The History of Advertising A General Overview

Advertising has not always been as glamorous as it seems to be in this day of mass media in America. The most reliable source of advertising in the old days (before print) was word of mouth. The town crier was the source of most information, and this was one of the early ways that people advertised. Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.2

In 1704, the first newspaper ad was published. It was an announcement about a house for sale in the Boston Newsletter. 3Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1729, our forefather Benjamin Franklin began the advertising tradition in America. His Philadelphia Gazette had a full page of advertisements. 4Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Ben Franklin also started magazine advertising in 1749 with his General Magazine. The first successful newspaper (after our founding as a nation) was in 1784, also in Pennsylvania. It was even called the Advertiser! 5Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

1833 – New York Sun The first successful “penny newspaper” founded by Benjamin Day. Revolutionized distribution by selling lots of 100 to boys to sell on the street By 1837, circulation reached 30,000! 6Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

The first Advertising Agency opened in Believe it or not, it was also in Philadelphia! A man named Volney Palmer was the first true ad agency man. He was in charge of brokering space for advertising more than for the actual creation of the ads. 7Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1873, there was a convention of advertising agents in New York. A few years later, James Walter Thompson created the position of “account executive” for himself and went into the business of general magazine advertising. This was the beginning of creative advertising in this country. 8Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

1880 – First full-time retail advertising copywriter In 1880, department store founder John Wanamaker became the first retailer to hire a full-time advertising copywriter, John E. Powers who is also considered as the father of modern creative advertising. 9Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1882, Proctor and Gamble became the first “big budget” client with $11,000 to spend on advertisements. Selling soap was big business in America! 10Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1893, Coca-Cola had the first registered trademark. The company bookkeeper came up with the original first mark for the brand. His name: Frank Robinson. 11Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1900, N.W. Ayer started a “Business Getting” Department in their agency. This department was based on the marketing needs of their clients. Marketing in America now had a name. “Business Getting” was what it was all about. 12Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1906, the first million dollar advertising client was born. The W.K. Kellogg company broke that million dollar barrier to promote its cereal products. 13Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1916, outdoor billboard ads came mostly under the control of a group of representatives from many different agencies that formed a new entity. The National Outdoor Advertising Bureau controlled about 75% of all outdoor ads placed at this time. 14Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

The first sponsored radio show was the “Eveready Hour” in In 1924, Goodrich Tires also sponsored a program, and the age of radio advertising was then fully in bloom. 15Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

1929 – Stock Market Crashes Advertising revenue plummets. From a high of $3.5 billion, it reaches only $1.5 billion by Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Life Magazine begins its life in Life publishes over $100 million dollars in ads and is the most financially successful magazine the country has ever seen, primarily due to ad revenues. 17Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Radio surpasses magazines as the dominant form of advertising in This is the year “War of the Worlds” was on the radio, making America fear alien attack. 18Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

1941: Television’s first broadcast ad! A Bulova watch ticked for 60 seconds while 7500 televisions in New York were tuned in to see it… the thrill of watching a watch. 19Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

By 1954, CBS was the largest advertising medium in the world. Color came into the picture, and the world was set on its ear. Everyone had to have a color television! 20Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1967, Mary Wells became the first woman to head a major advertising agency. In the heat of the Women’s Movement, we soon were to see the impact of a woman having a great deal of influence on the direction advertising was taking in America. 21Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1971, Congress banned cigarette advertising via broadcast media. Advertising in general felt the bruises from the restraint, and re- channeled all of the ads into magazines and billboards. 22Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

MTV debuts in A new, frenetically paced style of television advertising tries to emulate the music videos that youth was quickly coming to expect. 23Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

1993 brings the Internet to over 5 million people worldwide and changes the way ads are delivered yet again. Ads pop up, pop under, and become a general nuisance to most computer users. Special software programs are written to help eliminate unwanted ads from the computer screen. 24Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

In 1999, an old favorite name, Proctor and Gamble, moved to standardize all internet advertising. This occurs as billings for internet advertising near the $3 Billion mark. 25Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

With the new millennium, advertising product placement has become quite common Next time you buy a movie ticket or tune in to a commercial television program, watch for your favorite stars wearing a Rolex, swigging a Pepsi, driving an Audi, or munching on Doritos. 26Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Other new topics Niche marketing Usage tracking Customer profiles Social networking sites Crowdsourcing Doritos commercial for 2007 Super Bowl Virtual placement – most commonly at sporting events and on electronic billboards 27Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.

Where did all of this start? Most modern advertising can essentially trace its roots to the invention of the Gutenberg printing press with moveable type back in The rest of it is almost a natural evolutionary process. With new inventions come new ways to advertise. So the next time you sit down with that paper, realize that it was print advertising that revolutionized the way things are done. 28Copyright © Texas Education Agency, All rights reserved.