HISTORY98 - Advertising

Recently, Pat and I were discussing the invasive nature of advertising today - everything from junk mail to pop-up ads on our cell phones - and realized that researching and writing about the history of advertising might be enlightening.  In my last blog, about the history of human communication, I identified advertising as one of the platforms for communication, so I thought that an article on advertising would fit nicely.

First, let me define a couple of terms: 

Advertising is the techniques and practices used to bring products, services, opinions, or causes to public notice.  Most advertising promotes something for sale, but similar methods are used to encourage people to drive safely, to support various charities, or to vote for political candidates, among many other examples.  A commercial is a specific type of advertising used for the sake of selling.

 

I will start with a discussion of premodern advertising, from early civilizations to the invention of the printing press in the 15^th century; then the birth of modern advertising; radio and television; cultural battles in the 1950s and 1960s; telemarketing; online advertising in the digital age; and finally, the state of advertising in the U.S. today.  Lastly, I will reflect on what I’ve learned.

FYI - My last blog on the history of human communication covers details on the development of the key platforms that advertising has used to become a $390 billion industry in the U.S. today, including the printing press, radio, television, computers, the internet, the world wide web, and smartphones.

I will list my sources at the end.

Premodern Advertising    

From ancient times until the invention of the printing press in the 15^th century, there were four forms of advertising:  wall or rock paintings, trademarks, town criers, and signboards.

Wall or Rock Paintings.  Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is a 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 paintings from 4000 BC. The ruins of Pompeii and Arabia had political campaigns and commercial messages displayed. 

Trademarks. The practice of attaching seals or marks to products was widespread in antiquity.  Around 4,000 years ago, producers began 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.  Several pottery ruin pieces, dating back to around 1300 BC - from ancient Greece, Rome, China, and India - have evidence of potter’s marks, showing evidence of brands.  A potter imprinted his thumb on the wet clay or his mark to identify it later.  Another example, Ulfberth swords, from around 1000 AD, had the trademark of the manufacturer inlaid in them.  

By the Medieval period, authentication marks were applied to high value goods such as precious metals, and assayers were appointed by governments to administer the system and ensure product quality.  In Europe, as the towns and cities began to grow, with the general populace was unable to read, instead of signs that read "cobbler," "miller," "tailor," or "blacksmith" businesses would use an image associated with their trade such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a horse shoe, a candle, or even a bag of flour.

Medieval trademark sign for a tailor shop.

 

Town Criers: In ancient towns and cities, where most 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 an auctioneer.  At the same time, itinerant hawkers developed a system of street criers to promote their goods and services.  Fruits and vegetables were sold in the city square from the backs of carts and wagons, and their proprietors used street criers to announce their whereabouts for the convenience of the customers.  These street criers provided an essential public service before the advent of mass media

The earliest advertising known in ancient China was also oral, where sellers hollered and played bamboo flutes to sell candy.

Signboards: 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.  Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans were known to use signage for shop fronts as well as to announce public events such as market days. 

Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. Lost and found advertising on papyrus was common in Ancient Greece and Rome.  

Ancient China also exhibited a rich history of early retail signage systems.  Advertisements usually took the form of calligraphic signboards and inked papers.

In Medieval Britain, France, and much of Europe, innkeepers were compelled to erect a signboard.  The practice of using signs spread to other types of commercial establishments.  Signboards became a common way for sellers to communicate with their customers.

 

Birth of Modern Advertising     

What we think of as “modern advertising” really goes back to the invention of the printing press by German goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg around 1440.  Utilizing this new technology, people could advertise in larger quantities - anything from a product or shop to public elections, or a local theater group putting on a production.  It allowed people to get the word out and spread their message. 

The first print ad was published in 1472 when William Caxton printed ads for a book and tacked them to church doors in England.

This section will cover advertising developments from the 15^th century to the 1920s, with a word about how these developments evolved to today.

