colonies from the 18th century until slavery was abolished.

RUN away on the 11th Day of November past, from Rees Pritchard of Whiteland, Chester County, an Irish Servant Man, named Lawrence Keron, aged about 22 years, a well set man, freckled Complexion and mark’d with the Small Pox, fancy curl’d Hair, brownish Cloth Coat, Buttons of the same, and Breeches of the same Cloth; Cotton and Linnen Shirt, blue and white mixt Yarn Stockings, footed with dark-coloured Yarn a good deal above the Shoe; an old Felt Hat, with a Piece cut out of the Brim, and cock’d up so as to hide it, wooden heel’d Shoes, and a Pair of old Shoes that have been mended and cover’d. Whoever takes up and secures the above mentioned Servant, so that his Master may have him again, shall have Forty Shillings Reward.. .

A reward is offered in this ad for a run-away Irish indentured servant. The ad not only describes the man in terms of physical characteristics and age but also details at length the clothes he was wearing — the colors of his shirt, pants, socks down to the tear in the brim of his hat. Although odd by contemporary standards, describing people in terms of their clothes was common in a society where clothes were hand-made, hard to come by, and worn over and over again. As today, clothes help identify a person, but in an economy of mass production and widely available consumer goods such a description would apply perhaps only to the day the man ran away.

Just imported, another Parcel of SUPER FINE CROWN SOAP. It cleanses Fine Linens, Muslins, Laces Chinces, Cambricks, etc. with Ease and Expedition, which often suffer more from the long and hard Rubbing of the Washer, through the ill Qualities of the soap they use than the wearing

FYI: Benjamin Franklin’s The Philadelphia Gazette was the most successful newspaper in the American Colonies and his Poor Richard’s Almanac is the source of “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

READY MONEY for old RAGS may be had of the Printer hereof .

FYI: Early American society was multilingual and multicultural.

3. The Age of the Newspaper

FYI: It was the New York Herald that reported Henry Morton Stanley’s words as “ Dr. Livingstone, I presume? ” when he encountered the missionary-explorer David Livingstone on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1871.

Bennett also understood the entertainment value of personal want ads for his readers. Lacking radio and TV and having only a few magazines, a newspaper would have been savored and mused over. Personal ads in particular delighted readers who were yet to be weary from media bombardment and advertising clutter. Ads like these appeared in the pages of the New York Herald :

Dear Charles — Should such a trifle as a handy hat-brush sever true love? Come home to your ruffled LuLu . Wanted — A situation as son-in-law in a respectable family. Blood and breeding no object, being already supplied; capital essential. No objection to going a short distance into the country .

Although many forms of mass media compete for our attention today, the personals continue to intrigue readers. Here are some that appeared more recently in New York Magazine :

Shrimps In My Cocktail Only Please — Need tall, leggy, lovely who can wear heels with ease and handle herself in the same manner. Travel in the US and abroad, theater, great food and just plain fun in the offing. Economy fares not in my itinerary; good education and a sense of humor a must. I am 6’5", 55, and looking for a relationship with a little solemnity and no strings . This Man Can Bark — But he’s no dog. Well-trained, smart, good-looking, athletic Jewish male, 31, seeks Jewish female, 26–30, with intelligence, wit, spontaneity and good looks. I’m 5’9” on my hind legs, 155 lbs, brown hair, blue eyes. Send papers and photo .

And these ones appeared in a recent Valentine’s Day edition of a college newspaper:

Chip, chip, chipper! Have a Happy Valentine’s Day, Giraffe Woman and a blast in Florida. Just don’t lose anything I wouldn’t (especially panties). — Your “Little Brother.” To my only BOO: Thanks for five wonderfully “warm and gooey” months! I hope this Valentine’s Day is the first of many we’ll share! You are the most amazing male! YUM!!! Molly — Cupid’s arrow pierced my heart , Friday night our romance will start , On your toes I’ll try not to tread , You’ve really turned this country boy’s head . Randy

Bennett understood the human interest appeal that such ads could have. By requiring ads to conform to a uniform style and without illustrations, he capitalized on the news value of single insertions. It was not long, however, before such techniques as iteration, unusual layout, and manipulating white space were used by advertisers to get around the restrictions. The mid-1800s was indeed the age of the newspaper but it was also the age of the newspaper advertisement — the most effective and cost efficient method of advertising the world had known.

