Lecture 2

History of Advertising
 Advertising – to gather together, to persuade people about something
 Advertising has existed before the industrial revolution
According to Singer advertising is…
 A key element in economic history as well as our social, technological, artistic and cultural histories… and perhaps one of the keys to the understanding of the evolution of our complex urban society For exams you don’t need to know date but you need centuries/periods etc.
Preliterate period (3000-400 BC)
 Pre writing and reading period – advertising will be very different than is does now
 Literacy levels were low, people couldn’t read and write – so communicated with symbols
 1200 BC: painted on carved messages on rocks and stones leading down paths to harbor (ship was coming in, stuff available to obtain)  Fijians o Came up with the alphabet as a consistent form o Centered around biblical ideologies o When societies became literate – usually taught religious stuff  only select people were taught literacy (high up people, nobility) (school comes from the word leisure, only rich people had leisure time – thought it was a foolish endeavor to teach poor because they were not smart enough) th  6 century BC: town criers  most common form of advertising throughout history is oral advertising or the town crier (bellmen) o What they do is go around and be very loud voices, men always, ringing bell, delivering some kind of message, dressed in a certain way so attention was drawn to them – established their position in society, sometimes carry sign board with a message people could understand
 Advantages of town crier
 He can go where the people were – get the message across to a lot of people
 Persuasive voice with dynamic personality
 Disadvantages of town crier
 Expensive – you have to hire this guy
 He might be grouchy
 He might be a transient character (not reliable) – if it’s rainy, he wont be able to advertise o This is the fist state sanctioned form of advertising – as a legitimate form of advertising
Classical period 400BC-100 AD
 Oral media continues to dominate – some people becoming literate
 Different forms of street advertising (we still have this: signs, billboards) o We don’t have products to sell o Most of the advertising is for important events or services
 If I were a boot maker – tell people you made boots (have an iconic indicator on the sign – have a picture of a boot on sign) – not advertising the product! But the service \ o Advertising on public walls o Religious festivals, public baths
 Personal ‘classified’ advertising

o You could have some sort of advertisement stating that your wife had run away – husband owned wife so she was not allowed to do that, if your slave ran away, if you had a room to let, if you had wine for sale
Middle ages (100 AD-1400 AD)
 Still have the town crier
 Most significant part: British government created trademarks
 British had trademarks to protect buyers (general public) o Identified faulty products and stuff – rules and legislation how products are produced – they are safe and are what they say they are
Late middle ages (1400-1600)
 Advertising became a part of the North American experience before settlers arrived
 Brochures, pamphlets and fliers o Don’t have printing yet, cant produce a whole lot o Prepare brochures to attract settlers to come oversees (to America) – had to convince
Europeans to come  sort of advertising campaign (England 17th century – 1600’s) o Quickly the brochures became known, full of lies, over truths, overstatements
 Alongside some facts brochures contained info that was not true about North America
 Mass false advertising experience came part of the North American experience before they even got to North American
 Ex) but I tell you they looked like mountain in the travel brochure! (Really pyramids)
 The town crier was still popular
 Streets advertising still popular
 More commercial announcements now
 The most significant: key to civilization  printing press invented (1450 Gutenberg – goldsmith by profession but developed printing system – was invented 400 years earlier by Chinese man but did not pick up) o We could not have civilization without printing – why? Because prior to this we only had oral tradition – info gets distorted or lost – now that we have printing, we can put something down and add to it (increase knowledge) o For the first time we could distribute information widely o At first it was not efficient and tedious o Rapid movable type in large quantities – this if profitable for advertising
 Production if posters and increase in literacy o First poster in 1480 was used as a rule book for priest, following that many more posters were produced o Many of the first advertisements were for books (after gatherings and services)
Early mass media period (1600-1900)
 1850 – industrial revolution in England
 Carry around posters more often – can go to where the people are
 Periodicals – the new advertising medium o A publication that is produced at regular intervals (daily newspaper, monthly magazine, yearly high school yearbook) – made possible through advances in printing o Periodicals were a new place to advertise
 1st known newspaper ad – book about plants in Germany
 Universities now existed – few people able to go though  ads for universities
 Ads for zoos, religious groups

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Ads for products that people haven’t seen before (coming from the Orient)
Abundance of health ads – second half of 17th century (cures and remedies) o Government got involved because outrageous claims were being made about different meds o Legislation made so that advertisers has to substantiate their claims o The health jolting chair – made all these great claims, but all it was is a chair with a bunch of springs and levers that did nothing o People started having a voice – buyer beware
Classified and personal ads o Help wanted, lost or stolen items, job ads
Literacy starting to flourish
In Canada in 1753 o 1st newspaper ad in the Halifax Gazette o Ads for a grocer, a job printer and a tutor o Start to see urbanization o During this period – huge growth in the scale and pervasiveness of advertising media