The printing press opened a world of advertising possibilities, including newspapers and magazines, trade cards, billboards, and direct mailing.  Advertising agencies were established to manage and create advertising, and employed psychological strategies to increase advertising effectiveness.  Advertising experienced tremendous growth from the 1870s to the 1920s.

Newspapers and Magazines.  The first weekly newspapers appeared in Venice in the early 16^th-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, 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.

Shops and stores in towns were able to create and design advertisements to be displayed in these papers and for the first time “mass marketing” became plausible. 

The availability of repeated advertising permitted manufacturers to develop nationally-known brand-names that had a much stronger appeal than generic products.

In Britain’s American colonies, the first newspaper ad appeared in the Boston News-Letter on May 8, 1704.  It was a real estate advertisement selling a plantation on Oyster Bay, Long Island.

The first American newspaper ad appeared in the Boston News-Letter on May 8, 1704.

In 1741, Benjamin Franklin published the first (one of two) magazine, General Magazine, in North America.  In 1742, he included the first American ad in his magazine.  Franklin was a key figure in American advertising who helped convince the public to buy his ideas as well as products in his magazine.

Over the years, print advertising in newspapers and magazines grew steadily, with color images and graphics playing a larger and larger role.  This lasted until the invention of the internet and the beginning of online digital advertising at the end of the 20^th century, when print advertising began to decline.  By 2010, online advertising exceeded print advertising.  See below. 

Trade Cards.  Advances in printing allowed retailers and manufacturers to print handbills and trade cards.  For example, Jonathon Holder, a London haberdasher in the 1670s, gave every customer a printed list of his stock with the prices affixed.  The earliest trade cards were not cards at all, instead, they were printed on paper and did not include illustrations.  By the 18^th century, however, they were printed on more substantial cards 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 humblest trade card.  Eventually, trade cards evolved into business cards, which are still in use today.

Billboards.  By the 19^th century, business began to think differently about how to grab people’s attention, which gave rise to the billboard. The first recorded mention of a large format billboard was from 1835 in New York.  Jared Bell began printing 9-foot ×6-foot posters advertising the circus.  Over time, billboards managed to get even larger and more complicated.

 In 1835, the first U.S. billboards displayed circus posters measuring over 50 square feet.

After the introduction of the Model T in 1908, cars quickly became the main form of transportation.  Due to this influx of cars, cities were forced to adapt to create more and better roads and highways.  Shortly after, advertisers realized that this would become prime advertising real estate. 

But it wasn’t until the creation of the Interstate Highway System, starting in the mid-1950s, that roadside billboards became extraordinarily successful.  Other out-of-home (OOH) advertising today includes place-based posters located in grocery stores, bars, restaurants, convenience shops, gas stations, barbershops, arenas, gyms, and other public spaces.  OOH advertising is also placed on/around anything which moves, such as buses, streetcars, subways, trucks, food trucks, taxis, and ride-sharing vehicles, but also includes airports, and train and bus stations.  Lately, digital OOH, located in many of the same public places, including roadside billboards, operating on digital screens, displays a range of dynamic content, including videos, animations, and interactive experiences.  Today, the OOH advertising industry operates in all 50 U.S. states and includes more than 2,100 media companies, and range from public, multinational media corporations to small, independent, family-owned businesses.

Direct Mailing.  Direct marketing began with the invention of the printing press.  In 1480, William Caxton created printed pamphlets from his printing press set up in Westminster Abbey. Technology for printing presses continued to improve over the coming centuries, allowing for faster and faster output, and direct marketing on a bigger scale.  In the 18^th century, garden and seed catalogues were distributed in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War - so catalogue mailings predate even the United States as a country!

