Rewind: History of Print Advertising

Advertisements can be found in several forms and in several places, but one of the oldest and the most significant form is print advertising. Let us go back in time to see how it all started...

This advertising strategy started way back in 1468 during the days of William Caxton when he promoted a book that had his 1st printed advertisement.

After which in 1704, Joseph Campbell moved on to include ads in Boston Newsletter. This in fact was a great idea since people started becoming well informed regarding certain people and products.

In 1833 period, Benjamin Day got his 'New York Sun' book printed which was a combination of advertising vehicle and news.

After this, the 'Edward Book of Ladies Home Journal' created a magazine ad code during 1910. Since this period, print advertising started evolving with more attention seeking designs.

Print ads stand effective only if people view them. When people look through several publications, they get a tendency to receive new details and become more observant about the things that interest them.

This form of advertising aims to attract more and more people towards their services and products, as and when they read or scan publications. Such ads are commonly seen in magazines, newsletters and newspapers. This type of advertising requires lots of planning which is done often by a group of individuals.

When we glance through the history of print media advertising, we get these concepts:

• A group of individuals are required for creating ideas which further develops into a concept.

• Several others are involved in placing these concepts appropriately, since this factor earns them more cash.

Finally, print media advertising becomes a major part of earning revenue for any publication.

Different companies, Different execution

Here’s another pair of advertisements to compare and analyze

Two different companies

Two different parts of the world

Yet same product!! Take a look..

Hayat and Blue Waters are two companies that sell water, one is for Arab countries and the other is for the West.

You can notice in both advertisement that the brand is trying to sell a product. However, the ad that is targeting Arab countries uses a celebrity to advertise for the product. When you first see the ad you won’t understand what the ad really means, because the product is placed in the corner of the ad with the brand name under it. The celebrity took all the attention from the main message that the advertisers are trying to sell.

You can see that it is difficult for an individual to receive the intended message. The background  of the ad sends mixed messages for the audience, which makes it confusing and hard to understand. The layout and the design of the ad doesn’t support the product been advertised. It is hard to notice what is the goal or the purpose of the ad.

In the second ad, Blue Water send a direct message for the audience which is to advertise for their product and sell it. The way they placed the logo of the brand  and the picture of the water bottles grabs the audience attention because they are positioned in a place at the subject’s eye level.

Even the lighting and the design of the ad attracts the audience attention because the colors represents water and nature. It makes an individual thirsty when he or she first sees the ad. The motto “ join the blue crew” and the way the font is used matches the theme of the ad.

Both ad uses emotional appeals to relates the consumer’s social and psychological needs for purchasing the product. But not all the ad were successful in delivering the intended message to their target audience. I think the Arab based ad could have used more creativity and effort to push their product to be more noticable. I don't think that they always need a celebrity to promote a product, because thats when advertisers tend to make the mistake of focusing on the celebrity rather than the actual product.