Advertising, public relations, and institutional-based designs are foundational to the discussion of media history as they existed long before the concept of mass media became a reality. At its core, “advertising has been the lifeblood of business in all its stages since business first began” (Russell, p. 23). Some scholars, particularly those focusing on advertising history, starting with the advent of mass media, feel that oral or face-to-face selling/buying cannot or should not be called advertising. However, Presbrey (2000) stated, “The excuse for tracing advertising back to the tribal state of man is, of course, that oral salesmanship was the progenitor of advertising” (Ch. 1, ¶ 9). A different way of expressing that sentiment could be summarized as, “Whenever in the world’s history one individual announced in any way that he possessed something which another might possibly need or be induced to buy, he advertised (Russell, p. 23).
Eckhardt and Bengtsson (2010) suggest that branding practices “have been occurring for at least 9,000 years” and include such items as “product seals, a branding system used in the urban revolution in fourth century BC [that] were being used to signal quality control, authenticity, and ownership to consumers, all characteristics of modern brands” (p. 210). Although advertising has changed in terms of delivery methods, proportions, scope and focus, there is, “something of the first advertisement [that] survives in the latest, and there will be traces of it in the last” (Beard, 2017, p. 244). As Wood (1958) stated, “Advertising has developed and supported great industries, bulwarked entire economies, and changed a sufficient number of human habits” (p. 3). As Calkins (1924) so eloquently stated, “Advertising is the supreme flowering of sophisticated civilization” (p. 4). Russell (1910) proposes, “the pioneer advertiser is unknown, but must have been a contemporary of the pioneer businessman. The infant of business must have been the originator of advertising at a date centuries before printing was known and when language had hardly risen above animal dialect” (p. 23). Therefore, from the beginning of commerce, a connection to advertising existed. As Essex (2017) stated, “The need to sell things will never die” (p. 13).
Branding in Antiquity
One of the earliest forms of advertising was the use of a brand. As Beard (2017) stated, “At its simplest, branding involves the use of a tangible mark or symbol that differentiates a product or service from those of competitors” (p. 240). Eckhardt and Bengtsson (2010) state, “Brands are an outcome rather than the mechanism that generates consumer culture. That is, consumer culture develops because of social needs and tensions and brands emerge to provide status and stratification” (p. 219). Brands and branding are related to an ancient history of product-container seals as well as commodity marks and labels” (Beard, 2017, p. 240). The concept of the brand “may be broader than what has previously been acknowledged (Eckhardt & Bengtsson, 2010, p. 219). Until the 2000s, “many historians tracked the ancient origins of brands and branding back to the burning of a mark on cattle and manufactured goods” (Beard, p. 240) and then seemed to skip to developments that occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Beard refers to this as Americanization, or the assumption that true, “brands did not exist until primarily American 20th-century advertisers of soap and patent medicines strategically began to craft messages in support of their wares” (p. 240).
Although there exists a general attitude that “the emergence of brands as an important marketplace agent tends to be designated to modern Western societies” of the late 19th Century, “new evidence… from various civilizations from around the world, [suggests] one can begin to demonstrate this has happened earlier (Eckhardt & Bengtsson, 2010, p. 210). Further, today’s brands are very similar to “their ancient counterparts in terms of their characteristics, functions, and contributions to consumer cultures (Beard, 2017, p. 240). Those ancient counterparts included the Babylonians, Mesopotamians, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans (Presbrey, 2000; Beard, 2017).
