History of Advertising

Trace The Evolution And Growth Of International Advertising And Public Relation Worlwide.

The History of Advertising Introduction “Advertising, a form of commercial mass communication designed to promote the sale of a product or service, or a message on behalf of an institution, organization, or candidate for political office. ” In a primitive form, advertising has been around almost as long as Homo sapiens in a recognizably modern form. It has been around for almost 2500 years.

Despite its venerable age it is still sprightly growing. Moreover there are good reasons to believe that its usefulness to consumer and therefore to economics, will keep on growing for another century or two at the very least. Even the dumbest futurologists would not try to predict further ahead than that, so I rest my case in advertising being a far larger and more important global industry in AD 2099 than in AD 1999 Advertising can be looked at from various perspectives. As the quote above states, its purpose is to increase the number of articles or products sold.

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These are not only things we can buy in different stores, for example clothing or supplies for our daily life, but also such simple things as a message placed by an institution or organization asking for attention of the public to raise money or to make them aware of a problem, such as anti-smoking ads. Even political parties use advertisements and commercials to state the opinion of their candidate. I think we have all experienced that quite extensively during the presidential campaign in the United States. Advertising became big business in the 20th century, offering many different jobs in advertising agencies and the marketing section.

The use of the media, like newspapers, television, direct mail, radio, magazines, outdoor signs and of course the Internet made this growth possible. It is a form of transporting information to the consumer, but which does not only have positive sides. There are many critical aspect about it, like persuading people to doing unhealthy things, like smoking, or producing special stereotypes everybody tries to follow. Nevertheless, advertising has become international, since producers and companies try to sell their products on a globalized market in almost every corner of the world.

It is therefore not surprising to see a big sign for Coca Cola in third world countries. 19th and 20th Century Advertising In the 19th century new technologies were developed and brand-new methods invented. As a result a surplus of production was formed. Warehouses of many factories were overflowing. In this way it was necessary to create useful advertisements, which would cover all large spaces, utilizing a large variety of mass media sources. The first advertising agent who created such a network was Volney Palmer. In 1841 he proclaimed himself as an advertising agent in Philadelphia and then created similar offices in Boston and New York.

About 20% of the commission for media brokers was paid to the publishers. Texts of ads were offered by the head of the company or its representative. People who wanted to put their ads in the newspaper paid him a commission. Such activities became very popular during the second part of 19th century in all European countries. Significant advances in advertising development were made by American brokers. In the early 1850’s, John Wanamaker caused a revolution in the retail trade. He created a price lists for a variety of goods and returned the money if the commodity was not of the promised quality.

As a result, he gained a lot of profit by using this strategy and he then opened a network of consumer goods shops. The reason of such great success was professional advertising. In 1880 businessmen employed the best creator of advertising texts – D. E. Powers. Powers started to develop advertisements using brand-new information. This strategy had become very popular in American trade circles and by the 20th century advertising had become a form of science. “In the 1880s a new era of advertising began: New methods of manufacturing led to greatly increased output and decreased the costs for the producers of consumer goods.

The products now could be packaged at the plant. Moreover the telegraph network was in place and the continent has been crisscrossed by a network of railroads…. ” All these were assumptions that now allowed nation-wide distribution and nation-wide advertising. This state supported the growth of advertising agencies and dictated their activities. During 19th century the majority of advertisements were published in the newspapers and advertising leaflets. Although newspapers were a prerogative of well-off class of community but the situation began to change in the early 1860’s when people got the opportunity of receiving publications by post.

First magazine advertisements appeared in The Southern Messenger. For a few years the editor of this magazine was Edgar Po. Many of the magazines that began to publish advertisements as the separate charter in the 19th century have continued doing it nowadays. Such editions are Cosmopolitan, Ladies’ Home Journal, Readers Digest and some others. Despite of the popular brands of newspapers the majority of information in the advertisements was unreliable and apocryphal. Moreover advertisements sometimes were immoral and absurd.

For example in the countryside of one American city advertisement was placed in the monument of a non-existent person and it stated: “This person killed himself with the handgun with Colt system”. Then “publishers” enumerated the value of this handgun. As the result of such inhuman actions people stopped trusting advertisements and began to consider advertising as something negative. The first radio-advertisement was broadcast in 1922 in New York on the WEAF radio station. Thus in the 1920s advertisers and their agents had come to realize radio's possibilities.

