History Of Advertising
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The history of advertising can be traced to ancient civilizations. It became a major force in capitalist economies in the mid-19th century, based primarily on
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
s and
magazines A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
. In the 20th century, advertising grew rapidly with new technologies such as
direct mail Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia), is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. Th ...
,
radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...
,
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
, the
internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
, and
mobile devices A mobile device or handheld device is a computer small enough to hold and operate in hand. Mobile devices are typically battery-powered and possess a flat-panel display and one or more built-in input devices, such as a touchscreen or keypad. Mod ...
. Between 1919 and 2007 advertising averaged 2.2 percent of
Gross Domestic Product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performanc ...
in the United States.


Pre-modern history

Egyptians used
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...
to make sales messages and wall posters. Commercial messages and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of
Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...
and
Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...
.
Lost and found A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property, lost articles th ...
advertising on papyrus was common in
Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
and
Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...
. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient advertising form, which is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. The tradition of wall painting can be traced back to Indian
rock art In archaeology, rock arts are human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type al ...
paintings that date back to 4000 BCE.Bhatia (2000). ''Advertising in Rural India: Language, Marketing Communication, and Consumerism'', 62, 68 In ancient China, the earliest advertising known was oral, as recorded in the
Classic of Poetry The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...
(11th to 7th centuries BCE) of bamboo flutes played to sell candy. Advertisement usually takes in the form of calligraphic signboards and inked papers. A copper printing plate dated back to the
Song dynasty The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
used to print posters in the form of a square sheet of paper with a rabbit logo with "
Jinan Jinan is the capital of the province of Shandong in East China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is one of the largest cities in Shandong in terms of population. The area of present-day Jinan has played an important role in the history of ...
Liu's Fine Needle Shop" and "We buy high quality steel rods and make fine quality needles, to be ready for use at home in no time" written above and below. It is considered the world's earliest identified printed advertising medium. In Europe, as the towns and cities of the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
began to grow, and the general populace was unable to read, instead of signs that read "cobbler", "miller", "tailor", or "blacksmith" would use an image associated with their trade such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a horseshoe, a candle or even a bag of flour. Fruits and vegetables were sold in the city square from the backs of carts and wagons and their proprietors used street callers (
town crier A town crier, also called a bellman, is an officer of a royal court or public authority who makes public pronouncements as required. Duties and functions The town crier was used to make public announcements in the streets. Criers often dre ...
s) to announce their whereabouts for the convenience of the customers. The first compilation of such advertisements was gathered in ''Les Crieries de Paris'' ( Street Criers of Paris), a thirteenth-century poem by Guillaume de la Villeneuve. Three major forms of advertisement existed during the pre-printing period (before the 15th century); those forms were trademarks (moon, stars, etc.), town criers and sign boards: * Trademarks: The practice of attaching seals or marks to products was widespread in antiquity. Around 4,000 years ago, producers began by attaching simple stone seals to products which, over time, were transformed into clay seals bearing impressed images, often associated with the producer's personal identity. Some of the earliest use of maker's marks, dating to about 1,300 BCE, have been found in India. Another example are the Ulfberth swords from the years around 1,000 AD that had the trademark of the manufacturer inlaid in them. By the medieval period,
hallmark A hallmark is an official Mark (sign), mark or series of marks struck on items made of metal, mostly to certify the content of noble metals—such as platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium. In a more general sense, the term ''Wikti ...
s were applied to high value goods such as precious metals, and assayers were appointed by governments to administer the system and ensure product quality. * Town criers: In ancient towns and cities, where the majority of citizens were illiterate, town-criers were appointed to call out official announcements and general news. Before long, private individuals began to employ public criers to act as auctioneer. At the same time, itinerant hawkers developed a system of
street cries A street is a public thoroughfare in a city, town or village, typically lined with buildings on one or both sides. Streets often include pavements (sidewalks), pedestrian crossings, and sometimes amenities like streetlights or benches. A stre ...
to promote their goods and services. These street cries provided an essential public service before the advent of mass media. *Sign-boards: The use of commercial signage has a very ancient history. Retail signage and promotional signs appear to have developed independently in the East and the West. In antiquity, the ancient Egyptians, Romans and Greeks were known to use signage for shop fronts as well as to announce public events such as market days. China also exhibited a rich history of early retail signage systems. In Medieval Britain and France and much of Europe, innkeepers were compelled to erect a sign-board The practice of using signs spread to other types of commercial establishments throughout the Middle Ages. Sign-boards applied to inns and taverns have survived into contemporary times across Britain and much of Europe.


16th–19th centuries

Modern advertising began to take shape with the advent of newspapers and magazines in the 16th and 17th centuries. The very first weekly
gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers ...
s appeared in Venice in the early 16th-century. From there, the concept of a weekly publication spread to Italy, Germany and Holland. In Britain, the first weeklies appeared in the 1620s, and that country's first daily newspaper, ''
The Daily Courant ''The Daily Courant'', initially published on , was the first British daily newspaper. It was produced by Elizabeth Mallet at her premises next to the King's Arms tavern at Fleet Bridge in London. The newspaper consisted of a single page, wit ...
'', was published from 1702 to 1735. Almost from the outset, newspapers carried advertising which contributed to the cost of printing and distribution. The earliest commercial advertisements promoted books and quack medicines, but by the 1650s, the variety of products being advertised had increased markedly. Advances in printing allowed retailers and manufacturers to print handbills and
trade card A trade card is a small card, similar to a visiting card, formerly distributed to advertise businesses. Larger than modern business cards, they could be rectangular or square, and often featured maps useful for locating a business in the days ...
s. For example, Jonathon Holder, a London haberdasher in the 1670s, gave every customer a printed list of his stock with the prices affixed. At the time, Holder's innovation was seen as a "dangerous practice" and an unnecessary expense for retailers. The earliest trade cards were not cards at all, instead, they were printed on paper and did not include illustrations. By the 18th century, however, they were printed on the more substantial card and typically bore the tradesman's name and address. Before street numbering came into common use, trade cards often included long-winded sets of directions on how to locate the store or premises. With the advent of commercial engraving and lithography, illustrations became a standard feature of even the most humble trade card. Eventually, trade cards evolved into
business card Business cards are card stock, cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, types of co ...
s, which are still in use . In June 1836 the Paris newspaper ''La Presse'' - edited by
Émile de Girardin Émile de Girardin (; 22 June 180227 April 1881) was a French journalist, publisher and politician. He was the most successful and flamboyant French journalist of the era, presenting himself as a promoter of mass education through mass journalism ...
- became the first to rely on paid advertising to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability. This formula was soon copied by the competition. Early print advertisements were used mainly to promote books and newspapers, which became increasingly affordable with advances in the
printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in whi ...
; and medicines, which were increasingly sought after as modern people rejected traditional cures. However,
false advertising False advertising is the act of publishing, transmitting, distributing or otherwise publicly circulating an advertisement containing a false claim, or statement, made intentionally, or recklessly, to promote the sale of property, goods or servi ...
and "
quackery Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or Ignorance, ignorant medicine, medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or public ...
" became common. British newspapers in the 1850s and 1860s appealed to the increasingly affluent middle-class that sought out a variety of new products. The advertisements announced new health remedies as well as fresh foods and beverages. The latest London fashions were featured in the regional press. The availability of repeated advertising permitted manufacturers to develop nationally-known brand-names that had a much stronger appeal than generic products. A leadership position in British advertising was held by Cope Bros & Co tobacco company, founded in Liverpool in 1848 by Thomas and George Cope. Smoking, of course, had been common for centuries, but Cope Bros innovated with brand names, heavy advertising, and
market segmentation In marketing, market segmentation or customer segmentation is the process of dividing a consumer or business market into meaningful sub-groups of current or potential customers (or consumers) known as ''segments''. Its purpose is to identify pr ...
according to class. An innovative appeal was to health consciousness; the ads directed at the middle-class men promised that "smoke not only checks disease but preserves the lungs". A rugged heavy taste was pitched to working men, soldiers and sailors, while "delicately fragrant" was part of the appeal to the upper-class. The packaging was attractive, posters were omnipresent to show that smoking was a normal part of English life; lobbying was used to undercut the anti-tobacco lobby.


