The history of Advertising can be traced back to the Egyptians. Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. Advertising on papyrus was quite common in Ancient Greek and Ancient Rome. Wall or rock painting was in practice then and which is in fact still in use in parts of Asia, Africa and South America. In India the tradition of wall painting can be traced to 4000B.C
In China, advertising was started orally, as recorded in the Classic of Poetry of Bamboo flutes played to sell candy.
Thomas J. Barratt who in the 19th century worked for the Pears company created advertisements, with slogans, images and jingles. He understood the importance of Brand image of a company and was brilliant enough to understand to change the needs of the customers according to their tastes and preference. He is thus rightly called, the Father of modern advertising.
In India, advertisements like Lalitaji’s pearls of wisdom on which washing powder to be used, Karen Lunel dancing under a waterfall for the Liril ad, Give me Red, Everready batteries, the Vicco turmeric ads, the Hutch ad where the Pug keeps following around are all iconic ads in the ad world.
Till the 20th century ads used to be focused on introducing the product, describing it and creating a need among the audience for the product. Then Marketers believed that to promote their brand and make their brand sell, they need to be different from their competitors. Many competitors got into the market so consumers started asking Why them? USP came into the picture, which the company’s started counting on it. The unique selling proposition must be one the company makes which the competitor does not offer and cater to the needs of the customers. New and potential customers must be fascinated by this product’s USP for this product to sell and make better profits.
Advertising Industry has seen a sea change in terms of its advertisements and the mindset.
According to the Ad Man David Ogilvy,
“ The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.”
As exposure grew, Indian Advertising had the courage to change from the ‘hyper-ritualisation’ of gender stereotypes (a term coined by Erving Geoffman in ‘Gender Advertisement’), grow and show stories which were never shown before. Women were no longer dressed in Saris, trying to impress their mother-in-law. Instead the new wife is shown telling her husband that she wants to work after marriage.
Reputed Brands like Titan, Fastrack and Tata Tea talk about social issues like Second Marriage, Coming out of the closet( Homosexuality) and the importance of voting. The Advertisements of these brands no more concentrate on being the brand name on the top of the mind of the audience, instead marketers now engage audience through stories about social issues and building up an image and reputation of their brand which proves that they are forward thinking and support causes which do good to the society.
“You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.”
David Ogilvy
The Advertising world has thus evolved a lot but still has a long way to go…… It makes us think about the journey of Advertisements and the ways it is now trying to help the society by doing their bit of spreading awareness. The Companies are doing their CSR( Corporate Social Responsibility) by talking about taboo issues in their advertisements so that the society becomes conscious and does their bit.
As Bill Bernbach the advertising pioneer and founder of DDB rightly said-
Today’s smartest advertising style is tomorrow’s corn.
Sunshine and Rainbows 