Fig. 6. A Page of Advertisements from Bennett’s New York Herald, 1835 []

A Page of Advertisements from Bennett’s New York Herald, 1835 [ Source ]

4. Meanwhile in the Small Towns

Fig. 7. A Traveling Salesman and His Audience in 19th-Century America []

A Traveling Salesman and His Audience in 19th-Century America [ Source ]

Professor” Harold Hill Makes His Pitch in Song to the People of River City in The Music Man, 1962 [ Source ]

5. P. T. Barnum and the Age of Excess

FYI: The Fiji (or Feejee) Mermaid fascinated the American public in the pre-Darwinian age as did the duck-billed platypus and flying fish — all strange creatures that seemingly crossed nature’s usual lines of demarcation.

Fig. 9. A Sideshow Banner for the Fiji Mermaid []

A Sideshow Banner for the Fiji Mermaid [ Source ]

6. Advertising Agents Come on the Scene

Fig. 10. N. W. Ayer and J. Walter Thompson Founded Two of the Earliest American Advertising Agencies []

N. W. Ayer and J. Walter Thompson Founded Two of the Earliest American Advertising Agencies [ Source ]

Fig. 11. N. W. Ayer and J. Walter Thompson Founded Two of the Earliest American Advertising Agencies []

7. The Birth of the Slogan

Fig. 12. Kodak: “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest” []

Kodak: “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest” [ Source ]

Fig. 13. Ivory: “99 and 44/100 % Pure” []

Ivory: “99 and 44/100 % Pure” [ Source ]

Fig. 14. In Its Time (1869–1905) Sapolio Was Perhaps as Well Known as Any Product on the Market []

In Its Time (1869–1905) Sapolio Was Perhaps as Well Known as Any Product on the Market [ Source ]

8. The Emergence of Brands

Strong Imagery and Constant Public Attention Built the Uneeda Brand [ Source ]

Fig. 16. Pears’ Romantic Imagery Contrasted Strongly with Ivory’s “Scientific” Claims []

Pears’ Romantic Imagery Contrasted Strongly with Ivory’s “Scientific” Claims [ Source ]

9. The Origins of the Consumer Movement

In The Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation (1961), James Harvey Young describes some of the devious and notorious methods used to promote patent medicines.

A pitchman who battled against catarrh planted one of the company in his audiences to step up when an appeal was made to test the potency of the salve on sale. “My friend, have you catarrh?” the doctor would inquire. “Yes, sir,” the shill replied in a snuffly voice. “Please put a small application of this salve in each nostril,” the doctor directed. The shill did as he was bade. Finally the pitchman handed the sufferer a spotless handkerchief. “Now blow your nose hard,” he said. The noise could be heard hundreds of feet away. What the audience did not know as they were shown the revolting result was that the doctor’s anonymous assistant had earlier stuffed a nostril with stiff custard (McNeal 1947: 118–19, quoted in Young 1961:197). 5

By the turn of the 20th century, the public had grown increasingly weary of such promotion techniques. In 1905, Collier’s magazine began publishing a series of essays

Fig. 17. Patent Medicines Made Extravagant, Mostly Unregulated Claims in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries []

Patent Medicines Made Extravagant, Mostly Unregulated Claims in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries [ Source ]

entitled, “The Great American Fraud.” These essays captured the spirit of consumer discontent.

Gullible America will spend this year some seventy-five millions of dollars in the purchase of patent medicines. In consideration of this sum it will swallow huge quantities of alcohol, an appalling amount of opiates and narcotics, a wide assortment of varied drugs ranging from powerful and dangerous heart depressants to insidious liver stimulants; and, far in excess of all other ingredients, undiluted fraud. For fraud, exploited by the skilfulest of advertising bunco men, is the basis of the trade. Should the newspapers, the magazines, and the medical journals refuse their pages to this class of advertisements, the patent medicine business in five years would be as scandalously historic as the South Sea Bubble, and the nation would be the richer not only in lives and money, but in drunkards and drug-fiends saved (Samuel Hopkins Adams, 1905:14, quoted in Young 1961:219). 6

FYI: Adbusters.com and No Logo.org are activist organizations with anti-consumerist goals.

10. Advertising to Women

Fig. 18. Ads Speaking Directly to Women Proposed Labor Saving Devices as Well as What To Do with the Extra Time []

Ads Speaking Directly to Women Proposed Labor Saving Devices as Well as What To Do with the Extra Time [ Source ]

11. Broadcasting Advertisements

FYI: Although Marconi received the Nobel Prize, there is controversy as to who actually invented radio.

Your browser does not support the audio tag.