Advertising agencies


Great Britain

T F G Coates hailed
Thomas J. Barratt Thomas James Barratt (1841–1914) was an English businessman who was the chairman of the soap manufacturer A. & F. Pears. A pioneer of brand marketing, he has been called "the father of modern advertising".Matt Haig, ''Brand failures: the truth ...
as "the father of modern advertising" in London in 1908.Matt Haig, ''Brand failures: the truth about the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all time'', Kogan Page Publishers, 2005, pp. 219, 266.Nicholas Mirzoeff, ''The visual culture reader'', Routledge, 2002, p. 510. Working for the
Pears Soap Pears Glycerin soap is a British brand of soap first produced and sold in 1807 by Andrew Pears, at a factory just off Oxford Street in London. It was the world's first mass-market translucent soap. Under the stewardship of advertising pioneer T ...
company, Barratt created an effective advertising campaign for the company products, which involved the use of targeted slogans, images and phrases. One of his slogans, "Good morning. Have you used Pears' soap?" was famous in its day and into the 20th century.Eric Partridge, Paul Beale, ''A Dictionary of Catch Phrases: British and American, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day'', Routledge, 1986, p. 164. As an advertising tactic, Barratt associated the Pears brand with high culture and quality. Most famously, he used the painting ''Bubbles'' by
John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest s ...
as an advertisement by adding a bar of Pears soap into the foreground. Barratt continued this theme with a series of adverts of well-groomed middle-class children, associating Pears with domestic comfort and aspirations of high society. Barratt introduced many of the crucial ideas that lie behind successful advertising and these were widely circulated in his day. He constantly stressed the importance of a strong and exclusive brand image for Pears and of emphasizing the product's availability through saturation campaigns. He also understood the importance of constantly reevaluating the market for changing tastes and mores, stating in 1907 that "tastes change, fashions change, and the advertiser has to change with them. An idea that was effective a generation ago would fall flat, stale, and unprofitable if presented to the public today. Not that the idea of today is always better than the older idea, but it is different – it hits the present taste."


United States

In the United States around 1840, Volney B. Palmer set up the first
advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...
in Philadelphia. In 1842 Palmer bought large amounts of space in various newspapers at a discounted rate then resold the space at higher rates to advertisers. The actual ad – the copy, layout, and artwork – was still prepared by the company wishing to advertise; in effect, Palmer operated as a space broker. The situation changed in the late-19th century when the advertising agency of N.W. Ayer & Son was founded in New York. It planned, created, and executed complete advertising campaigns for its customers. It created a number of memorable slogans for organizations such as
De Beers The De Beers Group is a South African–British corporation that specializes in the diamond industry, including mining, exploitation, retail, inscription, grading, trading and industrial diamond manufacturing. The company is active in open-pi ...
,
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
and the U.S. Army. By 1900 the advertising agency had become the focal point of creative planning, and advertising was firmly established as a
profession A profession is a field of Work (human activity), work that has been successfully professionalized. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, professionals, who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are ...
. At first, agencies were brokers for advertisement space in newspapers. N. W. Ayer & Son was the first full-service agency to assume responsibility for advertising content. N.W. Ayer opened in 1869, and was located in Philadelphia. The amount of space available in newspapers grew rapidly. The ''Boston Transcript'' published in 19,000 "agate lines" Of advertising in 1860, 87,000 in 1900, and 237,000 in 1918. In 1893, 104 companies spent over $50,000 each on national advertising; most sold patent medicines, which faded away after the federal food-and-drug legislation of the early 20th century. Seven innovators had emerged in the big time:
Quaker Oats The Quaker Oats Company, known as Quaker, is an American food conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. As Quaker Mill Company, the company was founded in 1877 in Ravenna, Ohio. In 1881, Henry Crowell bought the company and launched a national ad ...
, Armour meat, Cudahy meat, American Tobacco Company, P. Lorillard tobacco, Remington Typewriters, and
Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
soap. By 1914, two thirds of the top advertisers came from just five industries: 14 food producers, 13 in automobiles and tires, nine in soap and cosmetics, and four in tobacco. Agencies were forever breaking up and reforming, especially when one executive would split, taking with him a major client and his team of
copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. Copywriting is aimed at selling products or services. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to incre ...
s.


France

In the late 19th century in France,
Charles-Louis Havas Charles-Louis Havas (; 5 July 1783 – 21 May 1858) was a French writer, translator, and founder of the first news agency Agence Havas (whose descendants are the Agence France-Presse (AFP) and the advertising firm Havas). Family background Hi ...
extended the services of his news agency,
Havas Havas NV () is a French multinational corporation, multinational advertising agency, advertising and public relations company, with its registered office and head office in Puteaux, France. Havas operates in more than 100 countries. The group ...
to include advertisement brokerage, making it the first French group to organize.


Since 1900: Global

Advertising in the developing world was dominated by agencies in the imperial powers, especially from London and Paris. J. Walter Thompson became the first American agency to expand internationally with the opening of J. Walter Thompson London in 1899. It expanded across the globe, becoming one of the first American agencies in Egypt, South Africa and Asia. Much of the pressure to expand came from General Motors, which wanted to export its automobiles worldwide. Ford turned to N.W. Ayer, which began its expansion in Europe and Latin America in the 1930s. The typical policy was to put an American manager in charge, and hire a staff drawn from locals who had a better understanding of the language and the culture. In 1941–42, however, Ayer closed its foreign offices and decided to concentrate on the American market. In 2011, spending on advertising reached $143 billion in the United States and $467 billion worldwide. Today, internationally, the largest ("big four") advertising conglomerates are Interpublic,
Omnicom Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City. Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer r ...
,
Publicis Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, al ...
, and WPP.


Since 1900: United States and Canada

Advertising increased dramatically in the United States after 1870 as industrialization expanded the supply of manufactured products to a very large market. In order to profit from this higher rate of production, industry needed to recruit workers as consumers of factory products. It did so through the invention of mass marketing designed to influence the population's economic behavior on a larger scale. Total advertising volume in the United States grew from about $200 million in 1880 to nearly $3 billion in 1920. In the 1910s and 1920s, many ad men believed that human instincts could be targeted and harnessed – " sublimated" into the desire to purchase commodities.
Edward Bernays Edward Louis Bernays ( ; ; November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". While credited with advancing the profession ...
, a nephew of
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
, promoted the approach making him a pioneer of modern cigarette advertising. Glantz argues, "it was really the tobacco industry, from the beginning, that was at the forefront of the development of modern, innovative, advertising techniques."Stanton Glantz in ''
Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American historical drama, period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on cable network AMC (TV channel), AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, with seven seasons ...
Season 3 Extra – Clearing the Air – The History of Cigarette Advertising'', part 1, min 3:38
In the 1920s, under
Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...
, the American government promoted advertising. Hoover himself delivered an address to the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World in 1925 called 'Advertising Is a Vital Force in Our National Life." In October 1929, the head of the U.S.
Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce (BFDC) was a bureau in the United States Department of Commerce and Labor from 1912-1953 that conducted statistical analysis, promoted trade and industry. Organizational History The BFDC was establishe ...
, Julius Klein, stated "Advertising is the key to world prosperity." This was part of the "unparalleled" collaboration between business and government in the 1920s, according to a 1933 European economic journal. Advertising was a vehicle for
cultural assimilation Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble a society's Dominant culture, majority group or fully adopts the values, behaviors, and beliefs of another group. The melting pot model is based on this ...
, encouraging immigrants to exchange their traditional habits and tastes in favor of a modern American lifestyle. An important tool for influencing immigrant workers was the
American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers The American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers was founded by Louis Nicholas Hammerling in 1908. It served as an intermediary between "respectable national advertisers", and the foreign-language newspapers that profited from publishing adv ...
(AAFLN). The AAFLN was primarily an advertising agency but also gained heavily centralized control over much of the immigrant press.


