Advertising is a message designed to promote a product, a service, or an idea. In everyday life, people come into contact with many kinds of advertising. Printed advertisements make up a large part of newspapers and magazines. Poster ads appear in many buses, subways, and trains. Neon signs along downtown streets flash advertisements. Billboards dot the roadsides. Commercials interrupt TV and radio programs. Advertisements appear on many sites on the internet.
The purpose of most advertising is to sell products or services. Manufacturers advertise to try to persuade people to buy their products. Large business firms also use advertising to create a favorable “image” of their company. Local businesses use it to gain new customers and increase sales. Advertising thus plays a key role in the competition among businesses for the consumer’s dollar. In many businesses, the volume of sales depends largely on the amount of advertising done.
Advertising is also used by individuals, political parties and candidates, social organizations, special-interest groups, and the government. Many people advertise in newspapers to sell used cars, homes, or other property. Political parties and candidates use advertising to try to win votes. Social organizations and special-interest groups often advertise to promote a cause or to influence the way people think or act. For example, the American Cancer Society sponsors ads designed to educate people about cancer risks and to raise money for cancer research. The United States government uses advertising chiefly to recruit volunteers for the armed forces.
Advertising is a multibillion-dollar industry in the United States. About $250 billion is spent on advertising in the United States each year. About $400 billion is spent on advertising in other countries.
Advertising is common in almost all countries. In many countries, however, advertising is more restricted than it is in the United States. In most of the countries of Western Europe, for example, governments limit the amount of advertising that appears on television. In addition, these governments make greater use of advertising for social, political, and educational purposes.
Ways of advertising
Advertising reaches people through various forms of mass communication. These media include newspapers, magazines, television, the internet, and radio. Advertisers buy space in newspapers and magazines and on websites to publish their ads. They buy time on television and radio to broadcast their commercials. National advertisers, such as automobile makers and fast-food restaurants, use the media to reach consumers throughout large parts of the country or all of it. Local advertisers, such as department stores and supermarkets, use the media to reach consumers within a city or town.
The chief advertising media in the United States are (1) television, (2) newspapers, (3) the internet, (4) direct mail, (5) magazines, (6) radio, and (7) outdoor signs.
Television
is the chief medium used by national advertisers. Much television advertising is for car companies, financial and insurance companies, food companies, restaurants, retail stores, telecommunications companies, and companies that sell medicines.
A main advantage of television to advertisers is that it brings sight, sound, and action directly to consumers in their homes. Advertisers can explain and demonstrate their products to viewers who are enjoying a TV program. In addition, network television reaches a vast, nationwide audience at a low cost per viewer. For example, a 30-second commercial on a TV network may cost $1 million. But if 50 million viewers watch the commercial, the advertiser pays only 2 cents for each person who sees the ad.
The majority of TV commercials consist of short spot announcements, most of which last 30 seconds. The commercials are usually run in groups of three to six.
Advertisers can buy spot time from local TV stations or network time from one of the national TV networks. Sometimes an advertiser will choose to air ads on a cable channel to reach a specific audience. In addition, advertisers can either sponsor an entire TV program or buy scatter packages. In scatter packages, the commercials are aired at various times for several weeks. Most advertisers buy scatter packages. But special entertainment programs, sports events, and certain motion pictures are often sponsored by one advertiser. In this way, the advertiser hopes to gain added recognition by being identified with the program.
Newspapers,
on the average, devote more than half of their space to advertising. Local businesses and individuals place most of this advertising. National advertisers sometimes use newspapers to inform consumers of the names and locations of local stores where the advertiser’s products are available. National advertisers also use newspapers when they want to concentrate their sales efforts in particular regions of the country.
Newspapers offer advertisers several advantages over other media. Many newspaper readers specifically check the ads for information about products or services. Daily newspapers also offer the advantage of timeliness. An advertiser can prepare and publish an advertisement within a day. Newspaper ads can thus quickly reflect a sudden demand for certain merchandise. For example, a department store can advertise snow shovels in a newspaper the day after the city has its first snowfall of the season.
