Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of interest to consumers. It is typically used to promote a specific good or service, but there is a wide range of uses, a traditional form being commercial advertisement.
Commercial advertisements often seek to generate increased consumption of products or services through "branding", which associates a product name or image with certain qualities in the minds of consumers. Advertising that intends to elicit an immediate sale is known as direct-response advertising. Non-commercial entities that advertise include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations, and governmental agencies. Non-profit organizations may use free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement. Advertising may also help to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful.
Worldwide spending on advertising was estimated to be over in 2025. Advertising's distribution for 2024 was 59.4% on digital, 24.9% on TV, 5.2% on out-of-home, 4.5% on radio, 3.5% on newspapers, 2.2% on magazines and 0.4% on cinema. Internationally, the largest advertising agency groups in 2025 were Omnicom, Publicis and WPP.
History
Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. Commercial messages and political campaign displays have been found in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Arabia. Lost and found advertising on papyrus was common in ancient Greece and ancient Rome. Wall or rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient advertising form, which is present to this day in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America. The tradition of wall painting can be traced back to Indian rock art paintings that date back to 4000 BC.Bhatia (2000). Advertising in Rural India: Language, Marketing Communication, and Consumerism, 62+68
In ancient China, the earliest advertising recorded was in the Classic of Poetry (11th to 7th centuries BC) which describes bamboo flutes playing to sell confectionery. Advertising usually took the form of calligraphic signboards and inked papers. A copper printing plate dated to the Song dynasty era was used to print posters in the form of a square sheet of paper with a rabbit logo, that included the copy "Jinan Liu's Fine Needle Shop" and "We buy high-quality steel rods and make fine-quality needles, to be ready for use at home in no time" written above and below, and is considered to be the world's earliest identified printed advertising medium.Hong Liu, Chinese Business: Landscapes and Strategies (2013), p.15.
In Europe, as the towns and cities of the Middle Ages began to grow, and the general population was unable to read, instead of signs that read "cobbler", "miller", "tailor", or "blacksmith", images associated with their trade would be used, such as a boot, a suit, a hat, a clock, a diamond, a horseshoe, a candle or a bag of flour. Fruits and vegetables were sold in the city square from carts and wagons and their proprietors used street callers (town criers) to announce their whereabouts. The first compilation of such advertisements was gathered in "Les Crieries de Paris", a thirteenth-century poem by Guillaume de la Villeneuve.
18th-19th century: Newspaper Advertising
By the end of the 18th century in England, the circulation of newspapers had increased and advertising accounted for a significant proportion of newspaper content. As a result the word 'advertiser' began to be used in newspaper names/titles. Prior to the 19th century, most advertisements were for books or medicines. At this time, advertisements rarely used images.
In the United States, newspapers grew quickly in the first few decades of the 19th century, in part due to advertising. By 1822, the United States had more newspaper readers than any other country. About half of the content of these newspapers consisted of advertising, usually local advertising, with half of the daily newspapers in the 1810s using the word "advertiser" in their name.
In August 1859, British pharmaceutical firm Beechams created a slogan for Beecham's Pills: "Beechams Pills: Worth a guinea a box", which is considered to be the world's first advertising slogan. The Beechams adverts would appear in newspapers all over the world, helping the company become a global brand. The phrase was said to be uttered by a satisfied lady purchaser from St Helens, Lancashire, the founder's hometown.
In June 1836, the French newspaper La Presse was the first to include paid advertising in its pages, allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership and increase its profitability and the formula was soon copied by all titles.
Around 1840, Volney B. Palmer established the roots of the modern day advertising agency in Philadelphia. In 1842 Palmer bought large amounts of space in various newspapers at a discounted rate then resold the space at higher rates to advertisers. The actual ad (copy, layout, and artwork) was prepared by the company advertising, with Palmer being a space broker. The first full-service advertising agency of N.W. Ayer & Son was founded in 1869 in Philadelphia. Ayer & Son offered to plan, create, and implement complete advertising campaigns for its customers. By 1900 the advertising agency had become the focal point of creative planning, and advertising was firmly established as a profession. Around the same time, in France, Charles-Louis Havas extended the services of his news agency, Havas to include advertisement brokerage. At first, agencies were brokers for advertisement space in newspapers.
