Advertising

6 Pages 1394 Words

Advertising and Information Technology (I.T.)


Introduction

"Advertising is mass communication, an advertiser pays for in order to convince a certain segment of the public to adopt ideas or take actions of benefit to the advertiser." One of the first known methods of advertising was an outdoor display, usually an eye-catching sign painted on the wall of a building. Archaeologists have uncovered many such signs, notably in the ruins of ancient Rome and Pompeii.
In medieval times a simple but effective form of advertising was very popular. Merchants employed so called "town criers" which shouted the praises of the merchant’s wares.
Printed advertising played no big role until the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1445. Now the printers and later the merchants used little flyers to advertise their products. These flyers often contained characteristic symbols of the guild members and the trades people and were also used as a poster on walls. This form of advertisement lasted for a very long time.

In terms of volume and technique, advertising made its greatest early advances in the United States of America. In the early times, the nation was underdeveloped and had a lack of transcontinental transportation and communication systems. That's why nationwide promotion was impractical.

In the 1880s a new era of advertising began: New methods of manufacturing led to greatly increased output and decreased the costs for the producers of consumer goods. The products now could be packaged at the plant. Moreover a telegraph network was in place and the continent had been crisscrossed by a network of railroads.
All these were assumptions that now allowed nation-wide distribution and nation-wide advertising. This state necessitated the growth of advertising agencies and dictated their activities.

The most widely advertised consumer products at this time had been patent medicines. In 1893 more than half of ove...