Aaron Montgomery Ward is considered the inventor of direct mailing as a direct marketing approach; he created his mail order business in 1872, launching with a one-page catalogue.  Richard Warren Sears followed soon after in the 1880s, mailing flyers to rural and small-town customers to sell watches.  The actions of both men served to revolutionize the purchase of goods - having previously been at the mercy of price mark-ups by their local stores, customers were now being reached directly.  The advent of mail order meant that consumers could receive attractive items whether they lived in the developed cities like Manhattan or out in rural regions - and all at far cheaper prices.

Montgomery Ward’s annual sales broke the $1m barrier in 1888, and Warren Sears’ 1896 catalogue consisted of more than 500 pages and went out to 300,000 homes.  Their industry kept growing, with direct mail becoming a worldwide advertising staple. (Montgomery Ward & Co. survived until 1995 and Sears discontinued its catalog sales in 1993.) 

Direct mailing advertising continues today, although at a declining rate since the introduction of the internet and online advertising.  In 2023, the direct mail advertising industry in the U.S, had a market size of $10.9 billion.  “Marketing mail” as the United States Postal Service (USPS) likes to call junk mail, accounts for about a quarter of all USPS revenues.  Over half of all mail volume is junk mail.

Advertising Agencies.  In the United States, around 1840, Volney B. Palmer set up the first American advertising agency 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-19^th 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.  

J. Walter Thompson Co. promoted high-powered advertisement, 1903.

By 1900, the advertising agency had become the focal point of creative planning, and advertising was firmly established as a profession. 

The amount of space available in newspapers grew rapidly. The Boston Transcript published 19,000 column 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 20^th century.  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.

In 1917, 111 charter members and five regional industry groups, formed the American Association of Advertising Agencies.

Today, the American Association of Advertising Agencies serves over 600 member agencies across 1,200 offices, which control more than 85% of total U.S. advertising spending.

Advertising Strategies.  In the 1910s and 1920s, many ad men believed that human instincts could be targeted and harnessed into the desire to purchase commodities.  Sex appeal and human psychology were used to promote products.

Sex Appeal.  At the turn of the 20^th 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. 

In 1911, the Woodbury Soap Company became the first to use images of sexual contact to sell a product.  Their ad slogan claimed that women who used the soap would have "Skin You Love to Touch.”  The ad 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. The ad's use of sex appeal was a landmark in advertising history.

1916 Ladies' Home Journal version of the 1911 Woodbury soap ad.

Note:  Woodbury was also one of the first companies to use nudity in its advertisements.  In 1936, the ad, known as "The Sun Bath,” 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.

Psychology.  In the early 20^th century, psychologists Walter D. Scott and John B. Watson contributed applied psychological theory to the field of advertising. They 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

Early applications for this approach included advertising for cigarettes, oranges, and orange juice.

Development of advertising strategies - particularly targeting advertising to people with specific background, interests, and needs - continues through today.  See below.

Advertising Revenues.  Advertising increased dramatically in the United States after 1870 as industrialization expanded the supply of manufactured products to a very large market.  Mass marketing influenced 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 1920s, under Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hover, 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, Julius Klein, stated "Advertising is the key to world prosperity.”  This was part of the "unparalleled" collaboration between business and government in the 1920s.

But advertising came under heavy pressure in the 1930s.  The Great Depression forced businesses to drastically cut back on their advertising spending.  Layoffs and reductions were common at all advertising agencies.  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.

World War II U.S. Army recruitment poster.

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.  With most families having automobiles, and more leisure time, travel holidays became much more common, and the motel and tourism industries eagerly supported large-scale advertising.

Advertising revenue continued to grow steadily.  In 2024, total U.S. advertising revenue (from all sources) is expected to reach $360 billion.  See below.

 

Radio/Television    

Starting in the 1920s, modern in-home advertising really matured during the telecommunications age of radio and television. 

Radio.  In the early 1920s, several small radio stations began operating using technologies that had developed during World War I.  Many of these stations developed regular programming that included religious sermons, music, sports, and news. 