Late 19th century: Modern Advertising
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the rise of modern advertising, driven by industrialization and the growth of consumer goods. This era saw the early ad agencies employing more cunning methods such as persuasive diction and psychological tactics. Thomas J. Barratt of London has been called "the father of modern advertising".He was first described as such in T F G Coates, 'Mr Thomas J Barratt, "The father of modern advertising"', Modern Business, September 1908, pp. 107–15.Matt Haig, Brand failures: the truth about the 100 biggest branding mistakes of all time, Kogan Page Publishers, 2005, pp. 219, 266.Nicholas Mirzoeff, The visual culture reader, Routledge, 2002, p. 510. Working for the Pears soap company, Barratt created an effective advertising campaign for the company products, which involved the use of targeted slogans, images, and phrases. One of his slogans, "Good morning. Have you used Pears' soap?" was famous in its day and into the 20th century. In 1882, Barratt recruited English actress and socialite Lillie Langtry to become the poster girl for Pears, making her the first celebrity to endorse a commercial product.
Becoming the company's brand manager in 1865, listed as the first of its kind by the Guinness Book of Records, Barratt introduced many of the crucial ideas that lie behind successful advertising, and these were widely circulated in his day. He stressed the importance of a strong and exclusive brand image for Pears and of emphasizing the product's availability through saturation campaigns. He also understood the importance of constantly reevaluating the market for changing tastes, stating in 1907 that "tastes change, fashions change, and the advertiser has to change with them. An idea that was effective a generation ago would fall flat, stale, and unprofitable if presented to the public today. Not that the idea of today is always better than the older idea, but it is different – it hits the present taste."
Enhanced advertising revenues was one effect of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. Thanks to the revolution and the consumers it created, by the mid-19th century biscuits and chocolate became products for the masses, and British biscuit manufacturers were among the first to introduce branding to distinguish grocery products. One the world's first global brands, Huntley & Palmers biscuits were sold in 172 countries in 1900, and their global reach was reflected in their advertisements.
20th century onwards
As a result of massive industrialization, advertising increased dramatically in the United States. In 1919, advertising expenditure was 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP). Industry could not benefit from its increased productivity without a substantial increase in consumer spending. This contributed to the development of mass marketing designed to influence the population's economic behavior on a larger scale.Ewen, Captains of Consciousness (1976), p. 33. "As Ford's massive assembly line utilized 'extensive single-purpose machinery' to produce automobiles inexpensively and at a rate that dwarfed traditional methods, the costly machinery of advertising that Coolidge had described set out to produce consumers, likewise inexpensively and at a rate that dwarfed traditional methods." In the 1910s and 1920s, advertisers in the U.S. adopted the doctrine that human instincts could be targeted and harnessed – "sublimated" into the desire to purchase commodities.Ewen, Captains of Consciousness (1976), p. 34. "While agreeing that 'human nature is more difficult to control than material nature,' ad men spoke in specific terms of 'human instincts' which if properly understood could induce people 'to buy a given product if it was scientifically presented. If advertising copy appealed to the right instincts, the urge to buy would surely be excited'." Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, became associated with the method and is sometimes called the founder of modern advertising and public relations. Bernays claimed that:In other words, selling products by appealing to the rational minds of customers (the main method used prior to Bernays) was much less effective than selling products based on the unconscious desires that Bernays felt were the true motivators of human action. "Sex sells" became a controversial issue, with techniques for titillating and enlarging the audience posing a challenge to conventional morality.Rodger Streitmatter, Sex sells!: The media's journey from repression to obsession (Basic Books, 2004).Jessica Dawn Blair, et al., "Ethics in advertising: sex sells, but should it? " Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues 9.1/2 (2006): 109+.
In the 1920s, under Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, the American government promoted advertising. Hoover himself delivered an address to the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World in 1925 called 'Advertising Is a Vital Force in Our National Life." In October 1929, the head of the U.S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Julius Klein, stated "Advertising is the key to world prosperity." This was part of the "unparalleled" collaboration between business and government in the 1920s.
During this era, tobacco companies became major advertisers in order to sell packaged cigarettes.Brandt (2009) p.31 The tobacco companies pioneered new advertising techniques when they hired Bernays to create positive associations with tobacco smoking.Donley T. Studlar (2002) Tobacco Control: Comparative Politics in the United States and Canada p.55 quotation: "... from the early days advertising has been intimately intertwined with tobacco. The man who is sometimes considered the founder of modern advertising and Madison Avenue, Edward Bernays, created many of the major cigarette campaigns of the 1920s, including having women march down the street demanding the right to smoke."Donald G. Gifford (2010) Suing the Tobacco and Lead Pigment Industries , p.15 quotation: "... during the early twentieth century, tobacco manufacturers virtually created the modern advertising and marketing industry as it is known today."