The internet.
Advertising on the internet includes small signs on web pages, called text ads, and larger signs, called banner ads. Other forms of internet advertising include listings in online directories and e-mails sent to lists of potential customers. Many companies also maintain websites to promote their products.
The cost to advertise on the internet can vary greatly. Banner advertising is generally sold in one of two types. The first type is called cost per million (CPM), and the cost depends on the number of visitors to the website. The second type is called cost per click (CPC), and the cost depends on how many people click through to the advertiser’s website. One benefit of internet advertising is that advertisers can access minute-by-minute information about consumer response to advertising. This allows them to know what advertising is effective and what elements of the advertising should be changed.
One form of internet advertising is called social-media marketing. This kind of advertising uses existing networks of friends or communities of internet users to spread a promotional message about a product or service. This form of advertising can be especially effective, because people tend to pay more attention to, and show more trust in, messages that come from someone they know.
Direct mail
includes leaflets, brochures, catalogs, and other printed advertisements that are delivered by a postal service. Mail-order firms, which sell largely through the mail, are the main users of direct-mail advertising.
The effectiveness of advertising by direct mail depends mainly on the quality of the mailing list. Some lists consist of all the addresses in a city and are simply sent to “Occupant.” Other mailing lists consist of individual names with addresses. Some firms specialize in preparing lists of people according to their occupation, age, income, interests, or other characteristics. For example, a firm might assemble a list of 20,000 new mothers or 10,000 lawyers. These lists are sold to advertisers. Some advertisers assemble their own mailing lists.
Direct-mail advertising costs more per person reached than do other ways of advertising. However, advertisers who obtain special mailing lists know they are reaching good prospects. In addition, advertisers can choose from many different sizes and forms of advertisements. Some products or services are too complicated to be explained in any other medium.
Radio.
Local advertisers place most of the advertising on radio stations. The rest is placed by national advertisers, who buy time either from individual stations in various cities and towns or from one of the radio networks.
One advantage of advertising on radio is that people can listen to programs while doing other things. Another advantage is that radio audiences, in general, are more highly selected by the type of programming than are television audiences. For example, stations that feature country music attract different kinds of listeners than do those that play rock. By selecting the station, advertisers can reach the people most likely to buy their products. Radio commercials include direct sales announcements, dramatized stories, and songs. Most commercials last 30 or 60 seconds. In general, radio stations have more commercial time per hour than television stations. Thus, a major drawback of radio is that listeners often hear so many commercials that it is difficult for any one ad to make an impression.
Magazines.
Most magazines have a nationwide circulation and so are used chiefly by national advertisers. Magazines have a number of advantages over newspapers as an advertising medium. They are usually read in a leisurely manner and are often kept for weeks or months before being discarded. In many cases, several members of a family read each copy of a magazine. Another advantage of magazines is that they offer better printing and color reproduction than newspapers do. Advertisers can thus show off their products to greater advantage in magazines.
Advertisers can choose from a wide variety of magazines. Some magazines, such as newsmagazines, appeal to a mass audience. Others are designed for specific groups of people, such as teenagers or amateur photographers. Certain companies advertise in trade publications, which are devoted to particular businesses, industries, or professions. For example, farm magazines are used by advertisers who sell agricultural equipment and supplies.
Outdoor signs.
Most advertising on outdoor signs is for local businesses. One of the main advantages of outdoor signs is that people pass by the signs repeatedly. In addition, large, colorful signs easily attract attention. However, the ads on outdoor signs must be short and simple because most passers-by see a sign for only a few seconds. 
