Advertising - Through the Years

by Bibek Sengupta

No one who has caught a big fish will walk home through the back alley. The cave man surely didn’t. The cave man was just blowing his own trumpet but ingenious men around got the idea. Advertising soon came about.

Textbooks say, advertising today, is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. The average man on the street however understands things differently. Say it with flowers. Say it with pictures. Whatever be it, just say it. Or else how will you convince people that you are good. This is precisely the advertising.

The Origins
Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. Commercial messages and campaign displays have been found in Europe and ancient Arabia. Rock painting for commercial advertising is another manifestation of an ancient advertising form, which is still present in many parts of Asia, Africa, and South America .
As education spread and well printing developed, advertising expanded to include handbills. In the 17th century advertisements started to appear in weekly newspapers in England. These early print advertisements were used mainly to promote books and newspapers.

Philadelphia – Where It All Started
It was Pennsylvania Gazette, published by Benjamin Franklin from Philadelphia in 1729 with a page full of advertisements.

But the road ahead was not smooth in the beginning. Many publications banned advertisements while others limited the space to one column width. However by 1870 there were over 5,000 newspapers in circulation which carried advertisements and the demand for advertising services grew rapidly.

The Strategy of Early Advertising
In June 1836, French newspaper La Presse introduced paid advertising allowing it to lower its price, extend its readership to increase its profitability. And suddenly people realized that advertising paid.

The strategy of early advertising was to convince the buyer of the quality of the product. A realistic illustration of the product, numerous descriptions praising its virtues from prominent citizens were commonly used. Later product claims gave way to elaborate stories of purchases that rewarded the buyer with success or popularity.

Early Advertising Agencies in Philadelphia Volney B. Palmer opened the first advertising agency in Philadelphia in 1841 and is possibly the first person to use the term "Advertising Agency."

N. W. Ayers & Son. In 1869, 21 year old Francis Wayland Ayer opened a firm named after his father, N. W. Ayer. The firm was so successful that by 1877 it acquired the remains of the original Volney Palmer agency and therefore claimed to be the ‘oldest advertising firm in the USA’.

They created some of the most enduring slogans in advertising history, including: "When it rains it pours", advertising salt for Morton Salt. "A diamond is forever", advertising diamonds for De Beers, "Reach out and touch someone", advertising AT&T’s long-distance telephone services. N. W. Ayer shifted to New York City in 1973 and existed till 2002.

Some Interesting facts:

• The turning point in the history of advertising came in the year 1450 when Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press. Advertising no longer had to produce extra copies of a sign by hand.
• Lord and Taylor (1867) is the first company to use double-column advertising in newspapers.
• John Wanamaker (1879), department store owner, places the first whole-page newspaper advertisement. He had after all a whole department to advertise.
• John E. Powers (1880), who becomes known for his advertising honesty and direct advertising style. Powers becomes known as "the father of honest advertising."
• The Graphic Design, as we know it today originated in the late 19th century as a tool for advertising. William Addison Dwiggins, who first used the term "Graphic Designer" described the importance of typography in advertising design.
• Branding begins in 1904. Children were now not happy with just a candy or a bar of chocolate. They wanted a Cadbury or a Nestle.
• The first annual advertising show opens in New York City in 1906 . The "Age of Advertising" officially begins.

The Advertising Firsts in India
Right from the days when cities and markets first sprang up in India , hawkers had been calling out their wares. We just didn’t realize they were “advertising”. They then graduated to advertising in the papers and distributing handbills . However, advertising proper began in India with classified advertising in the 18th century. Printed advertisements appeared for the first time in weekly newspaper Hickey's Bengal Gazette. B.Dattaram & Co in Bombay , formed in 1905 claims to be the oldest existing Indian agency. ‘Dalda’ was the first major example of a brand and a marketing campaign specifically conceived for Indian consumers developed in 1939.

----------------------
Source: History of Advertising and Publishing By Lisa Marie Heitman , Wikipedia, Advertising- The Mother of Graphic Design by Stephen Heller
Acknowledgement : Thanks to Yasmin Ali for her valuable inputs.
Cartoons: Bibek Sengupta

World's First 'ROCK' Band!!

By Bibek Sengupta   |  Published in Unishkuri, 19th July 2009, an ABP Publication.

There’s no more ‘rock’ to ‘rock music’ than just the word. Legend has that this type of rock music was inspired by the sounds made by a river running over a special kind of rock. Bibek Sengupta takes a look at how man improvised on nature’s sounds to create a unique genre of music.