Listen to Hands Across the Table from Lux Radio Theatre, May 3, 1937 [ Source ]

Click to hear audio

12. Depression and War

Advertising had to figure out its role in a wartime economy where a great deal of industrial production was redirected to produce war materiel instead of consumer goods. Advertising adapted in important ways — first, by supporting and promoting the war

Fig. 20. “Lucky Strike Green Has Gone To War” []

“Lucky Strike Green Has Gone To War” [ Source ]

Fig. 21. “There’s a Ford in Your Future” []

“There’s a Ford in Your Future” [ Source ]

The Kid in Upper 4 [ Source ]

13. Television and Commercials

FYI: The Museum of Radio and Television in New York City and Beverly Hills, California, and The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago are repositories of television history. Some old programs are also available on the Internet through commercial sites.

A National Commercial from the 1950s with High Production Values [ Source ]

A Local Commercial from the 1950s [ Source ]

14. Advertising Globally

Fig. 25. An Ad for the Spanish-Language Department of J. Walter Thompson (Early 20th Century) []

An Ad for the Spanish-Language Department of J. Walter Thompson (Early 20th Century) [ Source ]

Fig. 26. The Spanish-Language Department Operating out of New York City []

The Spanish-Language Department Operating out of New York City [ Source ]

The Coca-Cola Logo Is Instantly Recognized in Most Parts of the World [ Source ]

15. Commercializing Cyberspace

Fig. 28. Internet Advertising Targets Individual Consumers Based on Their Surfing Patterns []

Internet Advertising Targets Individual Consumers Based on Their Surfing Patterns [ Source ]

Fig. 29. This Woman Sold the Space on Her Forehead as a Billboard. (The Web Address Is a Permanent Tattoo.) []

This Woman Sold the Space on Her Forehead as a Billboard. (The Web Address Is a Permanent Tattoo.) [ Source ]

PDF Downloads: Para instruciones en Español, toque ahi 对于西班牙，触摸指示操作 Spanish Audio Translations Chinese Audio Translations

William M. O’Barr is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University where he has taught since 1969. He holds secondary appointments in the Departments of Sociology and English. He has been a visiting professor at Northwestern, Dalhousie, and Oxford Universities. He has been recognized for his outstanding undergraduate teaching by both the Duke University Alumni Association and Trinity College (Duke University). His course, Advertising and Society: Global Perspectives , is one of Duke’s most popular undergraduate courses. His many seminar courses include Advertising and Masculinity, Children and Advertising , and The Language of Advertising .

He is author or co-author of ten books, including Culture and the Ad: Exploring Otherness in the World of Advertising, Rules versus Relationships , and Just Words: Law, Language and Power . He has conducted anthropological research in East Africa, Japan, and the United States. In addition to his interest in social and cultural aspects of advertising, Professor O’Barr has researched law in a variety of cultural settings.

In 2000, he founded Advertising & Society Review and served as editor from 2000 to 2005. He is author of Advertising and Society: An Online Curriculum which will consist of 20 units published as supplements to AS&R .

1. Quoted in Fleming, Thomas. “How it was in advertising: 1776–1976,” How It Was in Advertising . Chicago: Crain Books, 1976, p. 6.

2. Fleming, p. 5–8.

3. Spears, Timothy B. "`All Things to All Men’: The Commercial Traveler and the Rise of Modern Salesmanship,” American Quarterly , Vol. 45 (December 1993), p. 524–557.

4. Lears, Jackson. “The Birth of Irony,” New Republic , Vol. 225 (Nov. 2001), p. 45–50.

5. Young, James Harvey. Toadstool Millionaires: A Social History of Patent Medicines in America before Federal Regulation . Princeton: Princeton Univ. Pr., 1961, p. 197. http://www.quackwatch.org/13Hx/TM/00.html

6. Young, p. 219.

7. Packard, Vance. The Hidden Persuaders . New York: D. McKay Co., 1954.

8. Ewen, Stuart. Captains of Consciousness . New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.

9. Zyman, Sergio. The End of Advertising As We Know It . Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2002.

Media Credits

Fig. 1. Presbrey, Frank. The History and Development of Advertising . Doubleday, New York: Doran & Co., 1929. p. 114.

Fig. 2. Presbrey, p. 49.

Fig. 3. Courtesy of McCann-Erickson, São Paulo, Brazil.

Fig. 4. Presbrey, p.147.

Fig. 5. Presbrey, p.134.

Fig. 6. Presbrey, p.199.