The main kinds of outdoor signs are (1) posters, (2) painted bulletins, and (3) electronic billboards. Posters, commonly called billboards, are the most widely used form of outdoor advertising. They consist of printed sheets of paper that are pasted on large billboards. The billboards are owned by local companies and are rented by the month to advertisers. Painted bulletins are signs painted on buildings or billboards. Electronic billboards are large illuminated displays. Many feature changing messages and moving pictures. Electronic billboards are the most expensive kind of outdoor sign.
Other ways of advertising
include the use of (1) transit signs, (2) displays, (3) product placement, (4) novelties, and (5) sponsorship.
Transit signs
are small posters placed in or on local trains, subways, buses, and taxicabs. Posters placed inside vehicles can carry a longer message than outside ads because riders have more time to read it.
Displays.
Window displays are designed to draw customers into a store. Point-of-purchase displays are arrangements of signs, banners, and other items within a store. These displays highlight certain products and are designed to encourage impulse buying—that is, buying without previous thought or planning. Many stores have a promotion department, whose duties include preparing displays. Other stores hire display firms. Many manufacturers supply display materials to retailers that sell their products. 
Product placement
involves the promotion of products within such media as a television show, a movie, or a book. Typically, a company will pay to have its products incorporated into the script or manuscript, or the product is used as a prop.
Novelties
are inexpensive items that many advertisers give away. Such items include calendars, pens, and key rings that carry an advertiser’s name and message. People are reminded of the advertiser as long as they use the item. 
Sponsorship
involves a company giving money to support an event or award. For example, the Booker Prizes, major British literary awards, have a single sponsor. Such big events as the Olympics often have multiple sponsors. Sponsorship is useful for shaping a company’s image over a long period of time.
Advertising techniques
Advertising is designed to inform, influence, or persuade people. To be effective, an advertisement must first attract attention and gain a person’s interest. It may then provide reasons for buying a product and for believing the advertiser’s claims.
Advertisers use a variety of techniques to create effective advertisements. They start with a basic appeal, which is the main selling point, or theme, of an advertisement. They then use certain specific techniques. The most commonly used techniques include (1) attention-getting headlines, (2) slogans, (3) testimonials, (4) product characters, (5) comparison of products, and (6) repetition.
Basic appeals.
Advertisers rely on many kinds of appeals to persuade people to buy. In general, appeals can be classified as informational or transformational. Advertisements that use an informational approach describe the demonstrable characteristics of a product. Such ads tell what the product is, how it works, or how it is made. Advertisements that use a transformational appeal stress the ways in which a product will provide personal satisfaction. Such an ad might suggest that the product will satisfy the consumer’s need for love, security, or prestige.
Advertisers often use sexual themes that appeal to a person’s desire to be attractive. For example, an advertisement for after-shave lotion might suggest that the product will cause a man to be found more attractive.
To persuade the largest possible number of people, many advertisements combine different types of appeals. Appeals may also be aimed at a large general audience or targeted at a limited group of people, such as business executives or young married couples.
Attention-getting headlines
are an important feature of printed advertisements. A successful headline leads a person into reading the rest of the ad. Some headlines attract attention by promising the reader a personal benefit, such as a savings in money or an improvement in physical appearance. Other headlines are cleverly worded to arouse a person’s curiosity. Still other headlines carry news, such as an announcement of a new product. Headlines also attract attention by directly addressing a specific group. For example, a headline might read: “For the Working Mom.” The opening lines in a radio or TV commercial serve the same purpose as headlines in printed ads.
Slogans
are short phrases that are used over and over. Good slogans are easy to remember. The majority of slogans are designed to help create a favorable image of a company and its products. Most such slogans do not relate to particular features of a product. Companies also use slogans in advertising inexpensive products, such as chewing gum or soft drinks.
Testimonials
are advertisements in which a person endorses a product. The person may be someone who looks like an average user of the product. Advertisers also pay movie and TV stars, popular athletes, and other celebrities to endorse products. A celebrity helps attract attention to an advertisement. Under United States government regulations, endorsers must use the advertised product if they claim they do so.
