Audrey McQuillan
Since the birth of small businesses, advertising has existed. However, with the development of technology and culture, advertisements have adapted to society.
Birth of Advertising in Colonial America
Advertisements have been around for a very long time. Technically, it has existed since the first time someone marketed a certain product for a certain price.
However, this type of advertisement was done by word of mouth and looked a lot different than advertisements we would see today. The first ads started in America, before we gained our independence from the British.
In the 1700s, with the help of the printing press, newspaper ads were the first official printed advertisement in colonial America. Many ads for imported goods for rum, sugar, and tea were found in newspaper ads.
Source: Varsity Tutors
The Development of Branding
The first ads would look foreign to consumers in today’s world. They were very simplistic, plain and had no concept of marketing and branding.
Many times, the ads only included the product and price with no association to the company producing the product. As competition rose in the markets in the 19th century, the idea of branding finally came to light.
Marketing Director at Talkroute, Stephanie, defines branding from an advertiser’s point of view. “To ‘brand’ something literally means to burn something with a mark, which is what companies eventually began to do. It just goes to show how long progress can take sometimes because it actually took over a hundred years for manufacturers to realize that they can secure some repeat business by putting their names on their products.”
A few decades later, companies ran with the idea of branding and started to pitch advertisements illustrating the uniqueness of their products. This led to advertisements that are similar to what we see today.
Advertising in the 20th Century
Radio advertising was the first form of advertisement other than newspapers. Radio advertisements offer advertising to a larger audience and is a quicker way to deliver ads.
Television was the next forum for advertisement. The development of the television completely changed advertising.
Television commercials have made a significant impact in the world of advertising. Television commercials created an entirely new market that offered visualized advertisements. This eventually led to internet advertisements that we see today.
Ethics Codes around Advertisements
As advertisements changed throughout the course of history, so has the ethics surrounding these advertisements. Ethics codes were written to create a set of ethical rules that advertisers should follow when creating advertisements.
Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Institute for Advertising Ethics (IAE) are two organizations that have created these codes to aid advertisers in making ethical decisions. However, unethical advertisements have been created and produced throughout the history of advertisements.
Even though unethical advertisements have been created. I do believe that ethics codes do aid in eliminating unethical advertisements and decisions when it comes to advertising.
Laws, such as the FTC Act, Lanham Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, were created to prevent false or misleading advertisements.
Overall, I do believe the laws and ethics codes surrounding advertisements make a difference in preventing unethical advertisements.
However, in a world of technology and changing culture, I do believe that some of these codes may need to be updated to ensure ethical advertisements are published.
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