Advertisement Is a Form of Communication

Advertisement is a form of communication, used in different types of medium, to persuade or to inform the audience about a message. Advertising has evolved significantly into different types of mediums over the past hundred years. Advertisements first appeared in papers, after the invention of the printing press and later found themselves through radio, television, billboards and the internet. One may question whether advertising is a result of technological growth. Although some may agree, one must also understand that every technology has its limitation and, as a result, in order for the ad or campaign to be more effective, there needs to be constant upgrading of how the advertisements are sent to the consumers. The era we live in allows advertising over the internet, and such communication is a popular trend as data mining from the internet has enabled companies to gather a consumer's preferences and habits. This leads to more personalized ads since companies now know what any particular person may possibly need or want. It's evident that the forms of advertising are constantly changing and evolving around us to more effectively deliver and broadcast the message, as a result, even the newer methods of advertising are quickly rendered obsolete.

Advertising began in the Gutenberg era, when there were movable letter blocks. This was the beginning of the mass production of different writings. In the 17th century, education became more important, and the need for reading and writing became more apparent. Since more people became literate, the development of print advertising expanded. However, the purpose of these early print ads was to persuade people to purchase books and newspaper, which became relatively inexpensive with advances in the printing press. In June 1836, the first newspaper to include paid advertising was the French paper La Presse (Remesar, 2011). Due to its revenue from advertising, it lowered the cost of purchasing the newspaper and increased its profitability.