History of Advertising

Introduction

The principal of this dissertation is to establish how creative strategies produce memorable advertising; I will be looking into particular case studies from TBWA and their disruption philosophy to gain a better insight to why they are successful. I will also be looking into other agencies such as Fallon London and their triumphant advertising campaigns.

This dissertation will be an analysis of campaigns to gain a greater understanding of how to become a better art director.

Television and radio are no longer the be all and end all of today's advertising world there are various ways of marketing a product, such as print, billboard, cinema, web, digital, television, ambient, guerrilla and radio. Individuals are bombarded with advertisements marketing their products every day, according to the Guardian audiences are exposed to an overwhelming 3500 advertisements daily and 99% of these have no impact as they are unnoticeable (Gibson, 2005)[a]

1.1 History of advertising

Advertising is

'The act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc, especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc: to get more customers by advertising.' (Advertising, n.d)[1]

It has been present for many years dating back to 1477, which was created for a book called The Pyes of Salisbury. (Budd, 2006)[b]. Advertising became a well established industry in 1911 and continued to grow after the First World War. Strategies which involved psychological manipulation and propaganda were used to reach its target audiences, some were printed but most were broadcasted on the radio or in the cinema. (Wilson, 2000)[c]

An iconic, memorable war poster, created by Alfred Leete in 1914, shows Lord Kitchener pointing directly speaking to the audience to recruit men to fight for Britain in World War 1. The print ad was also on the front cover of London's weekly magazine 'London Opinion' to gain as much attention as possible. The intention of the image was to encourage men from the ages of 19 - 40 to enlist into the army, 'Your country needs you', powerful, manipulative words used to persuade audience. The words 'you' and the pointing create a direct approach when speaking to its audience.