Product characters
are fictional people and cartoon animals or characters that are used in advertisements over a long period. Many advertisers use product characters to deliver sales messages for a whole line of products. The characters become highly familiar to people and so provide lasting identification with a company’s products. Product characters are often used in advertising aimed at children because such characters delight many young people.
Comparison of products
is used most frequently to sell products that compete heavily with other brands. Advertisers compare their product with similar brands and point out the advantages of using their brand. A competitor’s product may be named, or it may be referred to as “Brand X” or “the leading brand.”
Repetition
is one of the most basic techniques advertisers use to get their message across. Advertisers may broadcast their commercials several times a day for weeks on TV or radio. Or they may publish their ads frequently in printed media. Repetition can help build or reinforce a company’s reputation. Advertisers also believe that the more often people see or hear an advertisement, the more likely they are to accept the message and want the product. However, if a message is repeated too often, people can begin to ignore or dislike it.
Creating advertisements
Most business firms hire advertising agencies to create their advertisements and place them in the various media. In most cases, individual advertisements form part of an advertising campaign. A campaign is an organized sales effort that may run for several months and that usually involves more than one medium.
In planning an advertising campaign, the agency must first determine the objective of the campaign. The objective may be to prove a product’s superiority over competing brands, to change the image of the company, or to achieve some other goal. The agency must also determine the target market—that is, the people who are likely users of a product and at whom the advertising will be aimed. Finally, the agency has to estimate how much money and time will be needed to carry out the campaign.
Large advertising agencies generally assign a team of persons from the various departments of the agency to handle all the advertising for a specific advertiser, or client. The typical agency includes a research department, creative department, media department, and production department. An account manager, or account executive, has overall responsibility for planning and directing a client’s advertising. The following discussion describes in broad terms the way an agency creates advertisements. The main steps in the process include (1) research, (2) media selection, (3) creative work, and (4) production.
Research.
Information gathered from consumers provides the basis for many advertising decisions. It helps an agency determine the kinds of people at whom to aim advertisements, the types of appeals to use, and in which media to place the ads. The chief kinds of research include (1) market research, (2) motivation research, and (3) media research.
Market research
seeks information about consumers and their buying habits. The information is obtained from a sample of consumers by means of surveys. The information includes the age, sex, income, and occupation of potential consumers. Researchers may also learn how consumers rate various brands of a product, including the advertiser’s brand. Such information helps advertisers decide on the best way to present the features of their products.
Motivation research
tries to find out why people buy certain products. Motivation researchers gather such information in personal interviews, during which they use techniques developed by psychologists and sociologists. By discovering the motives for people’s buying behavior, advertisers hope to find the most effective appeal to use in their advertisements. For example, advertisers may learn that many people buy certain kinds of automobiles chiefly to impress their friends. The motivations of consumers are complex, and the study of motivations is therefore more difficult than most other types of research.
Media research.
Various research firms measure the size and makeup of radio and TV audiences at different times of the day. The Audit Bureau of Circulations—an organization of advertisers, advertising agencies, and publishers—measures the circulations of publications. Advertisers use information on audience size and makeup in selecting media in which to place ads.
Media selection.
The members of an agency’s media department compare the various media in terms of audience size and makeup. They decide which particular magazines, newspapers, and radio and television stations or networks to use to reach the target market. They then prepare a media plan that will give an effective combination of reach and frequency within the limitations of the budget. Reach is the number of people who will see or hear the advertisement. Frequency is the number of times that they will see or hear it. The media planners may decide to reach a large number of people a few times or to reach fewer people more often.
The recommendations of the media department must be approved by the client. The media planners then buy time and space from the media and schedule the advertisements for specific dates.
Creative work.
An agency’s creative department develops the central theme of an advertising campaign. The department then designs individual advertisements. The theme, and the ideas for carrying it out, must be approved by the account manager and the client.
