The history of advertising

THE HISTORY OF ADVERTISING

Advertising, collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services. Advertising is a form of mass selling employed when the use of direct, person-to-person selling is impractical, impossible, or simply inefficient. It is to be distinguished from other activities intended to persuade the public, such as propaganda, publicity, and public relations. Advertising techniques range in complexity from the publishing of simple, straightforward notices in the classified advertisement columns of newspapers to the concerted use of newspapers, magazines, television, radio, direct mail, and other communications media in the course of a single advertising campaign.

The origins of advertising lie thousands of years in the past. One of the first known methods of advertising was the outdoor display, usually an eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building. Archaeologists have uncovered many such signs, notably in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii. An outdoor advertisement excavated in Rome offers property for rent, and one found painted on a wall in Pompeii calls the attention of travelers to a tavern situated in another town.

In medieval times word-of-mouth praise of products gave rise to a simple but effective form of advertising, the use of so-called town criers. The criers were citizens who read public notices aloud and were also employed by merchants to shout the praises of their wares. Although graphic forms of advertising appeared early in history, printed advertising made little headway until the invention of the printing press. The trademark, a two- or three-dimensional design symbolizing a company or industry, dates from about the 16th century, when trades people and guild members posted characteristic symbols outside their shops. Among the best-known trademarks surviving from early modern times are the striped pole of the barber and the three-ball sign of the pawnbroker.

In terms of both volume and technique, advertising made its greatest early advances in the United States. In the early stages of American advertising nationwide promotion was impractical because the nation itself was underdeveloped and lacked transcontinental transport, distribution, and communications systems. Eventually, however, certain types of manufacturers conceived the idea of bypassing wholesalers and retailers and reaching the consumer through direct advertising, mainly by means of catalogues. The pioneers in this field were seed companies and book and pamphlet publishers. Mail-order houses appeared on the scene as early as the 1870s. To the present day they have continued to expand their businesses through direct-mail catalogue and flyer advertising, although some of the biggest houses also sell through retail outlets. Nowadays, advances in advertising are international.

Patent-medicine companies loomed large in British newspaper and magazine advertising from the mid-19th century. They found a ready market because doctors and reliable chemists were scarce outside the populated areas. The patent-medicine bottles made a gross profit of between 80 and 90 per cent and could therefore well afford to spend money publicizing their remedies. Railways and steamship lines were also among the early users of advertising in the United States, not only to praise the luxury and comfort of their modes of travel but also to publish their schedules and rates.

Late in the 19th century many firms began to market packaged goods under brand names. This development initiated a new era in the history of advertising. Previously, such everyday household products as sugar, soap, rice, molasses, butter, milk, lard, beans, confectionery, candles, and pickles had been sold in neighborhood shops from bulk packages. As a result, consumers had seldom been aware of, or influenced by, brand names.

In Britain and the United States, the soap-makers were early advertisers of packaged and branded products. The first "household name" soap brands, which date from about 1880, include Ivory, Pears', and Colgate. Soon afterwards such brands as Royal Baking Powder, Quaker Oats, and Waterman's Pens were nationally advertised. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century Americans began to be aware of such brand names as Wrigley and Coca-Cola.

After World War I, advertising developed into a business so big that it became almost a trademark of the United States itself in the eyes of the world. This expansion was stimulated by many technical improvements, and the expanding American industry inspired innovations and improved techniques that benefited other facets of business in the nation.

The invention of electricity led to the illuminated outdoor poster; photoengraving and other modern printing inventions helped both the editorial and advertising departments of printed journals. Advertising was used increasingly by public-relations specialists as an important means of communication. In the United States, the advent of radio in the 1920s stimulated a whole new technique of selling by voice, but commercial radio was not to begin in Britain until the 1970s.

Commercial television advertising began in Britain in 1955. Of concern in the 1990s is the proliferation of videocassette recorders (VCRs) and television remote controls. The use of VCRs is felt to be a threat to advertisers because some viewers edit out commercials when recording or speed past them when viewing a taped show, while the remote control allows viewers to switch channels or cut sound when faced with an advertisement. Advertisers are countering by changing their tactics or switching, where possible, to program sponsorship. The proliferation of the Internet and other international on-line computer networks has also compensated by opening a whole new medium for advertising.