Retailer and consumer goods manufacturers quickly recognized radio's potential to reach consumers in their home and soon adopted advertising techniques that would allow their messages to stand out; slogans, mascots, and jingles began to appear on radio.  The first ever radio commercial aired on WEAF, New York, on August 28, 1922.

Advertisers, looking to form brand recognition of their products, stimulated the need for superior insights into consumer purchasing, consumption, and usage behavior; and their needs, wants and aspirations.  Some companies even began to sponsor radio programs.  The most famous of these programs were soap operas, weekly radio dramas that played during the day and targeted women.  The primary sponsors were companies that manufactured soaps and cleaning products (hence the name). 

Before long, radio station owners realized they could increase advertising revenue by selling “air-time” in small time allocations which could be sold to multiple businesses. By the 1930s, these advertising spots, as the packets of time became known, were being sold by the station's geographical sales representatives, ushering in an era of national radio advertising.

Advertisement for a live radio broadcast, sponsored by the Adohr milk company, and published in the Los Angeles Times on May 6, 1930.

 

By the 1940s, manufacturers began to recognize the way in which consumers were developing personal relationships with their brands.  Advertisers began to gather insights into consumer purchasing motivation.  Strong branded campaigns for Chrysler and Exxon/Esso, using insights from psychology and cultural anthropology, led to some of the most enduring campaigns of the 20^th century.

Radios became common in society very quickly, with everyone wanting one in their home, and car companies beginning to place them in their vehicles.

Even today, millions of Americans listen to the radio every day while on the way to work and back home.  News, music, and other forms of entertainment have allowed radio to be a viable platform for advertising for over a century.

Television.  Television broadcasting began commercially in the 1930s.  As black-and-white TVs became more common in American households, the finishing touches on color TV were refined in the late 1940s. 

In the home, TVs didn’t become mainstream until the late 1940s and early 1950s, but even before then ads were showing up. 

The first TV ad debuted in 1941, a 10-second spot for Bulova watches that played during a New York baseball game.  This marked the beginning of a multi-billion-dollar market: TV advertising.

The first TV ad was a simple spot combining a static graphic with a live voiceover, declaring “America runs on Bulova Time.”

Within the next few years, however, during World War II, TV broadcasts became scarcer while the nation was focusing its efforts and resources on the war. 

But things picked back up after the war ended.  Radio advertising still dominated the airwaves at the time.  But that would all change in a matter of years.  TV was quickly gaining dominance over radio, and the ability to entice customers with moving pictures showed a lot of promise.  In 1952, Dwight Eisenhower’s political campaign pioneered political TV advertising.  In 1955, television replaced radio as the primary broadcast medium for home entertainment.

In the 1950s, sponsored programs became all the rage; much like the soap operas on the radio in the 1930s.  But by the 1960s, sponsored programs had fallen out of style, and commercials as we know it became the trend. 

For decades, TV was the center of every American home.  The family would gather around the TV a couple nights a week to watch the latest episode of shows like “I Love Lucy,” “Happy Days,” “The Cosby Show,” “M.A.S.H.,” and “Seinfeld.” It changed the face of entertainment and marketers began to slide in. 

Professionals started to base their ideas on psychology and big data, and allocated big budgets. The involvement of psychologists, researchers, and focus groups transformed advertising into a real calculated science.  While commercials once operated on a “spray and pray” model - where businesses would broadcast generic messaging to large groups in hopes of reaching a handful of prospects - programmatic advertising allowed marketers to reach targeted audiences with relevant messages.

Costs were going up for TV ads too.  In 1979, ABC, CBS, and NBC earned approximately $4 billion from advertising revenue.  In 1984, Apple paid $500,000 for a single 60-second Super Bowl slot to advertise their iconic Macintosh computer.

The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the introduction of cable television and particularly MTV.  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 or afterthought.  As cable and satellite television became increasingly prevalent, specialty channels emerged, including channels entirely devoted to advertising, such as QVC and Home Shopping Network.

