Advertisement

Although advertising as an academic discipline is fairly recent, the practice of advertising has existed for thousands of years. The oldest piece of a documented advertisement is a three thousand-year-old Egyptian papyrus, in which a business owner offers a reward in exchange for the return of an escaped slave. Other forms of advertisement have survived from ancient Greek and Roman civilization as well. The invention of the printing press and the appearance of newspapers brought about a revolution in the practice of advertising. In the mid-nineteenth century the first advertising company, Societé Générale des Annonces, opened in Paris. The invention of cinema, radio, television, and the Internet have only expanded the reach and forms of advertisement, so that many experts argue that it is impossible to live free from the impact of advertising in all aspects of modern society.

Brief History

Advertising has long served a variety of social uses, the most fundamental of which is to inform. In ancient civilizations, such as the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Greek, rulers produced messages on wood or clay tablets as public announcements to inform of war victories or new laws. Romans produced different forms of advertisements, such as albo, acta publica, and libelli, which were public announcements on documents and billboards. They were large wood planks with information or papyri posted on to the walls. These methods not only disseminated official news but also commercial information—property for rent or slaves for sale—as well as invitations to public events and even lost-and-found information.

In medieval times, public announcements were produced by way of printmaking; they were carved on wood plaques and then stamped upon parchment paper in a system known as xylography. These were mostly produced by authorities, such as the Church and nobility, in order to announce holidays, weddings, indulgences, new laws, tax collections, and other information of public interest. During this era, urban centers began to grow rapidly, creating more commercial opportunity and, in consequence, a greater need for advertisements. However, although capable of producing serial announcements faster than handwriting could, printmaking remained a handcrafted and artisanal production.

Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1436, with its mobile, reusable type, making it possible to produce printed pages at a faster rate than ever before. Gutenberg began to exploit his press commercially in the mid-1400s, revolutionizing the fields of publishing and, in consequence, that of publicity or advertising.

By the nineteenth century, newspapers were numerous and widespread, and editors became pressed to find new ways to economize on printing production because of escalating costs and competition. In 1711, The Spectator experimented with selling advertising in order to reduce costs. This became the standard revenue model for periodicals, in which advertising subsidizes printing. In turn, this model was adapted to television.

Overview

The history of modern advertising is loosely divided into four periods, spanning the years of 1870–1900; 1901–1950; 1951–1980; and post-1980s. In the late 1800s, advertising was mainly geared to creating a presence among the public; that is, ensuring people remembered the name of the product or business. Through the first half of the twentieth century, however, the idea of persuasion gradually developed, and companies began to use textual, scientific, and psychological strategies to sell product and create a loyal customer base. By the second half of the second century, the prevalence of radio and television made it a more technological field. Postwar prosperity, consumerism, and planned obsolescence created a new phase in capitalist culture. The era saw the expansion of big advertising agencies and the rise of commercial art—the art form especially geared towards producing advertisements—as graphic art.

After the 1980s, the public was becoming too jaded towards conventional advertising practices, and advertising evolved to a focus on placement and branding, as well as profiling and segmenting their publics in order to better sell them products, services, or ideas. By the twenty-first century, highly specialized boutique advertising agencies began to make significant inroads in the market.

Experts often speak about the impossibility of avoiding the prevalence of advertising—as well as its repercussions—in most aspects of daily life, public or private. A content analysis on British trade journals published in 1941 found that over 50 percent of many industrial or trade publications were dedicated to advertising. The percentage in trade and popular magazines, according to some experts, has grown closer to 70 percent of a publication, depending upon the season. Publications such as the September edition of Vogue, for example, carry close to 80 percent of its content in advertising. Less iconic magazines carry about 40 percent in traditional ads in their regular editions.

Added to those numbers is the fact that writers and editors often engage in soft-selling by way of opining about a product, place, or even a behavior. Advertising may be printed as a seemingly objective newspaper or magazine article providing information about a product—called advertorials—a similar yet subtler sell than the infomercials aired by televised media. Television has been described as a steady stream of commercials periodically interrupted by programming. With the ubiquity of product placement strategies, audiences are subjected to subtle forms of advertising even while they watch films or programs. Product placement is the practice of embedding products, brands, and logos within the content of a film or show.

Old forms of advertisement continue, such as posting and distributing flyers. Direct advertising, distributed by mail using catalogs and postcards, is now also disseminated by electronic mail, text messages, internet displays, and other technologically enhanced media capable of tracking users’ preferences and behaviors.

Studies show that approximately 35 percent of print magazine readers have taken action as a result of an advertisement. These actions vary, and may include purchasing a product or service, visiting its physical site or its website, commenting on it, or joining an advertiser’s digital community or fan page. Advertising is significantly more effective in impacting the outlook and behaviors of people than ever before.

Bibliography

Andrews, Marc, Matthijs van Leeuwen, and Rich van Baaren. Hidden Persuasion: 33 Psychological Influence Techniques in Advertising. Amsterdam: BIS, 2014. Print.

Chantry, Art. Art Chantry Speaks: A Heretic’s History of 20th Century Graphic Design. Port Townsend: Feral, 2015. Print.

Moog, Carol. Are They Selling Her Lips? Advertising and Identity. New York: Morrow, 1990. Print.

Ogilvy, David. Ogilvy on Advertising. New York: Vintage, 2013. Print.

Pincas, Stephane. A History of Advertising. Cologne: Taschen, 2008. Print.

Postrel, Virginia. The Power of Glamour: Longing and the Art of Visual Persuasion. New York: Simon, 2013. Print.

Ritson, Mark, and Richard Elliott. "The Social Uses of Advertising." Journal of Consumer Research 26.3 (1999): 260–277. Print.

Ross, Michael L. Designing Fictions: Literature Confronts Advertising. Quebec: McGill Queens UP, 2015. Print.

Sivulka, Julian. Soap, Sex and Cigarettes: A Cultural History of American Advertising. Boston: Cengage, 2011. Print.

Williamson, E. ¨The Uses of Advertisement." The Spectator. 18 September 1941. 13. Print.