By the River Greta
Nature resides in all her glory at Cumbria county, in northwest England. Keswick is a quaint little village here. The Greta flows past this village, at the foothills of the Skiddaw and brushing Lake Coniston.

It was a languid summer afternoon in 1785. Retired sailor Peter Crosthwaite was stirred by an unusual tune that hung in the air. He often heard this tune when he strolled by the river. It was not a musical tune, but rather like someone playing the organ and rustling up varied tunes. Crosthwaite’s curious eyes wandered to a boulder on the river. It was an unusual rock, found only in this part of Lake District in Cumbria. The tunes were created when the river water splashed on this rock.

Crosthwaite was not a scientist by training, but he had a penchant for making innovative things from various odds and ends. He scoured the river and brought home about fifteen or sixteen of these rocks. He tinkered with them, examined them closely and came up with sixteen different kinds of tunes. And before he knew it, he had made the world’s first geological piano or a ‘rock organ’. He never knew that 55 years after his discovery of this magical rock, Joseph Richardson’s almost identical musical contraption would create ripples across the world.

The Richardson Set
A mason by profession, Richardson too hailed from the village of Keswick. He was also intrigued by the sounds that came out from the rock on the Greta. He had noticed that the same kinds of sounds emanated from a type of Paleozoic rock, ‘Hornfels’ found at the foothills of the Skiddaw. What is more, the quality and the variety of these sounds were greater.

Richardson was excited with his findings and what he could create from this rock soon became an obsession. He built stone houses and so he was well-versed with the properties and characteristics of various rocks. He worked to earn his livelihood by the day and at night, he tinkered with all kinds of rocks and pebbles. His efforts bore fruit after 13 long years and he created a massive ‘rock harmonicon’. It was a musical instrument with five octaves and he had used 65 rocks of various sizes in two rows. He named this the ‘Richardson Set’. It was a humongous instrument and three people were required to play it.

The First Band
Richardson was musically inclined himself. He could play violin, flute and pipes. He also started training his three sons. Soon the rock organ became a part of their curriculum.

He played this creation of his in a few local musical soirees. This was when the hoi polloi got the first glimpse of this extraordinary musical instrument. This was in the beginning of the year 1837. The ‘Richardson Rock Band’ was formed and this was the world’s first rock band.

It was a family affair and Richardson soon started traveling across England with his family. An advertisement heralding ‘Music from Solid Rocks’ in the Times Magazine got him noticed. By that time, he had added the percussion, sweet bell, steel bar and drums to his repertoire. He also changed the name of his band to ‘Richardson Rock, Bell and Steel Band’.

The fame of Richardson’s rock band soon reached the Buckingham Palace and the Queen herself asked for a performance. An event was arranged on 23 February 1848 in the Palace premises. The Queen was mesmerised by it and she again asked for two more performances.

By this time, the Richardsons were touring not only London and the adjacent areas, but also were traveling to far flung places like France, Germany and Italy. A tour to the States was also being arranged when tragedy struck. Robert Richardson, the youngest of the family died of pneumonia. A heartbroken Richardson retired from stage life forever.

Richardson was found dead in his family home in 1945. After lying unused for many years, Richardson’s great-grandson donated the by-now legendary Richardson Set to the Keswick Museum.

Efforts Since Then
An interesting fact came to light from Paul Collins’ article in the The Believer magazine. It stated, William Till, another musician of such genre, too had formed a band way back in 1881. He garnered much praise for a performance at the Crystal Palace. The rock organ gained popularity in America courtesy these Tills.

The origins of rock music are conventionally traced back to African-American singers Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. In the later years, Elvis Presley and The Beatles elevated rock music to frenzied levels.

About four years back, Jamie Barnes, who headed the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery arranged an open-air concert by the Coniston Lake. This was the ‘Coniston Water Festival’ of 2005, which ringed with the primordial tunes of the rock organ.

The next year BBC telecasted a four-episode documentary series, ‘The World’s First Rock Band’ that highlighted the rock organ that was created from the Skiddaw rock.

In the first part of the 18th century, Crosthwaite had created a museum of sorts at his Keswick home. This museum was later transferred to what is known today as the ‘Keswick Museum and Art Gallery’. The museum soon became known as one of the most unusual museums in the world. Housed amongst the exhibits here are Crosthwaite and Richardson’s ancient rock organs.The tunes from these rock organs still echo in the nooks and crannies of England’s villages.

[My sincere thanks to Mr. Jamie Barnes, Curator- Keswick Museum and Art Gallery for his valuable inputs]

Photograph courtesy: Keswick Museum and Art Gallery
Web Links:
www.youtube.com/musicalstonestv
www.musicalstones.blogspot.com