Canadian media market

In 1900, most Canadian newspapers were local affairs, designed primarily to inform local partisans about the provincial and national political scene. The publishers depended on loyal partisan subscribers, as well as contracts for public printing controlled by the political parties. With the rise of national advertising agencies after 1900, a major transformation was underway. The advertisers wanted them to reach the maximum possible circulation, regardless of partisanship. The result was a series of consolidations yielding much larger, largely nonpartisan newspapers, which depended more heavily on advertising revenue than on subscriptions from loyal party members. By 1900, three-fourths of the revenue of Toronto newspapers came from advertising. About two thirds of the newspapers' editorial pages loyally supported either the Conservative or the Liberal party, while the remainder were more independent. Across the board, the news pages increasingly featured more objectivity and bipartisanship, and the publishers were mostly focused on advertising revenues that were proportionate to overall circulation. A newspaper that appealed only to one party cut its potential audience in half. Simultaneously, the rapid growth of industry in Ontario and Quebec, coupled with the rapid settlement of the prairies, produced a large more affluent newspaper-reading population. The result was a golden age for Canadian newspapers peaking about 1911. Many papers failed during the war era. Advertising agencies in 1915 gained a major advantage with the arrival of the
Audit Bureau of Circulations An Audit Bureau of Circulations is a private organization that provides industry-agreed standards for media brand measurement of print publications and other media outlets in a given country. The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Circulat ...
, which for the first-time provided reliable data on circulation, as opposed to the partisan boasting and exaggeration that had been the norm. the agencies now had a stronger hand in bargaining for lower advertising rates. The 1920s became a time of consolidation, budget-cutting and dropping of traditional party affiliation. By 1930 only 24% of Canada's dailies were partisan, 17% were "independent" partisan, and the majority, 50%, had become fully independent.


Sex and psychology

At the turn of the 20th century, there were few career choices for women in business; however, advertising was one of the few. Since women were responsible for most of the purchasing done in their household, advertisers and agencies recognized the value of women's insight during the creative process. Helen Lansdowne Resor at J. Walter Thompson Agency, was one of the pioneers. In 1911, the Woodbury Soap Company became the first to use images of sexual contact to sell a product. Their ad slogan, created by Helen Lansdowne, claimed that women who used the soap would have "Skin You Love To Touch". Her copy promised the soap would increase the beauty of one's skin; it offered a color print and a week's supply of the soap for 10 cents. The slogan became so popular that Woodbury used it until the 1940s. Albert Lasker said the ad's use of sex appeal made it one of three great landmarks in advertising history. It was ranked 31st on ''Advertising Age's'' list of the top 100 campaigns of the 20th century.


Nudity

In 1936, Woodbury was one of the first companies to use nudity in its advertisements. The ad, known as "The Sun Bath", was photographed by
Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...
and showed a nude woman lying on stairs on her side with her back to the camera. The text advertised that Woodbury Soap was now enriched with "filter sunshine". Many celebrities appeared in advertisements for Woodbury Soap. In international perspective, a 2008 comparison of nudity in advertising in Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States reveals that China and the United States have the most demure ads, while Germany and Thailand exposed more of the female body. There is little variation in male undress.


Psychology

In the early 20th century, psychologists Walter D. Scott and
John B. Watson John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a List of psychological schools, psychological school.Cohn, Aaron S. 2014.Watson, J ...
contributed applied psychological theory to the field of advertising. Scott said, "Man has been called the reasoning animal but he could with greater truthfulness be called the creature of suggestion. He is reasonable, but he is to a greater extent suggestible". He demonstrated this through his advertising technique of a direct command to the consumer. The former chair at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
, John B. Watson was a highly recognized psychologist in the 1920s. After leaving the field of academia he turned his attention towards advertising where he implemented the concepts of
behaviorism Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex elicited by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that indivi ...
into advertising. This focused on appealing to the basic emotions of the consumer: love, hate, and fear. This type of advertising proved to be extremely effective as it suited the changing social context which led to heavy influence of future advertising strategy and cemented the place of psychology in advertising.


Albert Lasker: Salesmanship in print

Chicago, along with New York, was the center of the nation's advertising industry. Albert Lasker, known as the "father of modern advertising," made Chicago his base 1898–1942. As head of the Lord and Thomas agency, Lasker devised a copywriting technique that appealed directly to the psychology of the consumer. Women seldom smoked cigarettes; he told them if they smoked Lucky Strikes they could stay slender. Lasker's use of radio, particularly with his campaigns for Palmolive soap,
Pepsodent Pepsodent is an American brand of toothpaste with the minty flavor that is derived from sassafras. The brand was purchased by Unilever in 1942 and is still owned by the company outside of the United States and Canada. In 2003, Unilever sold the ...
toothpaste,
Kotex Kotex (; ) is an American brand of menstrual hygiene products, which includes the Kotex maxi, thin and ultra-thin pads, the Security tampons, and the Lightdays pantiliners. Most recently, the company has added U by Kotex to its menstrual hyg ...
products, and Lucky Strike cigarettes, not only revolutionized the advertising industry but also significantly changed popular culture. Lasker had an inquiring mind about what advertising was and how it worked. Lasker believed that advertising consisted of news and information was news, He changed his mind when a colleague Johnny Kennedy told him, "News is a technique of presentation, but advertising is a very simple thing. I can give it to you in three words, it is 'salesmanship in print'". Lasker and Kennedy used this concept with the 1900 Washer Co. (later Whirlpool). Their campaign was so successful that, within four months of running the first ad, they attracted additional clients and their "advertising spend" went from $15,000 a year to $30,000 a month. Within six months, their firm was one of the three or four largest advertisers in the nation. In 1908 Lasker recruited Claude C. Hopkins to the firm, specifically to work on the Van Camp Packaging Company (
Van Camp's Van Camp's is an American brand of canned bean products currently owned by ConAgra Foods, Inc. Their products typically consist of beans stewed in a flavored sauce. Founding The brand traces its roots back to Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ...
) account. The relationship lasted for 17 years. Lasker helped create America's infatuation with orange juice. Lord & Thomas acquired the
Sunkist Growers, Incorporated Sunkist Growers, Incorporated, branded as Sunkist in 1909, is an American citrus growers' non-stock membership cooperative composed of over 1,000 members from California and Arizona headquartered in Valencia, California. Through 31 offices in ...
account in 1908, when the citrus industry was in a slump. Lasker created campaigns that not only encouraged consumers to eat oranges, but also to drink orange juice. Among Lasker's pioneering contributions was the introduction into public schools of classes that explained to young girls about puberty and
menstruation Menstruation (also known as a period, among other colloquial terms) is the regular discharge of blood and Mucous membrane, mucosal tissue from the endometrium, inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. The menstrual cycle is characterized ...
(done to promote
Kotex Kotex (; ) is an American brand of menstrual hygiene products, which includes the Kotex maxi, thin and ultra-thin pads, the Security tampons, and the Lightdays pantiliners. Most recently, the company has added U by Kotex to its menstrual hyg ...
tampons A tampon is a menstrual product designed to absorb blood and vaginal secretions by insertion into the vagina during menstruation. Unlike a pad, it is placed internally, inside of the vaginal canal. Once inserted correctly, a tampon is held ...
). He is also credited as the creator of the
soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
genre, and using radio and television as media driven by advertising. Lasker took time off from business to help the presidential campaign of Republican Warren Harding in 1920, using high-powered advertising techniques that helped produce a massive landslide.


On the radio from the 1920s

In the early 1920s, the first radio stations were established by radio equipment manufacturers and retailers who offered programs in order to sell more radios to consumers. Madison Avenue early on recognized the importance of radio as a new advertising medium. Advertising provided the major funding for most stations in the United States, which never had a licensing fee for set users. Great Britain used the mandatory fee on set owners to fund the
British Broadcasting Corporation The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public broadcasting, public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved in ...
, which to this day operates without commercials or advertising. However, the British government permitted commercial television in 1954 and commercial radio in 1972.
Public service advertising In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...
, non-commercial advertising, public interest advertising,
cause marketing Cause marketing is marketing done by a for-profit business that seeks to both increase profits and to better society in accordance with corporate social responsibility, such as by including activist messages in advertising. A similar phrase, cau ...
, and
social marketing Social marketing is a marketing approach which focuses on influencing behavior with the primary goal of achieving the "common good". It utilizes the elements of commercial marketing and applies them to social concepts. However, to see social ...
are different terms for (or aspects of) the use of sophisticated advertising and marketing communications techniques (generally associated with commercial enterprise) on behalf of non-commercial, public interest issues and initiatives. In the United States, the granting of television and radio licenses by the FCC is contingent upon the station broadcasting a certain amount of public service advertising. To meet these requirements, many broadcast stations in America air the bulk of their required public service announcements during the late night or early morning when the smallest percentage of viewers are watching, leaving more day and prime time commercial slots available for high-paying advertisers. Public service advertising in the United States reached its height during the world wars. During WWII President Roosevelt commissioned the creation of The War Advertising Council (now known as the
Ad Council The Advertising Council, commonly known as Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements or PSAs on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-gover ...
) which is the United States' largest developer of PSA campaigns on behalf of government agencies and non-profit organizations, including the longest-running public service campaign,
Smokey Bear Smokey Bear is an American campaign and advertising icon of the United States Forest Service, U.S. Forest Service in the Wildfire Prevention Campaign, which is the longest-running public service announcement campaign in United States history to ...
.


