How ads evolved from ancient banners to modern-day clickbait

Thousands of years ago, merchants realized advertising’s power to attract customers. Ancient retailers used symbolic signs to showcase their wares since most people couldn’t read. These point-of-sale symbols were likely the earliest forms of sales promotion. Use of iconic storefront symbols persists today – from barber poles to pawnbroker balls to glowing neon signs.

Key Points

• Advertising emerged thousands of years ago as shops adopted symbolic signs, employed barkers, and sent out town criers to promote wares.
• The printing press enabled the first print ads in the 1500s. Early English and Colonial American newspaper ads sold everything imaginable.
• Benjamin Franklin creatively pioneered layout techniques still used. Meanwhile patent medicines made outrageous claims.
• The rise of the penny press in the 1830s, coupled with mass production innovations, rapidly expanded advertising’s reach.
• Civil War industrialization birthed national brands. Around the same time P.T. Barnum’s shameless showmanship transformed public attitudes about advertising – for better and worse.
• Advertising continually adapted breakthrough technologies like photography, radio, TV and the internet to engage audiences.

Shops soon added “barkers” touting their merchandise aloud. Their modern versions continue promoting wares via loudspeakers and over-enthusiastic pitches.

Another innovation was town criers broadcasting merchant messages. In ancient Greece, eloquent public criers garnered attention for upcoming auctions and new shipments. Today’s radio announcers and jingles carry on the tradition, often still accompanied by music.

The printing press turbocharged advertising’s reach. German inventor Johannes Gutenberg’s creation enabled mass communication. As literacy spread, paid notices in print became commonplace.

The first print ad in English promoted a 1480 religious book. Early newspaper ads hawked medicines, real estate, and anything imaginable, alongside news. Publishers like pioneer John Houghton actively sold the value of print ads to hesitant merchants in the 1600s.

Across the Atlantic, American advertising got a slow start due to Puritan opposition toward frivolous printed matter. But as the Colonial era relaxed its strict mores, merchants avidly experimented with newspaper advertising.

Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette creatively used illustrations, headlines and white space decades before other papers. Franklin advertised his inventions alongside ads for lotteries and runaway slaves that we would consider shocking today.

By the birth of the United States in 1776, all major Eastern cities had newspapers profiting from commerce in paid notices connecting buyers and sellers. Advertising had firmly established itself as both a medium for spreading ideas and an engine powering our capitalist system.

By 1810 over 350 American newspapers and magazines existed, but circulation was minimal. Advertising remained unpredictable. A standard tactic was charging fixed annual fees to advertisers, covering subscriptions and automatically inserting their ads. Reaching 2,000 copies was rare for papers. However, devoted readers likely pored over every page. Readership saturation was far higher than today.

Innovations catalyzed industry growth and advertising’s ascent. Eli Whitney’s 1794 cotton gin enabled textile manufacturing. In 1807, Fulton’s steamboat transported goods and news with unprecedented speed. Fourdrinier’s 1803 paper-making machine enabled mass production of cheap paper. This allowed the 1833 New York Sun to sell for just one penny, undercutting all rivals. The Sun’s circulation skyrocketed to 20,000 within years, topping even the prestigious London Times. Steam-powered printing presses and trains spread information and advertisements nationally.

Advertising outlets rapidly adopt new technologies for information reproduction and dissemination. For example, advertisers eagerly utilized Benjamin Day’s patented 1835 dot-shading process to make images for ads and publications. Similarly, typesetting innovations like the linotype machine found early adopters in ad agencies.

Up to this point, advertising was largely local and retail-focused. Manufacturers were scarce, selling through general stores or Yankee peddlers instead of national campaigns.

The industrial revolution transformed this model. Domestic embargoes during the 1808-1815 wars forced American factories to replace imports of British textiles and other goods. Protective tariffs further propelled industrialization. Manufacturing value tripled over 25 years. An age reliant on local craftsmanship gave way to mechanized industry.

A contemporaneous advertising revolution happened under circus impresario P.T. Barnum. He built fame and fortune promoting outlandish spectacles with over-the-top hype. Barnum’s shameless sensationalism fascinated the public while appalling more sober businessmen. Nevertheless, his self-proclaimed tenfold returns compelled stodgy executives to invest in flamboyant promotions. When these inevitably flopped, advertising absorbed the backlash. In truth, few sane companies could replicate Barnum’s uncanny instincts. Yet for decades he remained advertising’s most famed emblem, for better or worse.

So while Barnum’s legacy is steeped in controversy, he helped transform advertising from a peripheral retail function into an engine powering emerging consumer brands.

From ancient civilizations to the digital era, advertising has relentlessly evolved to harness the latest means of mass communication and culture. Its history winds through a captivating landscape of consumerism, technology, controversy and creativity.