Advertising

Advertising is often referred to as the second oldest profession. This is because something had to exist beforehand for advertising to advertise it. This suggests that advertising has been around for a long time. This is probably true but it probably was not considered a discreet profession until the twentieth century.

In centuries past advertising was probably just the act of making things more widely known, and things that needed to be know would probably only come from the government, be it the King or local dignitaries, or the church. In fact, some of the greatest works of art could be considered as advertising for the church in as much as they conveyed the message of the church to the masses that were largely illiterate anyway.

Things have changed a lot now of course. Advertising as a profession and multi-million pound industry is well established in modern society. The rise of advertising was hand in hand with the rise of the consumer society. As products became easier and cheaper to mass produce then there was a need for someone to sell their product to people in preference to people buying someone else’s product. There was probably nothing to choose between these two products, but effective advertising could mean the difference between one product selling and another not selling. Advertising can create an image for a product that makes is desirable for people to own. In effect, advertising is selling the image or a lifestyle associated with a product as much as the product itself.