1930s and World War II

Advertising came under heavy pressure in the 1930s. The
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
forced businesses to drastically cut back on their advertising spending. Layoffs and reductions were common at all agencies. The
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
furthermore aggressively promoted
consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...
, and minimized the value or need of advertising. Historian Jackson Lears argues that "By the late 1930s, though, corporate advertisers had begun a successful counterattack against their critics." They rehabilitated the concept of consumer sovereignty by inventing scientific public opinion polls, and making it the centerpiece of their own
market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...
, as well has the key to understanding politics.
George Gallup George Horace Gallup (November 18, 1901 – July 26, 1984) was an American pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, a statistics, statistically-based survey sampling, survey sampled measure of opinion polls, public ...
, the vice president of
Young and Rubicam VMLY&R was an American marketing and Marketing communications, communications company specializing in advertising, Digital media, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the 2020 mer ...
, and numerous other advertising experts, led the way. Moving into the 1940s, the industry played a leading role in the ideological mobilization of the American people for fighting the Nazis and Japanese in World War II. As part of that effort, they redefined the "American Way of Life" in terms of a commitment to free enterprise. "Advertisers," Lears concludes, "played a crucial hegemonic role in creating the consumer culture that dominated post-World War II American society."


Postwar era

In the prosperous postwar era, millions of Americans moved into new housing, especially in the rapidly growing suburbs. They spent heavily on housing, appliances, furniture, clothing and automobiles. The coming of television in the 1950s dramatically enlarged the arena for advertising. With most families having automobiles, and more leisure time, travel holidays became much more common, and the motel and
tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...
industries eagerly supported large-scale advertising. In the public service arena, the Ad Council aggressively promoted Americanism as a
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
strategy, with campaigns such as the Freedom Train, the Crusade for Freedom, Religion in American Life, Atoms For Peace, and Peoples Capitalism. The new Brand Names Foundation sponsored conferences, local campaigns, and educational programs to promote brand loyalty, as well as free enterprise. In ''The Hidden Persuaders'' (1957) popular writer
Vance Packard Vance Oakley Packard (May 22, 1914 – December 12, 1996) was an American journalist and social critic. He was the author of several books, including ''The Hidden Persuaders'' and '' The Naked Society''. He was a critic of consumerism. Early l ...
exposes the use of consumer motivational research and other psychological techniques, including depth psychology and subliminal tactics. They had been used to manipulate expectations and induce desire for products since the 1920s, but the popular audience was caught by surprise. He identified eight "compelling needs" that advertisers promise products will fulfill. According to Packard these needs are so strong that people are compelled to buy products to satisfy them. The book questions the
morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
of using these techniques.Gordon Di Renzo ''The American Catholic Sociological Review'', Vol. 19, No. 4 (Dec., 1958) (Review)


Racial themes

Before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, black people were largely missing from mainstream white advertising. Those who did appear typically followed the long-standing "hierarchy of skin color" whereby those with lighter skin tones were seen as being more socially and culturally acceptable than dark-skinned black people. Most national corporations before the 1960s ignored the black market, and paid little attention to working with black merchants or hiring blacks for responsible positions.
Pepsi-Cola Pepsi is a Carbonated water, carbonated soft drink with a cola flavor, manufactured by PepsiCo which serves as its flagship product. In 2023, Pepsi was the second most valuable soft drink brand worldwide behind Coca-Cola; the two share a long ...
was a major exception, as the number two brand fought for parity with
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...
. The upstart soda brand hired black promoters who penetrated into black markets across the South and the urban North. Journalist Stephanie Capparell interviewed six men who were on the team in the late 1940s: :The team members had a grueling schedule, working seven days a week, morning and night, for weeks on end. They visited bottlers, churches, "ladies groups," schools, college campuses, YMCAs, community centers, insurance conventions, teacher and doctor conferences, and various civic organizations. They got famous jazzmen such as Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton to give shout-outs for Pepsi from the stage. No group was too small or too large to target for a promotion. Pepsi advertisements avoided the stereotypical images common in the major media that depicted one-dimensional
Aunt Jemima Aunt Jemima was an American breakfast brand for pancake mix, table syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix was developed in 1888–1889 by the Pearl Milling Company and was advertised as the first " ...
s and Uncle Bens whose role was to draw a smile from white customers. Instead it portrayed black customers as self-confident
middle-class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
citizens who showed very good taste in their soft drinks. They were economical too, as Pepsi bottles were twice the size. By the late 1960s, more than a few token blacks were hired at advertising agencies, and the sensitivity to the problem increased. The leading black magazines ''Essence'' and ''Jet'' routinely deplored racism in mainstream media, especially in the negative depictions of black men and women. However ''Essence'' and ''Jet'' in the 21st century themselves ran about a dozen ads a year, especially for skin lighteners, that were pervaded with "racism and White supremacy."


Tobacco

By the 1950s, fears of
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
from tobacco
smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted, and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, whi ...
caused consternation in the
tobacco industry The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies who are engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any ...
, which turned to advertisers for help in avoiding falling consumer
demand In economics, demand is the quantity of a goods, good that consumers are willing and able to purchase at various prices during a given time. In economics "demand" for a commodity is not the same thing as "desire" for it. It refers to both the desi ...
and increased regulation. British and American agencies separately arrived at similar solutions. The Tobacco Industry Research Committee in the United States and the Tobacco Manufacturers' Standing Committee in Britain each assuaged public anxieties and encouraged the misperception that the cigarette makers were resolving the issues through filters and low tar formulations. The public relations approach was successful in the short run, but the accumulation of medical evidence led to a fall in smoking, heavier taxation, and increased regulation. The agencies responded with sophisticated advertising strategies designed to encourage adolescent smokers as well as to recruit new smokers in less-developed foreign markets.


Cable television from the 1980s

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly
MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...
. Pioneering the concept of the music video, MTV ushered in a new type of advertising: the consumer tunes in ''for'' the advertising message, rather than it being a
by-product A by-product or byproduct is a secondary product derived from a production process, manufacturing process or chemical reaction; it is not the primary product or service being produced. A by-product can be useful and marketable or it can be cons ...
or afterthought. As cable and satellite television became increasingly prevalent,
specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targete ...
s emerged, including channels entirely devoted to advertising, such as
QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network and a flagship shopping channel specializing in televised Shopping channel, home shopping, owned by QVC Group (formerly Qurate Retail Group). Founded in 19 ...
,
Home Shopping Network HSN, Inc. an initialism of its former name Home Shopping Network, is an American free-to-air television network owned by the QVC Group (formerly Qurate Retail Group), which also owns Catalog merchant, catalog company Cornerstone Brands. It is ...
, and
ShopTV Canada ShopTV Canada was a Television in Canada, Canadian English language cable television direct response television shopping service owned by Torstar, Torstar Media Group Television. Programming ShopTV Canada featured direct response advertising in sh ...
.


On the Internet from the 1990s

With the advent of the
ad server Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of interest to consumers. It is typically us ...
, marketing through the Internet opened new frontiers for advertisers and contributed to the " dot-com" boom of the 1990s. Entire corporations operated solely on advertising revenue, offering everything from
coupon In marketing, a coupon is a ticket or document that can be redeemed for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. Customarily, coupons are issued by manufacturers of consumer packaged goods or by retailers, to be used in ...
s to free Internet access. At the turn of the 21st century, a number of websites, including the
search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
, started a change in
online advertising Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising that uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...
by emphasizing contextually relevant ads based on an individual's browsing interests. This has led to a plethora of similar efforts and an increasing trend of
interactive advertising Interactive advertising uses online or offline interactive media to communicate with consumers and to promote products, brands, services, and public service announcements, corporate or political groups. In the inaugural issue of the ''Journal of I ...
. The share of advertising spending relative to GDP has changed little across large changes in media. For example, in the US in 1925, the main advertising media were newspapers, magazines, signs on
streetcars A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...
, and outdoor
poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
s. Advertising spending as a share of GDP was about 2.9 percent. By 1998, television and radio had become major advertising media. Nonetheless, advertising spending as a share of GDP was slightly lower – about 2.4 percent. The advertising business model has also been adapted since the 1990s. In
media for equity Media for equity is a financing option that provides start-up companies with advertising such as television, print, radio, and online, in exchange for equity. The idea is to help the start-up companies increase their metrics in a very short peri ...
, advertising is not sold, but provided to start-up companies in return for equity. If the company grows and is sold, the media companies receive cash for their shares.


