CHAPTER II HISTORY OF ADVERTISING

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- AN OVERVIEW

This chapter is devoted to give an overview of the history of advertising in general, in lndia and in Kerala. Section I of this chapter makes a brief review of the history of advertising in general. Section II gives a resume' of the history of advertising in lndia while Section Ill gives a brief account of the history of advertising in Kerala.

SECTION - I ORIGIN OF ADVERTISING The origins of advertising lie thousands of years in the past. One of

the first known methods of advertising was an outdoor display, usually an eyecatching 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 travellers to a tavern situated in another town. As much as some three thousand years ago Papyrus sheets were used in Thebes in Egypt for announcing the reward for return of runaway slaves .The first advertisement was somewhat in the form of stenciled inscriptions. which were found on earthen bricks prepared by the Babylonians
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about three thousand years before Christ. The bricks carry the name of the temple in which they were used and the name of the king who built it, just as a modern public building which contains a corner stone or stone tablet with the names of officials in office when the structure was erected. The method was to cut a stencil in hand stone and with it each brick was stamped while the clay had been in its son stage. The kings who did this had advertised themselves to their subjects which could be read in hieroglyphics" . In medieval times a simple but effective form of advertising was
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