-
2500 BCE
FIRE = ADVERTISING CLAIM - Phoenicians
Phoenicians were very good merchants too, and they crossed the oceans selling and buying products that now seem exotic: fabrics or cloths, jewelry, perfumes, amber, ivory...
When their boats came ashore, they lit a fire in a high mountain: “we have arrived”. -
220 BCE
Woodblock printing
Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns that was used widely throughout East Asia. Originated in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later on paper. -
1447
Printing press by Gutenberg
Appearance of the printing press and movable type, and invention generally credited to German former goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg in 1447. -
Feuille d’intelligence
Renaudot is considered the “first French journalist” and ”inventor or the personal ad”.
In 1633, Renaudot created the first ads newspaper,
Feuille d’intelligence. -
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period of global transition of human economy towards more efficient and stable manufacturing processes that succeeded the Agricultural Revolution, starting from Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. -
Litography
At the end of the 18th century lithography was invented and the color lithograph allowed the appearance of the modern poster and it gave rise to an aesthetic trend called modernism. -
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam (initials U.S.) is a common national personification of the American government that, according to legend, came into use during the War of 1812. From then on, Uncle Sam has been used as a metaphor for the United States.
This kind of posters, with the protagonist finger pointing at the viewer, will be repeated in other wars. -
Modern advertising campaign
Phineas T. Barnum
Invented the modern advertising campaign: a well-planned program of tricks, speeches, posters, parades, and publicity efforts used to build excitement about a new product or event.
Barnum was a master showman and an expert at promoting his thrilling circus. -
Creation of N. W. Ayer and Son
Founder Francis Wayland Ayer. Ayer brought transparency to the business of buying and selling space in the newspapers, charging advertisers a fixed commission of 12.5 per cent.
This later rose to 15 per cent, which remained the standard commission fee for advertising agencies for many years. -
Ladies' home journal
In 1883 Louisa Knapp and Cyrus Curtis launched Ladies’ Home Journal, a national magazine whose motto was (and still is) “Never underestimate the power of a woman”. -
Creation of National Geographic Magazine
The publication was filled with scientific content and colorful photos. Some of the magazine’s early revenue was used to fund scientific expeditions. Today, is a highly respected publication that covers science, geology and world events. -
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau appeared in a wide variety of fields
throughout Europe and beyond: decorative and graphic arts,
architecture, glassware, furniture, pottery,
jewlry, metalwork, textile. -
"join your country’s army" poster
In 1914, Lord Kitchener, the British Minister of War, appeared on a poster urging young men to “join your country’s army”, with a steely gaze and a pointing finger. This poster was made by Alfred Lete, and it was published as the cover of London Opinion weekly magazine. -
Rise of Radio
In the 1920s radio was seen as a powerful instrument that could educate, inform, and enlighten the public.
The idea that radio could also have advertisements disturbed some Americans, specially teachers, civic leaders and social reformers. -
Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes
Art Deco is a perfect example of the works that were shown at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exhibition of Modern and Industrial Decorative Arts), held in Paris in 1925.
Indeed, the name of this vast exhibition would later be shortened to Art Déco, a label that included a variety of different possibilities, perhaps somewhat imprecise to the enormous range of decorative arts and architecture created between the first and second world wars. -
Claude Hopkins
Claude Hopkins never deniedthat the sole purpose of advertising was to sell.
He spent his entire career thinking of the techniques that would best serve this end, describing his style as “dramatized salesmanship” in his autobiography, My Life in Advertising, first published in 1927.
He believed in research, both before and after the event, and insisted that advertising was worthless unless it could demonstrate a tangible effect on sales. -
Wall Street clash
America in 1931 was a sad place. Unemployment had risen to 8 million, having doubled in a year. The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 had ripped the floor our of the US economy and sent a shudder through the entire Western world. -
TELEVISION
By 1950 Americans had purchased nearly four million televisions of their own and continued to buy them at the astonishing rate of one hundred thousand sets each week.
As TV’s popularity grew, sponsors abandoned radio and headed in droves for the television studio. By the late 1940s, nearly every major advertising agency had added a department just to handle TV advertisements. -
POLITICAL ADVERTISING
The starting point was the presidential election of 1952, when Reeves produced a series of television spots for the Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1952, there was no precedent in presidential elections for the use of television "spot" advertising. -
Think small
Think Small was one of the most famous ads in the advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle, art-directed by Helmut Krone. The copy for Think Small was written by Julian Koenig[1] at the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) agency in 1959. -
Labour Isn’t Working
Tim Bell’s campaign followed the line of Johnson’s attacking the opponent. One of his slogans, the one of the famous poster “Labor Is not Working”, handled in his attack the double meaning of the phrase (Labor is not working and Labor does not work). -
Internet
Internet was launched in 1969. Almost 51 years later (2020), the Internet is a global network, with millions of connected computers, that has changed the way we communicate with each other, and, by the way, the history of advertising.