Restrictions on advertising

Since the 1950s, the industry itself, or the government, has imposed some restrictions on advertising certain types of products, especially liquor and cigarettes. Tobacco bans exist in many major countries across the world and cover 2.3 billion people. In the 1990s Quebec banned some advertising directed at children. The restrictions have hindered competition in the breakfast cereal market when compared with the rest of Canada. In the United States in the 1960s, public health advocates focused on limiting the advertising of tobacco products. In 1971, cigarette advertisements were taken off of the air (television and radio). This led marketers to shift their money over to print media: billboards, newspapers, etc. In the 1980s, public health groups pressed for more comprehensive restrictions. This posed a problem for the United States due to the constitutional protections of freedom of expression under the First Amendment. However, corporate marketing messages are not granted the same protections as noncommercial speech. Advertising messages, or “commercial speech” include commercial advertising, promises, and solicitations. Although commercial speech has been subject to regulation in order to protect consumers, it is still granted certain rights under the first amendment. "Even a communication that does no more than propose a commercial transaction is entitled to the coverage of the First Amendment."(Edenfield v. Fane, 1993)


Since 1900: Europe

J. Walter Thompson became the first American agency to expand internationally with the opening of J. Walter Thompson London in 1899.


France

Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet (21 August 1906 – 11 April 1996) was a French entrepreneur and advertising magnate best known as the founder of Publicis Groupe. He is also credited with inventing radio advertising in France, helped create the firs ...
(1906–1996) was the most prominent leader of French advertising in the 20th century. He founded
Publicis Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, al ...
. After 1945 his little-known Paris-based advertising agency grew rapidly, becoming the world's fourth largest agency. It was a leader in promoting France's post-war economic boom, especially the expansion of the advertising industry. It was successful because of its close ties with top officials of the French government, its clever use of symbols to promote itself, and its ability to attract clients from widely diverse growing industries. The question of whether advertising reflects society or shapes society, can be seen in European models that diverged from the American style. In France,
Michelin Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...
dominated the tire industry and was one of the leading advertisers; to this day its famous guidebooks are very widely used by upscale travelers. From 1894 to the present its symbol was Bibendum (the "Michelin Man" made of tires). He was a lord of industry, a master of all he surveyed, and a patriotic expounder of the French spirit. In the 1920s, Bibendum urged Frenchmen to adopt America's superior factory system, but to patriotically avoid using the "inferior" products of those factories. As automobiles diffused to the middle classes, Michelin advertising likewise shifted downscale, and its restaurant and hotel guides covered a broader range of price categories. J Walter Thompson expanded successfully in many countries, but France was not one of them. French businessmen did not like the American tone, and were fearful of Americanization. The French market was heavily regulated and protected to repel foreign interests, and the American admen in Paris were not good at hiding their condescension and insensitivity.


Britain

As millions of American soldiers passed through Britain during the Second World War, there were fears of an "Americanization" of British commerce and culture. The Marshall Plan explicitly required and upgrading of the marketing and organizational skills of British industry. There were fears among the leaders of the London advertising world of what the brash, rich Americans would do to them. Radio and television was off limits to advertising, because BBC relied on fees paid by owners of radio receivers. The question was whether the heavily funded American methods would prove irresistible. JWT London was an American owned advertising agency controlled by J. Walter Thompson in New York City. JWT London avoided being the bold apostle of the American style. Instead it is relied on soft persuasion, shedding its Americanness to adapt to the British understated style.


Germany

In the 1920s, most advertising was handled by manufacturing companies in-house. Numerous small advertising agencies handled purchase of space in the media, but did not design campaigns or the ads themselves. An important role was played by travelling salesmen in promoting products to wholesalers and retailers and providing feedback from the market to the producer. During the Nazi era (1933–45), the advertising industry expelled its Jews, and came under the supervision of the "Ad Council for the German Economy," a department of the propaganda ministry of
Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
. The relationship was friendly, For the industry learned a great deal from the Nazi propaganda techniques. The industry promoted Hitler's favorite products, such as the promised
Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...
automobile for the people, and the construction of autobahns. It emphasized the availability of trusted brands despite growing shortages after the war began in 1939. It helped support the regime, articulating a vision of consumption that was well aligned with the Nazi spirit. In some environments and social movements, such as with post-WW2 East Germany Stasi's
zersetzung ''Zersetzung'' (, German language, German for "decomposition" and "disruption") was a psychological warfare technique used by the Ministry for State Security (East Germany), Ministry for State Security (''Stasi'') to repress political opponents ...
, criminology theorists estimated advertisement was used as a means to crime, the nature of the crime was the intentional exploitation of an individual to cause damage to the individual's ability to form social bonds and appropriate perceptions of the world. This is especially true in the case of manipulation, people take advantage of their underdeveloped social skills and exploit them for selfish gain, this was later criticized to be adopted by turpitude agents of modern advertising. Many major brands were off the market by 1944, because of severe shortages. When they returned after the war, they were welcomed as an index of normality and were not associated with Nazism. By the 1950s, German advertising agencies were starting to mimic American methods. Coca-Cola was advising "Mach mal Pause" ("Take a Rest!), and conservative Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was running for reelection with the slogan "Keine Experimente!" ("No Experiments!"). The German agencies have always remained small and limited in scope, even after the unification of East Germany and West Germany in 1991. After unification, Germany became the third largest ad market in the world, with $18 billion in total ad spending in 1994.


Italy

The American influence became strong in Italy after 1945. The high risk of communist success led the American government to invest heavily in propaganda activities. Several American firms opened offices, including Young & Rubicon and Ogilvy & Mather. Italian graphic designers, most prominently
Armando Testa Armando Testa 1971 Armando Testa (23 March 1917 – 20 March 1992) was an Italian graphic designer, cartoonist, animator and painter. Born in Turin, Testa worked as a typesetter until 20 years old."Armando Testa" in ''Communication Arts'', V ...
, were inspired by modernist aesthetics and thinking brought in by the American advertising agencies and techniques in Italy. The advertising industry helped transform Italy into a consumer-oriented society. A dramatic example of how advertising nudged the Italian middle-class into modern consumer society appears in the heavily advertised automatic washing machine. It appeared on the Italian market in 1958 and by 1965, 23% of families had purchased one, reaching 42% by 1970. Advertisers hailed the mechanization of domestic tedium as the advent of a new women's "liberation." Commentary appeared everywhere, from advertisements to the specialized press, to women's reviews. Architects and designers made room for the new marvel, as the promotional language celebrating the device became a chorus of praise for domestic appliances as the secret of "progress" and "freedom" and "liberation." On the other hand, husbands still insisted on driving the family automobile; it was off-limits to the liberated female. Armando Testa Set up a full-service advertising agency in 1956, specializing in the new medium of television advertising. He was inspired by Eastern European animation techniques, and often use simple graphics like the blue hippo. His son Marco Testa, trained at Benton & Bowles in New York, and maintained the fast-paced, witty style. Emmanuelle Pirella, who trained at the Italian offices of Young & Rubicon and Ogilvy & Mather, emerged as a leading copywriter. Benetton gained worldwide attention for its saucy advertising, inspired by its art director
Oliviero Toscani Oliviero Toscani (28 February 1942 – 13 January 2025) was an Italian photographer, best-known worldwide for designing controversial advertising campaigns for Italian brand Benetton from 1982 to 2000. Early life and career Toscani was born ...
. He started with multicultural themes, tied together under the campaign "United Colors of Benetton" then became increasingly provocative with interracial groupings, and unusual sexual images, such as a nun kissing a priest.