Today, TV is a bit of a dying breed.  While millions of Americans watch every day, more and more people are turning to online streaming services.  Even the most popular shows on TV today pull far smaller numbers than the most-watched shows just 20 years ago. 

 

Cultural Battles     

In the 1950s and 1960s, advertising became embroiled in two major cultural issues:  Tobacco and Racial Themes.

Tobacco. By the 1950s, fears of cancer from tobacco smoking caused consternation in the tobacco industry, which turned to advertisers for help in avoiding falling consumer demand and increased regulation.  American advertising agencies 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.

Today, tobacco products are one of the most heavily marketed consumer products in the U.S.  In 2022, the five largest cigarette manufacturers spent a total of $8.01 billion to promote and advertise their products.  The five largest smokeless tobacco manufacturers spent $572.7 million on advertising and promotion in 2022.

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 was a major exception, as the number two brand fought for parity with Coca-Cola.   Pepsi advertisements avoided the stereotypical images common in the major media that depicted one-dimensional Aunt Jemimas and Uncle Bens whose role was to draw a smile from white customers.  Instead, it portrayed black customers as self-confident middle-class citizens who showed very good taste in their soft drinks.

By the late 1960s, more than a few token blacks were hired at advertising agencies, and the sensitivity to the problem increased. 

Racial issues persist today in advertising.  Around eight out of 10 advertising and promotions managers in the U.S. are white.  Disproportionate to their population, in 2022, Black and Latino managers comprised less than 14 and nine percent of the total, respectively.

Telemarketing  

In the 1950s, businesses began the significant use of telemarketing as a common unsolicited tactic to call their customers on the telephone and sell products or services.  This direct advertising approach is an office version of door-to-door direct sales.

Since the 1950s, telemarketing has become a more structured and professional approach to reaching new customers.  In the 1950s, the first telemarketing call center was set up in the U.S.  This center was just a small operation back then but has since grown to be one of the largest telemarketing firms in the world known as DialAmerica.  As more and more call center opened, telemarketing training began to grow and evolve. With more job opportunities beginning to appear in the telemarketing world, it helped to grow the popularity of telemarketing as an effective sales outreach and market research tool.

The 1970s is where telemarketing really started to pick up mainstream attention – with businesses across the worlds employing telemarketing strategies to generate new business.

During this time, there were no fully structured telemarketing strategies, no automation, and no software to assist, which meant telemarketers at that time were doing everything manually and using a scattergun approach, so not only were they only able to call around 100 people a day, but they weren’t necessarily the right people to call either.

In the 1980s, telemarketing started to pick up speed and take shape drastically.  With more powerful computers emerging, stronger and more targeted databases being built, helped to increase efficiency while reducing costs.  And for the first time, in 1981, the expenditure of telemarketing exceeded that of direct mail!

In the 1990s, with the widespread use of telemarketing, it started gaining some rather distasteful attention.  Scammers started to use telemarketing as a way of reaching their victims far too easily, and as a result fraud levels started to rise.  There was a rapid increase in public consumers joining Do Not Call Registry’s and the Telephone Preference Service to limit the number of calls being received by members of the public, and new laws and regulations started to be brought into force to protect people from fraudulent callers and unwanted sales calls.

While in the past a scattergun approach may have been the way to go, in today’s business climate, telemarketing is closely targeted and personalized.  Telemarketing is still one of the most effective methods of sparking conversations with a target audience.

The telemarketing and call center industry in the U.S., is estimated to reach $32.1 billion in 2024, with a compound annual growth rate of 3.1% over the past five years.  As of 2023, there are 419,812 people employed in the industry. 

 

Digital Age    

The digital revolution began in the mid-20^th century with the development of computers and the internet, and continued with the worldwide web and smartphones.  In just a few decades, online digital communication became the primary way people communicate with one another. 

This all started when internet usage took off in 1992 with the introduction of online services like America Online and Prodigy.  When everyone suddenly began using the internet for personal reasons, advertisers jumped all over the opportunity to reach consumers there.