For printed advertisements, a copywriter prepares the copy (written words) and an artist prepares a layout of the advertisement. A layout shows the placement of the copy and illustrations. The illustrations may consist of artwork or photographs or both. The copy, illustrations, and layout may be revised several times. The finished artwork may be prepared by an artist in the agency or by a free-lance (independent) artist. Photographs are taken by professional photographers who are hired by the agency or chosen from a stock photography catalog, which has images that are offered for sale.
For radio commercials, a copywriter prepares the script, which may consist simply of a sales message to be read by a radio announcer. Some scripts are skits that feature dialogue and perhaps sound effects or background music. Original music or songs are written by composers commissioned by the agency.
For television commercials, a copywriter creates the script and an artist designs a storyboard, which is a series of drawings of the planned action. The storyboard is combined with the script and includes directions for filming the commercial.
Production.
The production of printed advertisements, radio commercials, and TV commercials is arranged by the production department of an advertising agency. The production department deals with advertising service and supply houses, which include graphic arts firms and producers of radio and TV commercials. In each case, the client has to approve the final advertisements before they are printed or broadcast.
For printed advertisements, the production department works with graphic arts firms, which set the copy in type and prepare the film or other material for printing the type and illustrations. This material is then sent to the publications in which the ads will appear. Newspaper advertisements are sometimes produced by the newspaper printers themselves.
For radio commercials, the production department may simply deliver the script to the radio station where it will be read by an announcer. If the script has dialogue, the commercial must be prerecorded, and so the agency hires a radio producer. The producer selects performers to read the commercial and sets up rehearsals. If necessary, a musical director and an orchestra are also hired. The commercial is then recorded on tape in a studio and delivered for broadcasting.
The agency also uses a producer for television commercials. If the commercial is to be filmed or videotaped, the producer may work with a director. These two individuals select performers and arrange rehearsals. After the commercial is shot in the studio or on location, the production department combines it with the sound track and edits it. After the producer has approved the finished commercial, the commercial is sent to the TV stations or network where it will be aired.
Some TV commercials consist of stop-motion films or animated cartoons. Stop motion is a method of photographing objects in different positions so that, when the film is run, they appear to move. For example, bottles may seem to dance across a table.
Animated cartoons produced in the traditional way require many individual drawings that must be filmed in sequence. Modern computer-generated animation and special effects are much easier to produce. For example, an electronic device called a scanner can convert the colors and shades of illustrations or photos into digital (numerical) code, then feed this code to a computer. An animator can then use the computer to manipulate the illustrations.
If the commercial is a live announcement, the producer makes sure the script, product, and furniture or other objects are supplied to the station. The producer also supervises the rehearsals. Today, live announcements are rare.
The advertising industry
Advertising is a global industry. Most advertising agencies are owned by one of four large international companies: WPP Group, based in London; Publicis Groupe, based in Paris; and Interpublic Group of Companies and Omnicom Group, both based in New York City.
Advertising agencies.
The United States has thousands of advertising agencies. These agencies range in size from one-person organizations to huge agencies with several thousand employees and with offices in several U.S. and foreign cities.
An advertising agency’s chief service is to create and place advertising for clients. Some agencies also provide information and advice on selling plans, packaging designs, and other marketing operations.
Advertising agencies receive income in three main ways: (1) from commissions paid by the media, (2) from service charges paid by clients for materials and work purchased from graphic arts firms and other companies, and (3) from fees paid by clients. The standard commission is 15 percent of the cost of the space or time that an agency buys for a client. The agency charges the client the total cost of the space or time and deducts 15 percent before paying the media.
Advertising departments.
Most large business companies have an advertising department. In some companies, the department prepares all the company’s advertising and so functions as an in-house agency. Among those firms that employ an advertising agency, the company’s advertising department works closely with the agency. The department might also prepare such materials as point-of-purchase displays and direct-mail brochures, which are not usually considered part of an agency’s duties.
Some companies that manufacture a large number of products have brand managers. A brand manager supervises the advertising and promotion of one or a few products.
Newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations and networks also have advertising departments. These departments collect and publish information designed to persuade advertisers to use their particular media vehicle. They supply advertisers and advertising agencies with reports on the vehicle’s circulation, listening audience, or viewing audience. They may also provide production assistance.
Advertising associations
work to promote the industry and to raise the standards of advertising. The leading U.S. advertising organizations include the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the American Advertising Federation, and the Association of National Advertisers.
Two other important advertising organizations are the Advertising Council and the National Advertising Review Board. The Advertising Council prepares public service ads, such as those that promote highway safety and energy conservation. The National Advertising Review Board fosters self-regulation of the advertising industry. It evaluates complaints about deceptive (false or misleading) advertisements. If the council judges an advertisement to be deceptive, it asks the advertiser to discontinue the ad.
Most countries have one to several advertising associations. The Institute of Communication Agencies works to improve advertising standards in Canada. In the United Kingdom, the Advertising Association represents the U.K. advertising industry. In Australia, associations include the Advertising Federation of Australia and the Australian Association of National Advertisers.
Regulation of advertising.
Both the U.S. government and the state governments have laws designed to protect consumers from deceptive advertising. They also have laws that prohibit certain kinds of advertising. For example, a federal law bans cigarette advertising on radio and television. But the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that advertising and the advertising industry have some protection under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Thus, regulations concerning advertising must be no more restrictive than necessary to accomplish the goals of state and federal governments.
Federal laws against deceptive advertising are enforced chiefly by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC monitors all advertising and may ask advertisers for proof of their claims. If the FTC decides that an advertisement is false or misleading, it may order an advertiser to withdraw the ad. The FTC may further require an advertiser to run “corrective” advertising to inform the public that former advertisements were deceptive. However, the FTC rarely requires this. Advertisers may be fined for violating an FTC order. Some advertisers are also subject to regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and certain other federal agencies.
Advertising in other countries.
Many of the largest advertisers in the United States also spend significant amounts of money to advertise in other countries. These companies may use local agencies or branch offices of U.S.-based agencies to create ad campaigns. Many large U.S. agencies have acquired foreign-based local agencies or developed a network of international offices to handle the advertising of multinational corporations.
In Western Europe, government had regulated broadcasting tightly until the 1980’s. The state owned the broadcast industry, each country had only one or two television channels, and the amount of advertising time was severely restricted. In the 1980’s, more channels were added by the state and private companies, and advertising restrictions were loosened. In addition, satellites began to beam TV signals to rooftop antennas on individual homes. Most such signals reach consumers in more than one country. Because of increased access to consumers, the trend among major European advertisers has been to develop a single ad campaign for several countries.
Regulations on advertising differ in other parts of the world. In Australia, for example, most ads must be produced locally. China charges higher advertising rates for foreign advertisers than for local companies or joint ventures.
Agencies throughout the world support the International Advertising Association, which has headquarters in New York City. This organization works for truth in advertising, the protection of commercial speech, and improvements in the quality of media research.
Effects of advertising
Advertising greatly influences many aspects of life in the United States. This section deals with some of its economic, social, and political effects.
Economic effects.
Advertising plays a major role in the distribution of goods from manufacturers to consumers. It provides an effective way for sellers to inform buyers about products. Advertising thus helps manufacturers sell their products and benefits consumers by providing them with shopping information.
Advertising also helps the economy grow by stimulating demand for new products. Manufacturers spend much money to develop new products. Through advertising, they can speed up the process of creating a market for a product and so recover their costs more quickly. Fewer new products would be developed if manufacturers could not use advertising to help sell the products.
Some economists believe that a large amount of the money spent on advertising is wasted. They argue that much advertising simply leads consumers to switch from one brand of a product to another brand. Brand-switching may increase the profits of a particular firm but has no positive effect on the overall economy.
