#Advertising, an essential component in the #marketing of any business, has been around for a long tie. The Pompeii penis is positively modern compared to some of the advertising relics that archaeologists have unearthed in ancient Arabia, China, Egypt, Greece and Rome. The Egyptians used papyrus to create posters and flyers, while lost and found advertising (also on papyrus, and often relating to ‘missing’ slaves) was common in both ancient Greece and Rome. Posters, signs and flyers were widely employed in the ancient cities of Rome, Pompeii and Carthage to publicize events such as circuses, games and gladiatorial contest.
People have been trying to influence other people since the dawn of human existence, utilizing whatever means and media they had at their disposal at the tie. The human voice and word of mouth, of course, came first. Then someone picked up a piece of stone and started etching images on a cave wall: enduring images that told stories, communicated ideas and promoted certain ways of doing things.
The first advertising? That is debatable, but these images, some of which are around to this day, certainly demonstrate an early recognition of the power of images and messages to influence the perception and behaviour of others.
The development of printing during the 15th and 16th centuries heralded a significant milestone in advertising, making it more cost-effective for marketers to reach a much wider audience. In the 17th century, adverts bean to appear in early newspapers in England, and then spread across the globe. The first form of mass-media advertising was born.
The 18th and 19th centuries saw a further expansion in newspaper advertising and alongside it the birth of mail-order advertising – which would evolve into the massive direct mail/direct response industry we know and love today. It also saw the establishment of the first advertising agency, set up in Philadelphia in 1843 by the pioneering Volney Palmer. Initially ad agencies acted as simple brokers for newspaper space, but before long they developed into full-service operations, offering their clients a suite of creative and ad-placement services.
The 20th Century saw the dawn of another new advertising age, with the advent of radio offering a completely new medium through which advertisers could reach out to prospective clients. Then came television, which shifted the advertising landscape yet again, and towards the end of the century a new force – the internet – began moving out of the realm of ‘techies’ and early adopters to become a valuable business and communication tool for the masses. The era of digital marketing was born.
Want to add a caption to this image? Click the Settings icon.
Technological advances have punctuated the evolution of #advertising throughout history, each fundamentally altering the way that businesses could communicate with their customers. Interestingly, however, none of these found breaking developments superseded those that came before. Rather they served to augment them, offering marketers more diversity, allowing them to connect with a broader cross section of consumers. In today’s sophisticated age of aid search placement, keyword-targeted pay-per-click advertising and social networking, you’ll still find the earliest forms of advertising alive and well.
Stroll through any market, practically anywhere in the world –from the food markets to central London to the bazaars of North Africa, to the street markets of India – and you’ll be greeted by a cacophony of noise as vendors use their voices to vie for the attention of passing customers. The human voice, the first marketing medium in history, still going strong in the digital age.
English 
Vietnamese 
