Advertising

I have just read an article about "The development of advertising" and it talks about the history of advertisement.

Advertising started in the 19th century, also called the Industrial Revolution. At first the companies only promoted novelties and fringe products but later more companies started promoting, so brand-naming of products became necessary.

The economic depression from 1873 to 1894 made the firms unable to sell their products. The companies realised that it would be better to combine with other small businesses and widened the range of products. This was the start of "monopoly capitalism" and since then larger firms have more and more advertising.

A big change at the turn of the century was in the soap trade. There had been a lot of anonymous bars of soap and so the companies had to have more aggressive selling methods to take the costumers away from their rivals. One man, called Lord Leverhulme, decided to "brand" his soap.

Lord Leverhulme realised that advertisements should contain logical arguments, eye-catching and clever slogans. The writer E. S. Turner points out that advertising had reached the "stage of persuasion". This is the reason why bigger companies edge smaller firms out of the market.