Advertisers include the expense of advertising in the sales price of a product. In some cases, advertising raises the price of a product. In other cases, advertising helps lower prices by creating the mass demand that supports mass production. Successful advertising makes many people want a product. By mass producing a product and developing a large volume of sales, the manufacturer can charge less per unit.
Social effects.
Perhaps the most important social contribution of advertising is that it supports the mass communication media. Advertising pays all the costs of commercial television and radio. It provides viewers with free entertainment and news programs, though viewers are often irritated by commercial interruptions. Advertising also pays much of the costs of newspapers and magazines. Without advertising, readers would have to pay a higher price for newspapers and magazines, and many of the publications would go out of business.
Because the mass media depend on advertising to stay in business, many people question whether advertisers control the media. Generally, media do not allow advertisers to influence their programming or editorial content. However, many broadcasters and publishers do not hesitate to run favorable information about their advertisers, and they sometimes refuse to run unfavorable information. Critics of commercial television maintain that dependence on advertising lowers the quality of TV programming. In order to sell advertising time at high prices, TV stations try to attract the largest possible audience. Critics argue that the stations therefore broadcast too many general entertainment programs and not enough informational and cultural programs.
Many critics also charge that advertising persuades people to buy products they do not need or want through the use of psychological techniques. Advertisers reply that they do not have the means to make people buy unwanted products. They argue that adults freely choose what to buy or what not to buy. Most experts agree, however, that advertising is particularly persuasive to young children, who do not have the ability or experience to judge advertising critically. For this reason, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have strict regulations governing advertising aimed at children.
Political effects.
Little attention was paid to political advertising until 1952, when Dwight D. Eisenhower successfully ran for the U.S. presidency. Advertising executives, rather than politicians, directed Eisenhower’s presidential campaign. Much of Eisenhower’s campaign consisted of a flood of spot announcements on television stations. 
Since 1952, advertising executives have played an increasingly important role in political campaigns. In addition, TV spot announcements have become a major feature of campaigns for public offices at the national and state levels. The chief criticism of political advertising concerns the use of such spot announcements, which may concentrate on creating an image of a candidate and tend to oversimplify the issues. Critics object to candidates being “sold” through advertising methods like those used to sell products. Another complaint is that candidates with the most money to spend on advertising have an unfair advantage over their opponents. Because of this complaint, Congress passed a law in 1974 that limits the amount of money candidates may spend in presidential campaigns.
History
Most historians believe that outdoor signs above shop doors were the first form of advertising. As early as 3000 B.C., the Mesopotamians, who lived in what is now Iraq, used such signs to advertise their stores. The ancient Greeks and Romans also hung signs outside their shops. Few people could read, and so merchants used symbols carved in stone, clay, or wood for the signs. For example, a bush indicated a wine shop, and a boot advertised a shoemaker’s shop.
In ancient Egypt, merchants hired criers to walk through the streets and announce the arrivals of ships and their cargo. By the A.D. 900’s, town criers, who called out the news, were common in European countries. They also were hired by merchants to direct customers to shops and to tell them about goods and prices in the marketplace.
The impact of printing.
About 1440, Johannes Gutenberg of Germany invented movable type in Europe. His invention led to the first forms of mass advertising—printed posters, handbills, and newspaper ads. William Caxton, who introduced printing into England, produced the first printed advertisement in English in 1472. It was a poster announcing the sale of a book and was tacked on church doors.
The first newspaper regularly printed in England, a weekly newssheet, appeared in 1622. In the years that followed, more English newspapers were started, and advertising soon became a standard feature of newspapers.
The first newspaper advertisement in the American Colonies appeared in The Boston News-Letter in 1704. Many of the early magazines in the United States either refused to print advertisements or carried only certain kinds of ads. But in the mid-1800’s, more and more magazines began to accept advertising, and magazine advertising grew quickly. Some magazines were started chiefly to earn advertising money.