Fig. 7. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~livcomo/breckweb/patmed.html

Fig. 9. http://www.empiremuseum.com/images/fijibanner.jpg

Fig. 10. Presbrey, plates between p. 618–619.

Fig. 11. Presbrey, plates between p. 618–619.

Fig. 12. Courtesy of Eastman Kodak Company.

Fig. 13. Ivory Soap Advertising Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution.

Fig. 14. Watkins, Julian. The 100 Greatest Advertisements: Who Wrote Them and What They Did . New York: Moore Publishing Co., 1949. p. 12.

Fig. 15. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/INCORP/food/kitchen/uneeda.html

Fig. 16. Puck , Feb 15, 1888, p. 384.

Fig. 17. Printers’ Ink, Sept. 12, 1900, p. 20

Fig. 18. Ladies’ Home Journal, Jan. 1926, p. 137.

Fig. 19. Courtesy and Copyright Classicradiogallery.com . Audio from http://www.oldetimeradio.com

Fig. 20. Courtesy Burnt Offerings, http://www.wclynx.com/burntofferings/

Fig. 21. Courtesy of The Ford Motor Company, Fifty Years of Better Ideas: Ford Advertising . 1993 /JWT/Duke.

Fig. 22. Watkins, p. 148.

Fig. 23. Local Baltimore Programming Vol. 1, http://www.kinevideo.net/

Fig. 24. Local Baltimore Programming Vol. 1, http://www.kinevideo.net/

Fig. 25. The Thompson Blue Book on Advertising. 1905 /JWT, Publications/Duke.

Fig. 26. Where Good Advertising Is the Constant Product. 1906 /JWT, Publications/Duke.

Fig. 27. Coca-Cola is a registered trademark of The Coca-Cola Company.

Fig. 28. Courtesy Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Inc.

Fig. 29. AP/Wide World Photos.

What Is Advertising?

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The History of Music in Advertising

Music plays a significant role in advertising when it comes to getting the consumer’s attention. Music is used for television, radio, and Internet advertisements. Music can enhance the expression, mood, situation, or character of the ad. It’s especially effective for TV commercials and radio advertisements. They can go from creative jingles to popular music from world famous artists today. Based on the timeline of music and advertising, entertainment was first used in advertising during the late 19th century .

Businesses wanted to use a source of entertainment to advertise their company so they reached out to movie theaters and amusement parks to advertise to people. Department stores would hire acrobats and circus clowns to entertain people. These were the beginning of entertainment used with advertisement. The De Long Hook and Eye Co. Created the first Jingle in 1891. The Jingle was called “See that hump” and it was a very catchy rhyme that made people sing it over and over. Jingles then became a fad during the first few years of the sass. In 1908, the Oldsmobile Car Company created their own Jingle called “In My Merry Oldsmobile. Johnny Marks wrote the Jingle and it significantly helped advertise and promote Oldsmobile cars. McAllen and Porringer) The idea for Jingles was a great creative advertising technique because the rhyme and repetition of the Jingle stuck to consumer’s head. According to Brooke and Whitley, who researched music and radio advertising, music has the capability of affecting consumers’ behavior and their feelings about the advertisement. Music doesn’t always have a positive affect on consumers because the music can distract the consumer from paying attention to the advertisement.

It’s important for businesses to know how to choose the right song or Jingle that will blend well with the advertisement. That way the consumer will be drawn to the ad and know the significance of the product with the help of the music. (Brooke and Whitley) The sass was a time when they wanted to bring the radio to all American consumers. However, a magazine company called Printer’s Ink was against radio taking over entertainment for consumers. There was competition between magazines, newspapers, and radios during that time. Advertisers came up with an idea of naming bands and shows after products.

For instance: ” A&P Gypsies, Lucky Strike Orchestra, Vicki Pap-o-rub Quartet, and Palmolive Soap” (McAllen and Porringer). The first radio Jingle took place in Minnesota during Christmas Eve, 1926. It was a General Mills cereal advertisement and the Jingle was called “Have You Tried Whites? ” An chapel group called “The Whites Quartet” performed this Jingle. Before the Jingle played on the local radio, the company of General Mills was going to stop selling the cereal and go out of business. What was supposed to be their last advertisement, they created a Jingle about the cereal for the holidays.

They played the Jingle on the radio and within days they noticed that their brand was becoming popular throughout Minnesota. Then, they released this Jingle nationally and the sales sky rocketed up. As a result, Whites is sold all throughout the U. S. Today after 80 years with the great help of their Jingle. (Faulkner) During the sass, advertisers found country music to be a popular genre that would get people’s attention. Many The History of Music in Advertising By masterstroke jingles made for products are: “Alkali-Seltzer, Black Draught (laxative), Wine of Card (for “women’s complaints”)” (McAllen and Porringer).

