ADV315: History and Development of Advertising

Module 1
Lecture guide

**Use this guide as you read the chapters and watch the lectures. I provide it as a way to
help you focus your reading and studying. HOWEVER, anything is fair game for tests and
assignments.**

Why study advertising?

 It is “the most influential institution of socialization in modern society”

1. Structures media content

2. Constructs identity

3. Influences social relationships

4. Dominates political election strategy

5. Determines important cultural institutions, such as sports and popular music

6. Ubiquitous and unavoidable

 “Pervading all the media, but limited to none, advertising forms a vast
superstructure with an apparently autonomous existence and an immense
influence.”

1. $$$

2. Number of ads a day

Gutenberg’s Printing Press (1440s):

 Impact

1. Democratization of knowledge

2. Standardization

3. Vernacular

4. Alphabetic monopoly

 Printing press and early advertising:

1. First formats of advertising

 2. First mass medium

Advertising in the Colonies

 Centrality

o Ex:

Industrial Revolution (1700s to 1800s)

 Mass produced goods:

o Reliable and consistent quality, cheaper, surplus

o Barter v. buying

 National market

 Growth of consumer culture

What role did advertising play?

 Production  advertising (materialism, false wants and desires)

Or

 Materialism (advertising)  production

 Both?

Rising Consumer Culture

 Production + consumption = economic boom

 By 1850s:

o Transportation

o Mobility

o Worker shortage

o Urbanization
 o Retailing

 Civil War (1860 – 1865)

o Intensified these trends

Communication Revolution

 Steam-powered presses

 Visual (photography, chromolithography)

 Telegraph

 Modern magazine

 Advertising agencies

Creativity vs. deception

 Regulation? What are the limits?

PT Barnum

 Advertising = value added

 Selling a dream

 “You drink the advertising right along with the beer.”

 Legacy

Patent medicines

 Mix of:

 “Patent of royal favor”

 Reasons for popularity

o 1.

o 2.

o 3.
  Legacy

o 1.

o 2.

o 3.

Lydia E. Pinkham

 Target audiences

 Relationship marketing

 Spokespeople or characters in advertising

 Importance of advertising:

o Efficacy

o Measurable impact