Online advertising began in 1994 when Hotwired, the first online commercial magazine, used a banner ad for AT&T.  (A banner ad is an advertisement displayed on a web page that aims to drive traffic to the advertiser’s website.  The ad is linked to the advertiser’s website, where the user is expected to perform an action, like purchasing a product, creating an account to try out the product, downloading a case study, or signing up for an event.) 

As time went on, the internet became more accessible, coding became more advanced, and advertisements became more commonplace, and included video ads, pop-ups, interactive banners, and email marketing (which first began to show up in the early 1990s). 

YouTube, the first popular video-streaming site, was founded in 2005, and Netflix debuted the first popular video-on-demand service in 2007.

Things began to change once again in the late 2000s with the rise of social media and mobile marketing due to the saturation of smartphones.  Suddenly, people were connected to the internet constantly, going online to be entertained and see what’s happening in the world. 

By 2015, streaming services, like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney began grabbing significant market share over traditional cable and satellite TV. Ad-supported streaming has since become widespread.   As a result, streaming has surpassed cable in TV viewership.  Most major streaming services have added ads to their subscription plans, but customers can pay more to remove them.

Also, in 2015, TV advertising started delivering ads targeted to individuals in the audience, who see ads that are relevant to them.  (Advertisers today have billions of data points about consumers from platforms like Google and Facebook.  They’re able to create extremely targeted and personalized ads.  If digital advertisers can access data points like these, and also birthdays, marital status, family composition, occupation, type of car owned, etc., then the ads people see will be more relevant to them.)

Social media platforms also display paid advertising.  The most popular platforms today for social media advertising are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

Online advertising’s latest advancement is the establishment of so-called marketing automation - software platforms and technologies designed for marketing organizations to automate repetitive tasks and consolidate multi-channel (email, text, chatbot, social media) interactions, to track and understand how people use particular websites, rank prospects, and manage campaigns - all reporting into one system.

Today, we have access to high-speed internet every minute of the day.  Online advertising revenue is growing steadily, and expected to keep growing.

Online advertising revenue is growing steadily.

 

The introduction of advanced technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence should ensure the continued growth of online advertising.

 

Advertising Today in the United States

Revenue.  Since 2000, the total annual advertising revenue market share in the United States has changed dramatically.  Advertising revenue from newspapers and magazines has declined.  Revenues from TV, radio, and outdoor (out-of-the home) advertising has remained relatively steady.  Revenues for online advertising, via the internet, have increased substantially.  Today, almost two thirds of ad spending is digital.

Total advertising revenue in the U.S. in 2024 is expected to exceed $390 billion.

Online advertising is dominating the U.S. market.

Purpose.  From rock paintings and posters to online marketing automation, the purpose of advertising has always remained the same:

·         To sell products

·         Develop interpersonal relationships with customers, and

·         Convert prospects into buying customers

But, the forms and ways of advertising have changed and rapidly evolved.  From being a large blanket operation, it now has a targeted personalized approach that enables the businesses to engage with interested customers.

History demonstrates how rapidly advertising changes and develops new approaches, methods, understanding, tactics, technology, and customer relations.  And how crucial it is to accept changes and stay agile in this dynamic world.

Regulation.  Advertising in the U.S. is regulated by a combination of laws at the federal, state, and local levels.  Some of the main laws include the Federal Trade Commission Act; the laws implemented by the Federal Communications Commission; the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; and the Lanham Trademark Act.  There is also industry-specific regulation to govern advertising for goods and services such as tobacco, alcohol, and financial services.  And there are special restrictions on advertisements targeting children and the use of endorsements in advertisements.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the primary federal consumer agency in charge of regulating advertisements.  The FTC Act’s key tenets include:

·         Advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive

·         Advertisements cannot be unfair

·         Advertisers must have evidence to back up their claims

Criticisms.  With the above in mind, let’s take a look at how the public thinks the advertising industry is doing.  I’ll save my personal opinions for the “Reflections” section coming up next.

