HISTORY OF ADVERTISING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18018, 17 February 1922, Page 6

HISTORY OF ADVERTISING.

MODERN DEVELOPMENTS.

FACTOR IN BUSINESS SUCCESS.

An interesting address on " The History of Advertising," was delivered before the Auckland Ad\crtising Club last evening by Mr. Phi). Hay ward. Mr. P. J. G«*tii ; 'ich presided.

Mr Hayward said it was impoesiblo to say when the first advertisement appeared, but there was no doubt that the origin of advertising belonged to the earliest time when competition, caused by increasing population, led each man to make efforts in the race for prominence. Tracing the growth of advertising from the time when the crier acted as the medium between producer and consumor, Mr. Havward said the first printed pasters wer© those produced by Gaston, who invented printing, in 1480. There was good reason to believe that France was the first country to have regular newspapors. Mr. Haywßrd then traced the rapid strides made in newspaper advertising, and said it was not until illustrations were more often used that advertising became popular, but it was not until 1892 that the London Times allowed an illustration to be used in a display advertisement to be inserted, this being the prospectus for a new railway. Since the early eighties the development of process blocks had been an important advancement in advertising poster work, together with a much greater attention to the artistic setting of type. The twentieth century had 6een another factor in the advancement of advertising, continued Mr Hayward. This was the development of the professional publicity expert, who had done, and was doing, a great service. On him depended to a. grant extent whether or not advertising would continue to progress as it had done in the past. It was his business to know how to write advertisements, what mediums to dsOj and how to fill the space allotted to tho very best advantage. To-day th« press was supposed to absorb about half the amount spent in advertising. This would amount to between £40,000,000 and £50,000,000 in Great Britain alone.

In conclusion, Mr. Havward' said there was no doubt the gradual development of the art of advertising had been responsible for a great deal of the success in modern business, Dun's financial agency having given out the information that of all tho failures recorded in 1920, 84 per cent, were of firms which did not advertise.