With its drama and immediacy, radio could convey their message directly to the consumer who would not need to purchase a publication or even need to be literate. In the 1950s television was introduced and quickly developed into THE advertising-media. In the 1950’s common income from the advertising industry rose to $ 10 billion a year. In 1980’s this index was $ 100 billion! Now advertisers could demonstrate the use of their products and present well-known figures to praise it. They could also affect emotions through television.

The History Of Public Relation

Early Development

Although the concept of public relations as systematic social activity and the term itself, were not recognized until the first decades of the twentieth century, its more elementary functions of publicity, persuasion , and press agentry are many children old. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of political communication, such as painted messages. , in ruins of ancient civilizations, just as thousands of communicators publicize today’s Olympic Games ,so did their predecessors promote the first contexts in Greece.

Caesar’s commentaries, glorifying the emperor, and the four gospels of the New Testament represented other forms of publicity and persuasion. As Peter G. Osgood, president of the public relations firm, remarked, “St john the Baptist himself did superb Advance work of P. R for Jesus of Nazareth.

As the wave of industrialization, mechanization and urbanization swept the nation after civil war, the public became concerned about many aspects of big business, including concentrations of wealth and control. In 1888 the mutual Life Insurance company sought to improve its image by employing newspaperman Charles J . Smith to write press releases. A year later Westinghouse corporation created what is said to be the first in-house publicity department. In 1897 the term public relations was used ,perharps for the first time, by the Association of American Railroads. Twentieth –Century Developments. The first publicity firm, known as the publicity bureau, was established in Boston in 1900, with Harvard University as one of its clients. Within the decade a number of other such bureaus were established. Among them was the office oof Ivy Ledbetter Lee and George Parker.

Ivy lee belief that much of the public’s antipathy toward business at that time-an antipathy exploite by the muckrakers (publications and writers who exposed corruption and exploitation) – resulted from the fact that most businesses operated in secrecy and most business people would not discuss their policies in operations with the public. Ivy lee used his PR techniques to restore peace and good image to the U. S coalindustry which was experiencing tumoil as aresult of shattering strikes. Lee continued to develop such techniques which werelater applied in various situations.

Another dimension was added to public relations concept during world war 1, when the committee on public information was established by the federal government under George Creel,a former newspaper reporter. The committee conducted a massive and successful publicity campaign to mobilize the American public behind the war effort. The values of such massive communications efforts were impressed upon those who worked with Creel, and some of them became pioneers in the establishment of public relations firm designes to conduct similar campaigns for private clients. They included Edward L.

Bernays , who in 1923 coined the term public relations counsel to describe a function that was to become the core of public relations, and Carl Byoir, whose firm became highly successful. After world war II public relations developed rapidly,in business and industry at first and later in nonprofit institutions. The number of public relation workers soared from only 19,000 in 1950 to 250,000 in 1990. In Nigeria the need for public administration arose after second world war. At that time there was need for effective public information as a result of growing unpopularity of the then colonial government.

In the private sector, UAC established thr first PR department in 1949 under Charles Newman to explain the company’s work and policies to the people.

Evaluating The Operations And Level Of Development Of Advertising In Nigeria

Few studies have examined the cultural reflections and the role of advertising in the national development of Nigerian or other African countries. This study, which explored the meaning of development, the debate on the role of culture and mass media on social modernization, African political economy as well as Nigerian history, politics, economic and ommunication development efforts, serves as an attempt to bridge that gulf. This study focused on the role of advertising in the process of social mobilization and modernization in Nigeria by examining the cultural reflections, the nature and characteristics of the messages, and the values and symbols conveyed in Nigerian mass media advertisements. The findings demonstrated the difficulty of ascertaining the role of the mass media including advertising on a nation’s social, economic and national development and modernization.

However, some of the conclusions drawn from the exploration could be summarized as follows:

The Nigerian government as well as native-owned enterprises and public corporations do not use advertising adequately to promote their goods and services:

• Nigerian advertisers used both Western or traditional African cultural values, but neither of them dominated the other;
• Developmental themes were found in Nigerian mass media advertisements, but they tended to concentrate on individual instead of group goals as traditional African value system dictates;
• The nature and target(s) of advertisements in Nigerian mass media demonstrated that the Nigerian economy is distorted and underdeveloped;
• The underdeveloped nature is clearly demonstrated because the majority of consumer products and services advertised in Nigeria were of foreign origin and mostly non-essential;
• The products advertised often targeted the elites because the Nigerian masses could not afford them;

Financial advertisements were the most dominant products and services of Nigerian origin because they promoted more products and services that the average Nigerian could afford. This study demonstrated that advertising holds both promises and problems for Nigerian economic and social development. Its promises deal with its ability to relay useful information on social issues and on the availability of goods and services to the masses.

