History of Advertising

 I have decided to look in to the history of TV Advertising. One reason why I decided to do this is because I feel that I need to understand how adverting started and what lead into the creation of TV Advertising. This will then enable me to look at the first TV advertisement and see how they have changed from the past to the present day now.


Advertising is generally believed to have started alongside newspapers in the seventeenth century.  A Frenchman named Théophraste Renaudot (Louis XIII's official physician) created the very early version of the supermarket noticeboard, a 'bureau des addresses et des rencontres'.

First Coffee Advertisement in 1657 in London.

 This noticeboard was either seeking or offering jobs, or wanting to buy or sell goods. This allowed for the maximum number of people to access the information.

Advertisements were a key essential even in the early stages of advertising. Coffee is an example of this. Coffee was first brewed into a drink in the Middle East in the fifteenth century.The Arabs kept this a secret refusing to export beans or instructions on how to grind or brew them. The rapid spread of coffee became so well known due to the advertising within the newspapers.

Within the industrial revolution there was no need for advertising as sellers dealt with one another as they were individuals. However when technology started to advance and mass production started for soaps, china and clothing etc, the close links between the individuals of the buyer and seller were broken. This meant that there was no longer the connection between two people buying the product. Manufacturers would arrange markets away from their factories sometimes on the other side of the world. This is what created the need for advertising. Manufacturers needed and had to be able to explain their products to customers. This had to be done as the buyer and the seller would no longer meet anymore like they used to. This is when branding started to happen as manufacturers had to make themselves recognisable as competition started to grow. Newpapers were the most ideal solution for advertising. However with technology advancing newpapers were becoming cheaper which meant that more people could afford them allowing for more pages which meant that more ads could be put into the paper.  In the mid nineteenth century illustrations could be added allowing for colour to become an option. Advertisers started to add titles and descriptions under their ads which helped to describe their products.

In the 1950's the television set become the lastest form of advertising in America. The UK were a decade behind the Americans with allowing TV commericals to be shown.



Below is the first TV ad which is shown in the UK.




References:

1. http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/Advertising/advertising.php?pageID=history