Trust plays a key role in purchase decisions.  Just 8% of American adults rate the honesty and ethical standards of advertising practitioners as “very high” (1%) or “high” (7%), according to a January 2024 survey.  Almost-half (49%) have either “low” (34%) or “very low” (15%) trust in advertising. 

Many ad viewers remain wary of how advertising is implemented.  In particular - unsolicited, incessant pop-ups and auto-playing videos that interrupt internet sessions.  Audiences actively choose to avoid ads while they browse the internet. 

Deceptive ads remain a real problem, particularly with cosmetics and health ads, filled with unsubstantiated claims.  Do we really believe celebrity hawkers and paid endorsements?

Many people distrust advertising.

One of the most controversial criticisms of advertisement in the present day is the predominance of advertising of foods high in sugar, fat, and salt, specifically to children.  Critics claim that food advertisements directed at children are exploitive and are not sufficiently balanced with proper nutritional education to help children understand the consequences of their food choices.  Additionally, children may not understand that they are being sold something, and are therefore more impressionable.

Loss of privacy has become a gigantic issue.  Advertisers targeting ads to individuals with particular backgrounds and interests, gleaned from huge data bases on personal characteristics, gathered by Google and others, is of great concern.

 

Reflections

Here are some of my thoughts on the state of advertising today:

The collection, analysis, and processing of “big data” to target advertising to individuals is scary.  It’s not hard to see how this data could be misused in a “Big Brother” sense.  It’s bad enough to realize that every aspect of my personal life is being tracked, digested, acted upon.

Unsolicited direct marketing to individuals has got to go.  This includes emails, texts, spam telephone calls, and junk mail.  This practice is not only very annoying, it’s a total invasion of privacy!  Government action is needed to curtail this nonsense!

Pop-up ads, also unsolicited, are employed in virtually all forms of online experience.  I have learned to ignore these frustrating interruptions.  Its “me against them,” and advertisers are not going to get one penny from me from pop-up ads.

The content of two categories of advertising really bothers me:  betting and political.  All of a sudden, sports programming is saturated with betting.  We’ve gone from absolute prohibition (think Pete Rose) to energetic solicitation.  I put all this in the category of, “Who gives a sh_t!  This stuff is wasting my time!  Political ads these days are literally nauseating, filled with nasty allegations, muck raking, and negative material.  And these ads are “shotgunned” into TV and online ads, plus unsolicited emails, spam telephone calls, and junk mail from the Post Office.

While I’m ranting, let me say a few words about TV commercials:  Commercials today are directed at young people (I know, that’s where the money is.), except in the health field, mostly drugs.  There are commercials for prescription drugs for every obscure condition out there; yet over half of the commercial time is spent on talking about potential risks and side effects.  I don’t know why this “Cover Your Ass” effort is necessary, since a doctor must order a prescription drug.  Finally, as an avid sports fan, I notice a substantial increase in the frequency and length of commercial breaks in TV events of high interest, like the NBA playoffs.  Big money rules again!

 

The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.                                                                   William Bernbach

 

Sources

My primary sources include:  “History of Advertising,” “Advertising,” and “Out-of-Home-Advertising,” en.wikipedia.org; “History of Advertising,” feedough.com; “Advertising Evolution: How Personalization Has Improved Over Time,” instapage.com; “A Short History Advertising,” boxcarcreative.com; “History of Direct Mail,” centralmailing.co.uk; “The History of Commercials and TV Advertising,” strategus.com; “History of Billboard Advertising,” bmediagroup.com; “History of Telemarketing - What’s Changed Over the Years?,” riverb2b.com; “The Evolution of OOH Advertising - Why the Legacy Lives On;” movia.com; “Advertising Law in the United States,” lexology.com; plus numerous other online sources.