Great opportunities were open for country musicians because radio stations were looking for them to play on the audio. Many companies hired musicians and their role was to create and play Jingles about their products. Some musicians that were hired during the sass were Bob Willis and his fiddle trio. Their Job was to create Jingles to advertise Light Crust Flour on JEFF radio in Fort Worth, Texas. Radio Jingles soon became so popular that radio stations started deceiving people by saying these popular artists were playing live on the radio when they only pretended and played the recording.

It was a scam that the FCC had to stop. “The FCC required the station to identify recorded redcoats” (McAllen and Porringer). Therefore, it will stop radio stations to make false statements of artists playing live in their station. (McAllen and Porringer) Many artists started becoming popular and building a reputation for themselves playing for advertisements on radios. A record label called IBM wanted to have these musicians Join their label. In the sass, when CAPS turned down any musician, IBM would take them and help present their music to the public.

The first Jingle that was played on network radio was “Pepsi-Cola Hits the Spot. ” Although that was a popular iris Jingle on network radio, the most popular Jingle during that time was the Aquatic Banana Jingle. This Jingle was played at an unbelievable amount of 376 times a day. There were even a few different versions of the Jingle since it was so popular. (McAllen and Porringer). A few decades later, The Beetles played a huge role for advertising companies. They were the biggest rock band in the United States during the sass and many companies wanted to harness their popularity for advertising.

These were some of the most important artists that created music/Jingles in advertisement. Music can do six important things to a consumer and according to David Huron, it can be used for “1) entertainment, 2) structure/continuity, 3) memorabilia, 4) lyrical language, 5) targeting, and 6) authority establishment” (Huron). Music that was used as entertainment has an objective to create interest to the targeted consumers. There needs to be structure with the music in the advertisement. This goes especially for TV and Internet advertisements because the music has to be in sync with the visual image of the ad.

The advertiser must decide how to display the ad whether the USIA is the most important part of the ad or Just the background. These things will determine the strength of the ad and the consumers decide what they make of it. Reflecting back on how Jingles causes consumers to sing over the tune, music can have an impact that can make the ad memorable. Some examples of memorable ads that occurred this century were: the Coca-Cola ad of “I’d like to Buy a World a Coke,” McDonald’s “Sausage McMullen” Jingle, and Peasants Toothpaste Jingle. These are classic ads with memorable Jingles that consumers may remember to this day.

The yards of a song or a Jingle are very important in an ad because it can have an impacting message that will have the consumers’ attention. This can have the consumer repeating that message to others without even having the ad visibly in front of you. In the article, Huron states “national brand advertisers tend to favor poetic appeals over logical appeals” (Huron). The reason for this is that music fits the product, most of the time, is weaker than a message that it poetic. The music can help amplify these lyrics with emotion or setting.

The targeting aspect of music in advertisements is that advertisers have to find a Jingle that fits with the targeted consumer. This is based on what type of music different age groups like and what is appropriate to play in the ad. This requires research that the advertising team must consider very seriously. For instance, there is music that kids like in a toy commercial and music that must properly fit in a commercial about a retirement home. Music is indeed very important for ads on television and radio. It’s a great way to draw consumer’s attention and feelings on an ad.

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Early Advertising

Nineteenth-Century Roots of Modern Advertising

P. T. Barnum and Advertising

Advertising Gains Stature During the 20th Century

The Great Depression and Backlash

The Creative Revolution

The Rise of Digital Media

Types of Advertising

Newspapers and Magazines

Digital Media

Government Regulation of Advertising

The Formation of the FTC

Truth in Advertising

Advertising’s Influence on Culture

Advertising and the Rise of Consumer Culture

Creating the Modern World

Advertising Stereotypes

Advertising to Children

Positive Effects of Advertising

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Additional Information

1. European Precedents

2. Colonial America

3. The Age of the Newspaper

4. Meanwhile in the Small Towns

5. P. T. Barnum and the Age of Excess

6. Advertising Agents Come on the Scene

7. The Birth of the Slogan

8. The Emergence of Brands

9. The Origins of the Consumer Movement

10. Advertising to Women

11. Broadcasting Advertisements

12. Depression and War

13. Television and Commercials

14. Advertising Globally

15. Commercializing Cyberspace

Media Credits

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