Since 1900: Asia and Africa


Japan

Dentsu , simply known as , stylized as dentsu, is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is the largest advertising agency in Japan and the fifth largest advertising agency network in ...
is the dominant firm in Japan thanks to its origins as a media representative. It produced Japan's first newspaper advertisements as well as the first television commercials. It was established in 1901 as Japan Advertising Ltd. and Telegraphic Service Co. by Hoshiro Mitsunaga. In 1936, it sold off its news division to Doumei News Agency, to focus on advertising. In 1946, it purchased 16 small companies and set up operational bases in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and Kyūshū. Dentsu company now offers a range of services, from traditional and creative marketing to specialty disciplines such as sports marketing, investing in feature film production and acquiring broadcasting rights, PR, digital contents, and a growing range of communications services.


China

In the first 20 years of communist control of China (1947 to 1966) Mao Zedong tried to reverse the long-standing advertising practices of Chinese newspapers, considering it a capitalist infringement on the goals of socialism. Consumerism, which had been highly developed in Shanghai, was anathema, to Mao's peasant-based communist perspective. The regime emphasized maximum production rather than optimal consumption. The approach worsened the massive famines that happened when national resources were devoted to a highly inefficient factory production at the cost of basic food output. On the other hand, propaganda was highly developed art in the Communist Party, and so a sort of compromise was reached. Socialist-oriented advertising emphasized the collective good, rather than the benefits of products for the individual consumer. Since 1980, the strength of the private economy, and advertising, has grown dramatically. By the 1980s much emphasis was placed on the role of advertising in promoting the Four Modernizations emphasized by
Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping also Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Teng Hsiao-p'ing; born Xiansheng (). (22 August 190419 February 1997) was a Chinese statesman, revolutionary, and political theorist who served as the paramount leader of the People's R ...
. Lip service is still paid to old Maoist ideals by recycling images of historic places and episodes, but it does not inhibit the growth of consumerism. Since Chinese entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002, its advertising industry has fundamentally changed. It has become the world's fastest-growing advertising market and the country with the largest pool of netizens. Major changes have come in terms of shifting cultural values, the growing role of brand names, the attractiveness of English-language titles to the younger generation, the redefinition of acceptable/offensive advertising, the very rapid growth of new media (especially the Internet and smart phones), the emergence of on-line shopping in a country with an underdeveloped system of department stores in shopping centers, and much more advanced techniques of managing advertising agencies. Chinese advertising is moving heavily to the smartphone, leaving television behind. Companies in China are increasingly more focused on mobile advertisements than on television advertisements. Central roles are played by Chinese-based social networking sites Weixin (also known as WeChat), and Sina Weibo, and the efforts of Western companies, including Coca-Cola, Burberry, and North Face, to market to Chinese consumers through their smartphones.


India

Many elements of Indian culture and industry have British roots, so that British advertising models usually work well. In 1991, the government dramatically liberalized Indian economy, opening it to international business. The emergence of a moderately affluent middle-class numbering in the hundreds of millions attracts
multinational corporation A multinational corporation (MNC; also called a multinational enterprise (MNE), transnational enterprise (TNE), transnational corporation (TNC), international corporation, or stateless corporation, is a corporate organization that owns and cont ...
s and international advertisers. Advertising in India operates at two levels. Ads for high-value products appear in English-language papers such as ''The Hindu'' and ''The Madras Mail,'' which targeted Europeans and high-status Indians. By contrast, ads for low-value products are typically placed in vernacular papers and are aimed at a lower middle class with highly restricted spending power. The working class and peasant populations, with very low disposable incomes, are seldom targeted by the advertising agencies. Local merchants might use signs and posters to reach them. Cricket is one sport where the Indians have had an international success, so that cricket stars are prominent endorsers in national advertising. Subtle cultural norms can be easily transgressed. In 2002, widespread protests forced Hindustan Lever Ltd. (the Indian subsidiary of London-based Unilever) to cancel a television ad campaign for its fairness cream because of its portrayal of women. The campaign was built around the theme of a father lamenting "If only I had a son" while showing his problem: a dark-skinned, unattractive daughter. Fast-forward. She uses the Fair & Lovely cream and has become a gorgeous light-skinned beauty. Clad in a stylish miniskirt, she is a successful airline flight attendant and takes her proud father to dine at a five-star hotel. The All India Women's Democratic Association ( AIDWA), a far left political organization, lodged a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi. It argued endorsing the traditional preference for sons strengthens gender discrimination, which is a major problem in India. Furthermore, said AIDWA, the ad perpetuated a culture of discrimination in a society where "fair skin" is synonymous with "beautiful." The government's Ministry of Information and Broadcast sided with AIDWA and directed stations not to air the ads because they violated the Cable and Television Networks Act of 1995 which states that no advertisement shall be permitted which "derides any race, caste, color, creed and nationality" and furthermore states that, "Women must not be portrayed in a manner that emphasizes passive, submissive qualities and encourages them to play a subordinate secondary role in the family and society." The minister told Parliament that if broadcasters do not regulate ad content the government will be forced to do so. The Mumbai-based Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), a body of advertisers and media agencies, insisted that it should do the regulating not the government. ASCI had already told Hindustan Lever that its ad campaign was offensive and it was ended.


Developing world

During the decolonization era from the late 1940s to the 1970s, British and French firms operating in Africa and Asia at first largely ignored local, nationalistic aspirations. However they learned to adjust to exploit the new spirit of independence that was shaping consumer attitudes. The new emergence of a middle class was the target audience. Their advertising abandoned the traditional paternalistic attitude toward the natives. Instead there was a portrayal of locals as up-and-coming middle-class men in control of developing their nations. These more positive images assisted business operations during spells of military dictatorship, economic nationalism, and expropriation of foreign assets. Tobacco advertising was especially important. For example, in Egyptian popular culture the cigar was associated with elites, the water pipe with a lower-class and traditional lifestyle, and the cigarette with the new middle class which was striving to make the transition to modernity. It was the third group that the cigarette industry targeted. Brazil is the largest country in Latin America, and number five in the world in terms of population. Its economy grew rapidly in the 21st century, until it began to stall in 2010. At that time it was the world's sixth-biggest advertising market, at $US 14.2 billion. Brazil in 2010 ranks #1 in deodorants, #2 in children's products, #3 in cosmetics, and #4 in automobile sales


Mexico

The start in 1994 of the
North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (, TLCAN; , ALÉNA), referred to colloquially in the Anglosphere as NAFTA, ( ) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The ...
had a dramatic impact on the advertising industry in Mexico, with its 130 full service agencies and 270 smaller operations under the auspisces of the Mexican Association of Advertising Agencies. The flood of American brand-name products greatly expanded the scope of the advertising industry, and the Mexican agencies faced new competition from branch offices of international firms. A key to the new market was that upscale consumers in Mexico typically display "malinchismo", which is a preference for imported American brands rather than local Mexican brands. As a result, American products are sold mostly to the middle class market, and their advertising agencies generally avoid working class and rural areas. They concentrate their efforts instead on Mexico City, Monterrey, and Guadalajara, which purchase 70 percent of the American imports. Advertising battles in Mexico, include not only issues of quality, but issues of national authenticity. For example, in Mexico in the 1990s, two American exporters Procter & Gamble and Frito-Lay fought an advertising battle concerning whose potato chips are tastier, more natural, and more Mexican. Procter & Gamble challenged Frito-Lay's Sabritas which controls 80 percent of the $1 billion chip market.Jonathan Friedland, "P&G, Frito-Lay in Mexican – ad standoff," ''Wall Street Journal'' (March 19, 1999).


See also

* American business history *
History of broadcasting It is generally recognized that the first radio transmission was made from a temporary station set up by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 on the Isle of Wight. This followed on from pioneering work in the field by a number of people including Alessa ...
* History of advertising in Britain * History of public relations *
Marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
*
Sex in advertising Sex appeal in advertising is a common tactic employed to promote products and services. Research indicates that sexually appealing content, including imagery, is often used to shape or alter the consumer's perception of a brand, even if it is ...


