The History of Advertising

Important Terms Trademark – a symbol or word legally registered or established by use as representing a company or product. Symbol: ® or ™ Brand – a symbol or name that that distinguishes a product from other products that may be similar. Example: Kleenex (brand) facial tissues (product)

Promotion – A short term “deal” or sale of a product aimed to increase interest and business for that product. Example: coupons, s, flyers, in-store sales, etc. Slogan – Phrase created to identify and sell the product, often very catchy. Logo – Brand name or graphic that uses the product name and represents the product Example:

Timeline 1704 – First advertisement published in a newspaper in Long Island – Ben Franklin publishes advertisement pages in Philadelphia newspaper 1742 – Ben Franklin publishes first magazine ads

1843 – First advertising agency opens in Philadelphia – Ad agencies are increasing in size and working for clients such as Singer sewing machines and Pond’s beauty cream – Procter & Gamble Co. begin marketing Ivory soap with an extremely large budget of $11,000 First electric sign in Times Square is lit

1893 – Coca-Cola is registered as a trademark 1906 – W.K. Kellogg places ads for Corn Flakes in 6 newspapers, spending $1 million on national advertising 1911 – Woodbury soap launches a campaign reading “A skin you love to touch”, making the ad the first to use sex appeal.

1922 – Real Estate company buys first radio commercial (15 spots for $50 a piece) on WEAF radio in New York 1926 – Radio Corp. of America buys WEAF and renames it WNBC, creating NBC with 19 radio stations 1927 – CBS is established, second major radio network

1929 – Stock markets crash and advertising spending drops due to the depression 1936 – Life magazine publishes first issue 1938 – Radio ads become more popular than magazine ads False advertising is declared “unlawful” 1941 – First TV commercial is for Bulova watches

1956 – Videotape recording technology makes TV commercials possible 1963 – Pepsi and Coca Cola start the “Cola Wars” 1964 – Many magazines ban smoking ads 1970 – First infomercial for real estate in San Diego

1993 – Internet becomes available with 5 million users worldwide 1999 – Internet advertising breaks $2 million

Advertising Agencies Important Terms: Copywriting – writing text for the purpose of advertising, meant to influence the audience to buy the product being advertised. Example: taglines, jingles, TV commercial scripts, billboards, etc.

Account – Refers to the business relationship between the agency and the company (client) Art – Create art for the advertisements. Traditionally for print ads, but they also work with the copywriters to write commercial (TV/radio) scripts.

Advertising Strategies Facts and Statistics Advertisers use numbers, statistics and real examples to show how good their product works. For e.g. “Lizol floor cleaner cleans 99.99% germs” or “Colgate is recommended by 70% of the dentists of the world” Weasel Words In this technique, the advertisers don’t say that they are the best from the rest, but don’t also deny. E.g. Sunsilk Hairfall Solution - reduces hairfall. The ad doesn’t say stops hairfall

Celebrity Advertisers use celebrities to advertise their products. The celebrities endorse the product by telling their own experiences with the product. When Mike Rowe recommends Ford cars or when Jessica Simpson says she uses Proactive, these are examples of celebrity endorsements.

Ideal Family and Ideal Kids The advertisers using this technique show the families or kids using their product are a happy family. The ad always has a neat and well furnished home, well mannered kids and the family is a simple and sweet kind of family. E.g. a soap ad shows everyone in the family using that soap and so is always protected from germs. They might compare this family to another one that does not use that brand of soap

Complementing the Customers Here, the advertisers used punch lines which complement the consumers who buy their products. E.g. Revlon says “Because you are worth it.” Omission The advertisers here just play with words by saying that their product works better but don’t answer how much more than the competitor. For e.g. Lays - no one can eat just one or Horlicks - more nutrition daily. The ads don’t say who can eat more or how much more nutrition.

Put Downs With this strategy, one brand will attempt to make itself look better by putting down or insulting a competing brand. An example of this is the war between Coca- Cola and Pepsi, where both brands are often seen insulting the other in their commercials.

Characters Characters can be used in advertising in many different ways, but can be effectively used by being honest and creating a character the audience will like. For example, the Geico commercials including the gecko are a hit with many audiences because they are cute, honest and funny, giving the audience a good feeling about the gecko, and Geico too.

Emotional An emotional ad may make the audience sad, or may remind them of a memory or happy time in their life. The audience will respond emotionally to the ad, either feeling happy and sentimental, or sad and sympathetic. An example of a sad ad includes some of the drunk driving ads where children are hit by cars or innocent people die from a drunk driver.