On the other hand, the problems deal with its ability to promote unfair competition, consumerism, lack of interest in social matters, and immoral attitudes, which could distort the economy or undermine traditional values and national economy. However, advertising should be encouraged, not discouraged. It could be monitored by practitioners and government officials in order to make the medium an effective vehicle for promoting goods and services as well as values that would assist the socioe conomic development of Nigeria. Advertising remains an important vehicle for the various tiers of Nigerian government to use for promoting their services and for explaining national issues in order to promote national integration and the social welfare of the masses. The use of advertising to promote socioeconomic development could be achieved by adopting “developmental advertising. The idea calls for the incorporation of relevant cultural values and developmental themes in product and service advertisements by the private and public sectors. The goal is to help public corporations and businesses in marketing their products and services, thus enabling Nigeria’s economic and social growth. It could assist Nigerians to adopt useful modernization habits.

The Impact Of International Advertising On A Corporate Body

The advertising business has become such an important factor in the economy of many countries, especially in Nigeria, that it also changes the economy itself, society, culture, and the political system. The stimulation for the demand of products and services helps the economy grow stronger and stronger.

New inventions become known much faster and can establish their spot in the sales figures of the economy. If there are more people buying these products the overall costs will drop and the product will become cheaper for the customer which raises his willingness to buy even more. On the other hand advertisements are very expensive and some economists believe that these costs are put on top of the actual price paid by the customer. Advertising has a serious impact on the culture of a country. The globalized economy uses the same commercials in a lot of different countries, which leads to a break down in the differences of these societies. Children will grow up not knowing how their culture has been before in their country.

It can also lead to a lot of discussion about moral values if we just think about the very controversial ads. Critics argue that advertising can also have a huge influence on society. It tells the consumers that only purchasing products makes you happy and therefore people compare each other on their belongings. Women also compare themselves with the beautiful and very skinny models they see on commercials and ads. This sometimes results in eating disorders and a low self-esteem of women who don’t look like these models. Another bad effect is, that minority groups, especially in the United States are portrait in a subordinate position, which settles in the minds of people.

Commercials are also an important part of the income of a TV station which leads to the suspicion that a news channel might not report on an incident about a company they depend on. A lot of TV shows are also based on these commercials, and if the ratings aren’t good enough the show will be stopped. Only those shows which attract a lot of viewers will be shown, which is not very differentiated and put minorities like older people at a disadvantage. Finally advertising can also have an impact in politics. Millions are spent on advertisements and TV commercials in any elections taking place in the country. It gives the opponents the chance to respond to charges very quickly reaching a few million viewers.

But since this is very expensive only very rich people have to chance to run for a political position or at least depend on the donation of wealthier people who could have a huge impact on democracy this way. The political issues talked about in an election are also very much simplified because the spots are only about 30 seconds long, and you can’t really discuss a lot in such a short period of time.

The Challenge of Public Relations and Good Governance in Nigeria

The role of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations in enhancing communication between Governments, organisations and the public cannot be over emphasized. By ensuring free flow of communication, public relations practitioners help to reduce conflict and misunderstandings in the society. As you are all aware, good governance, accountability and transparency are important ingredients of democracy. In other words, the objective of good governance, as being implemented by this Administration, is to ensure the provision of better quality of life for all Nigerians. it is my opinion that public relations practitioners have the responsibility to understand public perceptions and truthfully communicate these to government. They should endeavor to provide free flow of information on government policies and actions to the general public for the good of all.

In this highly technological information age, the Public Relations professional needs to have a high sense of intellectual judgement, creativity, confidence and above all courage. I dare to say therefore that given the relevance of your profession, which is all about helping us to manage our relations with all our publics, a lot is expected of you. As you are all aware, we are now dealing with more informed and discerning publics. They are hungry for knowledge and truth and the success of any government in marketing its policies and achievements - external and internal - will depend on the level of professionalism, which you as Public Relations practitioners provide. I urge you therefore to tell the Nigerian story from our own perspective at all times.

In Nigeria, Public Relations has become a strategic management function. Most Nigerian organizations either have full public relations department or retain the services of PR consultants. In corporate bodies, PR is now acknowledged as a major tool in achieving social, economic and political goals and objectives of an organization. Public Relations has had numerous impact in an organization through publicizing an organizations activities and maintaining cordial relationship with the media (information and communication). Researching on corporate image, public motivation issues and trends. Public Relation has helped extensively in corporate identity management of an organization.

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