Agencies

*
American Association of Advertising Agencies The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As) is a U.S. trade association for advertising agencies which was founded in 1917. It serves over 600 member agencies across 1,200 offices, which control more than 85% of total U.S. advertising ...
*
FCB (advertising agency) FCB (previously Foote, Cone & Belding) is one of the largest global advertising agency networks. It is owned by Interpublic Group and was merged in 2006 with Draft Worldwide, adopting the name Draftfcb. In 2014 the company rebranded itself as F ...
, Foote, Cone & Belding * Interpublic *
Omnicom Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City. Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer r ...
**
BBDO BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency originated in 1891 with the George Batten Company, and in 1928, through a merger with Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BDO), the agency became Batten, B ...
**
DDB Worldwide DDB Worldwide Communications Group LLC, known internationally as DDB, is a worldwide marketing communications network. It is owned by Omnicom Group, one of the world's largest advertising holding companies. The international advertising networks ...
**
TBWA Worldwide TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency whose main headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. Since 1993, the agency has been a unit of Omnicom Group, the world's second largest advertising agency holding ...
*
Publicis Publicis Groupe S.A. is a French multinational advertising and public relations company. As of 2024, the company is the largest advertising company in the world by revenue. Based in Paris, it is one of the 'Big Four' advertising commpanies, al ...
, Leading international agency based in Paris **
Leo Burnett Worldwide Leo Burnett Worldwide, Inc., also known as Leo Burnett Company, Inc., is an American advertising company, founded on August 5, 1935, in Chicago by Leo Burnett. In September 2002, the company was acquired by Publicis Groupe, the world's third ...
* WPP ** Ogilvy **
Taylor Nelson Sofres Kantar TNS is a global market research and market information group with offices in over 80 countries. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the firm was acquired by WPP Group for £1.6 billion in ...
**
Young & Rubicam VMLY&R was an American marketing and Marketing communications, communications company specializing in advertising, Digital media, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the 2020 mer ...
**
J Walter Thompson J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merge ...
.


Personalities

*
P. T. Barnum Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5, 1810 – April 7, 1891) was an American showman, businessman, and politician remembered for promoting celebrated hoaxes and founding with James Anthony Bailey the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He was ...
* Bill Bernbach *
Leo Burnett Leo Burnett (October 21, 1891 – June 7, 1971) was an American advertising executive and the founder of Leo Burnett Company, Inc. He was responsible for creating some of advertising's most well-known characters and campaigns of the 20th cen ...
* Fairfax M. Cone * Claude C. Hopkins * Allan Johnston *
Albert Lasker Albert Davis Lasker (May 1, 1880 – May 30, 1952) was an American businessman who played a major role in shaping modern advertising. He was raised in Galveston, Texas, where his father was the president of several banks. Moving to Chicago, he b ...
*
Mary Wells Lawrence Mary Georgene Wells Lawrence (née Berg; May 25, 1928 – May 11, 2024) was an American advertising executive. She was the founding president of Wells, Rich, Greene, an advertising agency known for its creative work. She was the first female CEO ...
* Alan Morris * David Ogilvy * George Patterson *
Charles Saatchi Charles Saatchi ( ; ; born 9 June 1943) is an Iraqi-British businessman and the co-founder, with his brother Maurice, of advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. The brothers led the business – the world's largest advertising agency in the 19 ...
* Maurice Saatchi * J. Walter Thompson


Notes


Further reading

* Dickenson, Jackie. "Global Advertising Histories" ''History Compass'' (2014) 12#4 pp 321–332. Surveys the historiography of the global advertising industry, 1918 to 2014, focused on key debates by American and British scholars. * Faulconbridge, James R. et al. eds. ''The Globalization of Advertising: Agencies, Cities and Spaces of Creativity'' (Routledge; 2011) 208 pages * Pincas, Stephane, and Marc Loiseau. ''A History of Advertising'' (2008) * Tungate, Mark. ''Adland: a global history of advertising'' (2nd ed. Kogan Page Publishers, 2013.) * McDonough, John, and Karen Egolf, eds. ''The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising'' (3 vol. 2002; 2nd ed. 2015) Comprehensive global coverage *


Asia-Pacific

* Chaudhuri, Arun. ''Indian Advertising: 1780 to 1950 AD'' (Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2007) * Crawford, Robert. ''But Wait, There's More!: A History of Australian Advertising, 1900–2000'' (2008) * Haynes, Douglas E. "Advertising and the History of South Asia, 1880–1950," ''History Compass'' (2015) 13#8 pp 361–374. * Kawashima, Nobuko. "Advertising agencies, media and consumer market: The changing quality of TV advertising in Japan." ''Media, Culture & Society'' 28#3 (2006): 393–410. * Moriarty, Sandra, et al. ''Advertising: Principles and practice'' (Pearson Australia, 2014), Australian perspectives * Rajagopal, A., ‘Advertising in India: Genealogies of the Consumer Subject’, in S. Dube, ed., ''Handbook of Modernity in South Asia: Modern Makeovers'' (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 217–228 * Stewart, Sally, and Nigel Campbell. "Advertising in mainland China: a preliminary study." ''International Journal of Advertising'' 5#4 (1986): 317–323. * Sugiyama, Kotaro, and Tim Andree. ''The Dentsu Way: Secrets of Cross Switch Marketing from the World's Most Innovative Advertising Agency'' (2010)
excerpt


Developing countries

* Bhatia, Tej K. ''Advertising and Marketing in Rural India'' (Macmillan, 2007) * Ciochetto, Lynne. ''Globalisation and Advertising in Emerging Economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China'' (Routledge, 2013) * Ciochetto, Lynne. "Advertising and globalisation in India." (Massey University, 2004)
online
* Mazzarella, William. ''Shoveling smoke: Advertising and globalization in contemporary India'' (Duke University Press, 2003) * Wang, Jian. "From four hundred million to more than one billion consumers: A brief history of the foreign advertising industry in China." ''International Journal of Advertising'' 16#4 (1997): 241–260.


Europe

* Arvidsson, Adam. "Between fascism and the American dream: Advertising in interwar Italy." ''Social Science History'' 25#.2 (2001): 151–186. * Boddewyn, Jean J., and Esther Loubradou. "The Control of 'Sex in Advertising' in France." ''Journal of Public Policy & Marketing'' 30#2 (2011): 220–225. * Briggs, Peter M. "'News from the little World': A Critical Glance at Eighteenth-Century British Advertising." ''Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture'' 23#.1 (1994): 29–45. * Church, Roy. "New perspectives on the history of products, firms, marketing, and consumers in Britain and the United States since the mid-nineteenth century 1." ''Economic History Review'' 52.3 (1999): 405–435. * Ciarlo, David. ''Advertising Empire: Race and Visual Culture in Imperial Germany'' (2011) * Furdell, Elizabeth Lane. "Grub Street commerce: advertisements and politics in the early modern British press." ''Historian'' 63#1 (2000): 35–52
online
* Harp, Stephen L. ''Marketing Michelin: Advertising and Cultural Identity in Twentieth-Century France'' (2001) * Henry, Brian, ed. ''British television advertising: The first 30 years'' (1986) * Liguori, Maria Chiara. "North and South: Advertising Prosperity in the Italian Economic Boom Years." ''Advertising & Society Review'' (2015) 15#4 * Loeb, Lori Anne. ''Consuming Angels: Advertising & Victorian Women'' (1994) 224 pp * Nachum, Lilach, and Jean-Daniel Rolle. "Home country and firm-specific ownership advantages: A study of US, UK and French advertising agencies." ''International Business Review'' 8#5 (1999): 633–660. * Nevett, Terence R. ''Advertising in Britain: a history'' (1982) * Oram, Hugh. ''The advertising book: The history of advertising in Ireland'' (MOL Books, 1986) * Pinkus, Karen. ''Bodily Regimes: Italian Advertising under Fascism'' (1995) * Richards, Thomas. ''Commodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising & Spectacle, 1851–1914'' ( 1990) 306 pp * Romano, Charlotte J. "Comparative Advertising in the United States and in France." ''Northwestern Journal of international law and business ''25 (2004): 371
online
* Saunders, Thomas J. "Selling under the Swastika: Advertising and Commercial Culture in Nazi Germany." ''German History'' (2014): ghu058. * Schwarzkopf, Stefan. "Discovering the consumer market research, product innovation, and the creation of brand loyalty in Britain and the United States in the interwar years." ''Journal of Macromarketing'' 29.1 (2009): 8–20. * Schwarzkopf, Stefan. "They do it with mirrors: advertising and British Cold War consumer politics." ''Contemporary British History'' 19.2 (2005): 133–150. * Segal, Aaron Jeffrey. "The Republic of Goods: Advertising and National Identity in France, 1875–1918" (PhD UCLA 1995) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, #9601348. * Swett, Pamela E., S. Jonathan Wiesen, and Jonathan R. Zatlin. ''Selling modernity: advertising in twentieth-century Germany'' (Duke University Press, 2007
online review
* West, Douglas. "Multinational competition in the British advertising agency business, 1936–1987." ''Business History Review'' 62#3 (1988): 467–501.