On the clay bricks and pottery of the Babylonians, from approximately 3000 BCE, are “found stenciled inscriptions which have been called the first advertisements” (Presbrey, 2000, Ch. 1, ¶ 10). The inscriptions included the name of the king and the name of the temple. Presbrey further explains:
The method was to cut a stencil in a hard stone and with it stamp each brick while the clay was still soft. The kings who did this advertised themselves to such of their subjects as could read hieroglyphics. The modern advertising man would say they ran an institutional campaign for themselves and their dynasties. (¶ 10)
Besides the king, who left a printed record, there is evidence that Babylonian merchants were skilled in advertising. Methods employed at that time that would be seen again centuries later included barkers or town criers and signs hung over doors with symbols indicating the trade. Presbrey (2000) noted, “The first written advertisements appeared about this time, but they were not offers of something for sale. They were announcements on papyri of reward for the return of runaway slaves, with a description of the runaways. They probably were posted in the temples (¶ 14). For the learned, written advertising would suffice; to increase awareness, symbols and speech were more effective in attracting a larger audience. Presbrey notes, “inscriptions have been uncovered by archeologists in Babylonia which have been interpreted as advertisements of an ointment dealer, a scribe and a shoemaker” (¶ 13).
In Herculaneum and Pompeii, Archeologists have uncovered signs on the outside of buildings that indicate that “shopkeepers used pictures to indicate the specialty of their store, creating a shorthand device for potential customers” (Eckhardt & Bengtsson, 2010, p. 210; Wood, 1958).
SIGNBOARDS FOUND IN RUINS OF POMPEII – The grain mill for the bakery and goat for the dairy (found in Presbrey, 2000, Ch. 1).
These “Point-of-purchase advertisements and political campaign posters are visible on the walls” (Beard, p. 240) and can be considered as “advertising which comes within the modern meaning of the term. This advertising consisted of persuasive announcements painted on walls in black or red…[and mainly consisted of] theatrical performances, sports and baths, but especially of gladiatorial exhibitions. A translation of one of them reads:
THE TROOP OF GLADIATORS OF THE AEDIL
WILL FIGHT ON THE 31ST OF MAY
THERE WILL BE FIGHTS WITH WILD ANIMALS
AND AN AWNING TO KEEP OFF THE SUN (Presbrey, 2000, Ch. 1, ¶ 25).
Other examples of early forms of advertising from antiquity include:
- A Greek custom to “affix advertisements to the statues of their infernal deities and demons calling down the vengeance of the gods on those who had found lost articles and had not returned them. These notices were inscribed on sheets of lead, and a large collection of them found years ago in the Temple of Demeter is one of the interesting exhibits in the British Museum” (Presbrey, 2000, Ch. 1, ¶ 17).
- “Iron Age Greek potters used trademarks and mottos to differentiate their brands.
- Medieval Chinese manufacturers relied on consumer word of mouth (WoM) to promote their offerings.
- In what might have been considered (very) early consumer packaged-goods branding, ‘garum’ (a fermented fish sauce) was marketed under several brand names throughout the Roman Empire…
- The Chinese invented paper during the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), and what followed were the first advertisements containing words and pictures” (Beard, 2017, pp. 239-41).
The Dark Ages changed the dynamics, and, as Presbrey (2000) stated, “For nearly a thousand years following the decline of Rome, advertising made no progress. Instead, it went backward, following the retreating steps of civilization” (¶ 31). During this time, “Signs in pictures that told a story were important…when few people could read” (Wood, p. 23). However, more important was the more personal form of persuasion.
References
Beard, F. (2017). The Ancient History of Advertising: Insights and Implications for Practitioners: What Today’s Advertisers and Marketers Can Learn from Their Predecessors. Journal of Advertising Research, 57(3), 239–244.
Calkins, E. (1924). “Louder please!”: The autobiography of a deaf man. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015064393922
Eckhardt, G., & Bengtsson, A. (2010). A Brief History of Branding in China. Journal of Macromarketing, 30(3), 210–221. https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146709352219
Essex, A. (2017). The End of Advertising: And why it had to die. New York: Spiegel & Grau.
Presbrey, F. (2000). The History and Development of Advertising. Advertising & Society Review 1(1), doi:10.1353/asr.2000.0021.
Russell, T. (1910). Advertising Methods and Mediums. Chicago: Washington Institute. Retrieved from: https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b335973
Wood, J. (1958). The Story of Advertising. New York: The Ronald Press Company.