20th century mass media (1900-1920)
 By 1911 there were 43 cities in Canada that had more than one newspapers – Toronto had 6 o In a very short period of time newspapers started to flourish and so did advertising
 The great transition o Better, faster printing – printing becoming industrialized – could not print thousands of pages every hour, also better quality o Color and photographs, lifelike images, advertising more attractive
 Professionalization – advertising becomes and industry o Attempts to establish codes of ethics, regulation boards o In the early 1900’s federal government tried to outlaw outrageous claims, broadband advertising, they tried to professionalize advertising o 1st Canadian journal – first academic journal  see advertising becoming an industry
 Age of social insecurities o Advertisements for things we never were concerned with (body odor, bad breath etc.) o Advertising playing a role in our human consciousness (people become insecure if we don’t do what advertisers tell us to do)
 Advertising and the war o Selling bonds (savings plan that you put money in and it could support the war effort) o Recruiting men into the armed forces o Targeting women in advertisements because men are gone at war
 To go and work in factories
Beginning of electronic advertising (1920’s-1980’s)
 Start to see the ways that advertising amplified, guides part of our general social environment like it does today
 Advertisers get involved – advertising is our most prominent story teller
 Television (1940’s, 50’s) colored television in the 1960’s o Real people using the product, talking to you, famous people o Couldn’t target advertising like we can now, but you have the masses watching television o Start to see differences in social class o Television massively transformed society – becoming more consumer-istic, want more stuff, not satisfied

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More products available, must convince people to buy them
Advertising
o Created the ‘consumer’ – shopping becomes a leisure activity
Scientific advertising o John B Watson – using psychological tactics to make ads more effective
 Convince people to buy things
 Behavioral scientist
 Try and understand how to tap into what people are thinking – focus groups
 Can use MRI’s – see brain light up in certain areas depending on how your feeling and your responses to advertisements
 Look at children (5 year olds respond to one shape, but that shape in your ads) o By 1920 – businesses using market research firms to better target their target market
Improved media technology o Created realism – using celebrities in advertising (diminishing in effectiveness today)
 Someone talking to you
 Televising could match the social impact of the printing press in its popularity
 Became an advertisers dream because you can reach millions of people at the same time – captive audience
Considered the ‘Television age’ o By 1980  99% of households have a TV

Information age (society) (1980 and on…)
 Successor to our industrial society
 Creation, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information if what out society is about o Economic, political, cultural activity
 Information technology (IT) o Use IT in the most creative, productive way you can
 Knowledge has become the principle force of production over the last few decade – Lyotard
 Digital/computer age – instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult to obtain in the past o Variety of different ways of getting our message across o New technology can target people individually
Three eras in advertising
1. Production oriented era
a. Demand exceeded supply (1800’s getting into the 1900’s)
b. Ford was producing their first cars – demand succeeded the supply – so no need to advertise
(products sold as soon as they’re made) – cars only came in black
c. Production expanded – bigger factories, other producers came along (now we need to promote our product)
d. About production, not promotion
2. Sales oriented era
a. Supply exceeded demand
b. Colors of cars, different shapes and sizes
c. Promote your product, buy yours not competitors product
d. Buyer beware – not a lot of protection – manufacturers produced & convinced you to buy
i. Decline in American automotive industry – foreign companies coming in

1. Foreign companies wanted to know what the consumers wanted, they didn’t just make and sell
3. Marketing oriented era
a. Find out what the consumers want
b. We are in the era today
c. Supply completely exceeded demand
d. Need to find out what people want before making the product
e. Still have to promote product, but not in a way that you had to promote when consumer wants keen on the product
f. Cars more about what people wanted then they promote
3 approached in advertising
1. Hard-sell approach (1940’s – 1950’s)
a. Best way to get people to buy stuff is to come up with one characteristic about a product
b. Unique selling proposition
c. Bullying, hustling consumers – playing on their fears
d. Repetitive about one feature that will get peoples attention best
e. Rosser Reeves – didn’t think we could handle more than one fact
2. Position approach (1960s)
a. Compare one product to another (coke vs. pepsi market share competition)
b. Convince people to buy your product vs. a competitors that is quite equal
c. Strategy still used today – try to make your brand occupy a distinct position amongst other brands d. Parity product – not much difference between the products themselves
i. Ex) soda, beer ii. How to get people to buy these parity products – must say something about this brand that will make people buy the product
e. This approach appears to be more innocent and simple
3. Soft sell approach
a. Don’t talk about the product at all
b. Depends less on the function of the product – but how it makes you feel
c. Very persuasive, indirect and sophisticated
d. This type of advertising you see more often than not
e. Ex) extra commercial with origami, Budweiser drinking buddy with dog – don’t drink and drive f. Tugs at heart strings – manipulated to buy product based on emotions you feel