United States and Canada

* Applegate, Edd. ''The Ad men and women : a biographical dictionary of advertising'' (1994
online
* Applegate, Edd. ''The Rise of Advertising in the United States: A History of Innovation to 1960'' (2012

* Applegate, Edd. ''Personalities and Products: A Historical Perspective on Advertising in America'' (1998
online
* Barnouw, Erik, ''The Sponsor: Notes on a Modern Potentate'' (1978) Sponsors of TV and radio broadcasts * Beard, Fred K. "A history of advertising and sales promotion." in ''The Routledge Companion to Marketing History'' (Routledge, 2016) pp: 203-224. * Brandt, Allan.
''The Cigarette Century: "The rise, fall, and deadly persistence of a product that defined America"'' (2009)
* Cruikshank, Jeffrey L.; Schultz, Arthur. ''The Man Who Sold America: The Amazing (but True!) Story of Albert D. Lasker and the Creation of the Advertising Century'' (Harvard Business Press, 2013) * Stuart Ewen, Ewen, Stuart. ''Captains of Consciousness: Advertising and the Social Roots of Consumer Culture''. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976. * Fox, Stephen R. ''The mirror makers: A history of American advertising and its creators'' (University of Illinois Press, 1984), biographical approach * Gordon, Ian. "Advertising" in ''Encyclopedia of American Studies,'' ed. Simon J. Bronner (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015)
online
* Kern-Foxworth, Marilyn. ''Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow'' (1994) * Friedman, Walter A. ''Birth of a Salesman'' (Harvard University Press, 2005) * Holm, Nicholas. ''Advertising and consumer society: A critical introduction'' (Taylor & Francis, 2023), university textbook. * Jacobson, Lisa. ''Raising consumers: Children and the American mass market in the early twentieth century'' (Columbia University Press, 2013) * Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. ''Packaging the presidency: A history and criticism of presidential campaign advertising'' (3rd ed. Oxford UP, 1996) * Johnston, Russell. ''Selling Themselves: The Emergence of Canadian Advertising'' (2001), scholarly history to 1930 * Laird, Pamela Walker. ''Advertising progress: American business and the rise of consumer marketing'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.) * Lears, Jackson. ''Fables of abundance: A cultural history of advertising in America'' (1995) * McDonald, Colin, and Jane Scott. "A brief history of advertising." in ''The Sage Handbook of Advertising'' (Sage, 2007) pp: 17-34. * Marchand, Roland. ''Advertising the American dream: Making way for modernity, 1920–1940'' (U of California Press, 1985
online
* Mendelová, Dáša. "The birth of American advertising." ''Communication Today'' 9.2 (2018): 4-19
online
* Meyers, Cynthia B. ''A Word from Our Sponsor: Admen, Advertising, and the Golden Age of Radio'' (2014) * Norris, James D. ''Advertising and the Transformation of American Society, 1865–1920'' (1990) * O'Barr, William M. "A brief history of advertising in America." ''Advertising & Society Review'' 11.1 (2010)
online
* Pease, Otis. ''The Responsibilities of American Advertising: Private Control and Public Influence, 1920–1940'' (1958) * Pechmann, Cornelia, and Ellen Thomas Reibling. "Anti-smoking advertising campaigns targeting youth: case studies from USA and Canada." ''Tobacco control'' 9.suppl 2 (2000): ii18-i31
online
* Pollay, Richard W. "The subsiding sizzle: A descriptive history of print advertising, 1900–1980." ''Journal of Marketing'' (1985): 24–37
in JSTOR
* Pope, Daniel. ''The Making of Modern Advertising'' (1983), Major scholarly history 1880s–1920
online
* Presbrey, Frank. "The history and development of advertising." ''Advertising & Society Review'' (2000) 1#

* Samuel, Lawrence R. ''Freud on Madison Avenue: Motivation Research and Subliminal Advertising in America'' (2010) * Schultz, David A. ed. ''Lights, camera, campaign'' (2004); Articles on political advertising * Sivulka, Juliann. ''Soap, sex, and cigarettes: A cultural history of American advertising'' (Cengage Learning, 2011) * Spring, Dawn. "The Globalization of American Advertising and Brand Management: A Brief History of the J. Walter Thompson Company, Proctor and Gamble, and US Foreign Policy." ''Global Studies Journal'' (2013). 5#4 * Twitchell, James B. ''Adcult USA: The triumph of advertising in American culture'' (Columbia University Press, 1996). * West, Darrell M. ''Air Wars: Television Advertising and Social Media in Election Campaigns, 1952–2012'' (Sage, 2013)


Canada

* Darmon, René Y. ''Advertising management in Canada'' (1984
online
* Elkin, Frederick. '' Rebels and colleagues : advertising and social change in French Canada'' (1973
online
* Jackson, Steven. "Globalization, corporate nationalism and masculinity in Canada: sport, Molson beer advertising and consumer citizenship." ''Sport in Society'' 17.7 (2014): 901-916 https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2013.806039 * Nesbitt-Larking, Paul, and Jonathan Rose. "Political advertising in Canada." in David A. Schultz, ed. ''Lights, camera, campaign'' (2004) pp. 273–299. * Pechmann, Cornelia, and Ellen Thomas Reibling. "Anti-smoking advertising campaigns targeting youth: case studies from USA and Canada." ''Tobacco control'' 9.suppl 2 (2000): ii18-i31
online
* Stephenson, Harry Edward, and Carlton McNaught. ''The Story of Advertising in Canada: A Chronicle of Fifty Years'' (Ryerson Press, 1940)


Primary sources for U.S. and Canada

* Atwan, Robert. ''Edsels, Luckies and Frigidaires: Advertising the American Way'' (1979), Print ads covering the 20th century U.S. * Cantor, H. J. ''The fight for truth in advertising'' (1936) Better Business Bureau story * Cone, Fairfax. ''With all its faults'' (1969), autobiography * Hopkins, Claude C. ''Scientific advertising'' (1923) and ''My life in advertising'' (1927) * Marin, Allan, ed. ''50 Years of Advertising as Seen Through the Eyes of Advertising Age: 1930–1980'' (1980), reprints of ads and news stories * Ogilvy, David. '' Confessions of an Advertising Man'' (1963) * Starch, Daniel. ''Advertising Principles'' (1927) bridgment of his ''Principals Principles of Advertising''; advanced treatise on methods and advertising campaigns* Watkins, Julian L. ''The 100 Greatest Advertisements: Who wrote them and what they did'' (1949) * Wevers, Melvin. "Mining Historical Advertisements in Digitised Newspapers." in ''Newspapers–A New Eldorado for Historians?'' (2022): 227+. * White, Percival. ''Advertising Research'' (1927), advanced treatise on methods and advertising campaigns


Historiography

* Schwarzkopf, Stefan. "The subsiding sizzle of advertising history: Methodological and theoretical challenges in the post advertising age." ''Journal of Historical Research in Marketing'' 3#.4 (2011): 528–548. * Staudenmaier, John, and Pamela Walker Lurito Laird. "Advertising History" ''Technology and Culture'' (1989) 30#4 pp. 1031–103
in JSTOR


External links



For student projects

archived advertising exhibits and classroom resources

.

**
Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...
Libraries Digital Collections: **
Ad*Access
over 7,000 U.S. and Canadian advertisements, dated 1911–1955, includes World War II propaganda. **
Emergence of Advertising in America
9,000 advertising items and publications dating from 1850 to 1940, illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States. **
AdViews
vintage television commercials **
ROAD 2.0
30,000 outdoor advertising images **
Medicine & Madison Avenue
documents advertising of medical and pharmaceutical products * '' Art & Copy'', a 2009 documentary film about the advertising industry {{Aspects of capitalism Communication design Graphic design Articles containing video clips
Advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...