Many early ads in both the United States and England paid little heed to the truth. Advertisers made wildly exaggerated claims. Ads for nonprescription drugs, for example, boasted cures for all kinds of ailments.
The development of advertising agencies.
The first advertising agencies acted as brokers—that is, they bought space at a discount from newspapers and resold it to advertisers. The ads were prepared by the advertisers themselves or by hired writers.
Volney B. Palmer started the first U.S. advertising agency, in Philadelphia, in 1841. Palmer worked as an agent for newspaper publishers. He received 25 percent commission on the space that he sold to advertisers.
In 1875, N. W. Ayer & Son, another Philadelphia advertising agency, began to emphasize agency services to advertisers. In time, the firm hired writers and artists and carried out complete advertising campaigns for clients. N. W. Ayer & Son thus became the first “modern” advertising agency. By 1900, most agencies in the United States were writing copy for advertisers. By the 1920’s, they had assumed responsibility for complete advertising campaigns.
The rise of radio and television
provided advertisers with new, powerful media. Commercial radio stations began operating in the United States in the 1920’s. Radio soon became a major medium for national advertisers. It enabled them to reach the large, captive audiences that tuned in to popular programs. Many of the radio shows were produced by advertising agencies. The popularity of radio soared for about 20 years, until television began to boom after World War II (1939-1945). Radio then lost much of the business of national advertisers, though it continued to be an important medium for local advertisers. The rise of coast-to-coast TV broadcasts in the 1950’s provided national advertisers with access to mass audiences far larger than those reached by radio. By 1955, advertisers were spending over $1 billion a year on television.
Recent developments.
Advertising expenditures in the United States have increased tremendously since World War II. In 1950, about $7.4 billion was spent on advertising worldwide. Advertising expenditures are now about $600 billion a year.
The growth of advertising since the 1950’s has been accompanied by criticism of advertising practices. Much of the criticism has focused on the use of psychological techniques in advertising. Advertising has also been criticized for its stereotypical portrayal of women, elderly people, and racial minorities. As a consequence, many advertisers have broadened the variety of roles played by members of these groups in ads. In addition, some advertisers have used people with physical disabilities in commercials for products and services not related to the disabilities.
Since the 1980’s, many new advertising media appeared. For example, advertisements are now seen in motion-picture theaters and on DVD’s prior to the featured movie. In addition, they appear in high school classroom news programming. Supermarket shoppers may be exposed to in-store radio and grocery carts with miniature billboards or video screens advertising various products.
Advertising on the internet began after the creation of the World Wide Web in the early 1990’s. Companies developed a variety of new techniques for advertising on the internet. In addition to using e-mail, banner ads, and social media, companies used “viral” campaigns designed to be communicated from person to person. Advertisers referred to the excitement about a product or service that these ads created as buzz. Companies also began to use part of their advertising budget to pay Internet search engines to list their company website at the side of a page showing a search response for a certain keyword. To contact potential customers directly, advertisers bought lists of e-mail addresses to send direct messages through e-mail. When this e-mail was unwanted, excessive, or annoying, however, customers called it spam.
In the 1990’s, advertisers also began to spend more money on promotional campaigns. Promotions involving coupons, rebates, premiums, or sweepstakes awards may provide a short-term boost in sales. But some industry experts believe the increase in sales comes at the expense of the long-term image of the brand or product.
Careers
The field of advertising offers a wide variety of job opportunities for people with creative, analytic, business, or technical skills. The industry needs writers, artists, researchers, media buyers, salespeople, production managers, and account executives. Jobs can be found with advertisers, advertising agencies, the advertising media, or advertising service and supply houses.
The majority of jobs in advertising require a college education or special training. A number of colleges and universities offer major programs in the field of advertising. People with education in the liberal arts, journalism, behavioral sciences, business, or commercial art may also find employment in the advertising industry.
The websites of the American Advertising Federation (http://www.aaf.org) and the American Association of Advertising Agencies (http://www.aaaa.org) have information about careers in advertising.
