Hystory Of Advertising

How it all began

A form of Advertising existed in Ancient Rome (posters)

An early advertising success story is that of Pears Soap (father of modern advertising)

The first advertisements, however, which fit our full definition of advertising (ie paid for, occupying space in a media form) appear in newspapers in the seventeenth century.

These tended to be straightforward statements of fact, without any fancy typesetting or illustrations, and were often indistinguishable from the news stories around them

…and continued…

The nineteenth century saw the skills of the advertiser come to the forefront, as ads began to mix images and words, and adopt the techniques of language and layout that we are familiar with today

Most of the advertising agencies that dominate the global markets today were founded in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

…and began to grow…

During the early part of the 20 century, governments began to recognize the power of advertising to get their message across to their 'consumers' (ie their citizens)

Many of these ads use techniques of psychological manipulation which now seem to us crude and unfair, deliberately setting out to frighten the target audience, or shame them into following instructions