Make up a summary of your text in English to tell the partner.

Listen to your partner’s summary, ask him / her questions.

Part I

Advertising has been around ever since people have been around. Its earliest beginnings, of course, are impossible to pinpoint, but there are several examples dating back thousands of years. Clay tablets traced to ancient Babylon have been found with messages that touted an ointment dealer and a shoemaker. Ancestors of modern-day billboards were found in the ruins of Pompeii. Later, the town crier was an important advertising medium throughout Europe and England during the medieval period. In short, advertising was a well-established part of the social environment of early civilization.

In more recent times, the history of advertising is inextricably entwined with changing social conditions and advances in media technology. To illustrate, Gutenberg's invention of printing using movable type made possible several new advertising media: posters, handbills, and newspaper ads. In fact, the first printed advertisement in English was produced in about 1480 and was a handbill that announced a prayerbook for sale. Its author, evidently wise in the ways of outdoor advertising, tacked his ad to church doors all over England.

Advertising made its way to the colonies along with the early settlers from England. The Boston Newsletter became the first American newspaper to publish advertising. Ben Franklin, a pioneer of early advertising, made his ads more attractive by using large headlines and considerable white space. From Franklin's time up to the early nineteenth century, newspaper ads greatly resembled what today are called classified ads.

The Industrial Revolution caused major changes in American society and in American advertising. Manufacturers, with the aid of newly invented machines, were able to mass produce their products. Mass production, however, also required mass consumption and a mass market. Advertising was a tremendous aid in reaching this new mass audience.

The impact of increasing industrialization was most apparent in the period following the end of the Civil War (1865) to the beginning of the twentieth century. In little more than three decades, the following occurred:

1. The railroad linked all parts of the country, making it possible for Eastern manufacturers to distribute their goods to the growing Western markets.

2. Thanks in large measure to an influx of immigrants, the population of the United States grew quickly, doubling between 1870 and 1900. More people meant larger markets for manufacturers.

3. The invention of new communication media-the telephone, typewriter, high-speed printing press, phonograph, motion pictures, photography, rural mail delivery-made it easier for people to communicate with one another.

4. Economic production increased dramatically, and people had more disposable income to spend on new products.

This improved economic and communication climate helped advertising thrive. Magazines were distributed from coast to coast and made possible truly national advertising. The development of the halftone method for reproducing photographs meant that magazine advertisers could portray their products more vividly. By 1900, it was not unusual for the leading magazines of the period (Harper’s, Cosmopolitan) to run 75-100 pages of ads in a typical issue.

Part II

Not surprisingly, the increased importance of advertising in the marketing process led to the birth of the advertising agency, an organization that specializes in providing advertising services to its clients. The roots of the modern-day agency can be traced to Volney B. Palmer of Philadelphia. In 1842, Palmer bought large amounts of space in various newspapers at a discount and then resold the space at higher rates to advertisers. The actual ad-the copy, layout, and artwork-was still prepared by the company wishing to advertise; in effect, Palmer was a space broker. That situation changed in the late nineteenth century when the advertising agency of N. W. Ayer & Son was founded. Ayer & Son offered to plan, create, and execute a complete advertising campaign for their customers. By 1900, the advertising agency became the focal point of creative planning, and advertising was firmly established as a profession.

The 1920s saw the beginning of radio as an advertising medium. The rise of network broadcasting made radio an attractive vehicle for national advertisers. By 1930 about $27 million was spent on network advertising, and many of the most popular shows of the day were produced by advertising agencies. The stock market crash of 1929 had a disastrous effect on the U.S. economy. Total dollars spent on advertising dropped from $2.8 billion in 1929 to $1.7 billion in 1935. It would take a decade for the industry to recover. World War II meant that many civilian firms cut back on their advertising budgets. Others simply changed the content of their ads and instead of selling their products instructed consumers on how to make their products last until after the war.

The growth of advertising from the end of the war in 1945 to the early 1990s can only be described as spectacular. The changeover from a war economy to a consumer economy prompted a spurt in advertising as manufacturers hurried to meet the demand for all the goods and services that people had put off buying because of the war. From 1950 to 1975, the amount of money spent on advertising increased an incredible 490 percent. Also during this period several significant developments took place. The most important was probably television's rise as a national advertising medium. TV's growth had an impact on both radio and magazines. Radio became a medium used primarily by local advertisers. Magazines that aimed at specialized audiences attracted more advertisers, but general-interest publications (such as Collier's and Look) could not compete with TV and eventually went under. Second, the consumer became a more powerful force in the marketplace. Responding to increased consumer pressure, the VFC introduced corrective advertising during the 1970s. Third, direct advertising (much of it done through the mail) increased by more than 800 percent from 1950 to 1980. This increase was due to the growth of computerized mailing lists, the emergence of the telephone as a marketing tool, and the expanded use of credit card shopping.

The l980s and 1990s saw the media environment for advertising change drastically. Cable television opened up dozens of new and specialized channels that siphoned advertising dollars away from the major TV networks. Videocassettes and computerized data services such as Prodigy have opened up new avenues for advertising. Moreover, improved transportation and communication gave birth to the mega-ad agency with branches throughout the world. Political changes in Europe have created new opportunities for global marketing. In sum, contemporary advertising must cope with a multitude of social, governmental, economic, and technological factors to adapt to the modern world.

Ex. 2. Discuss with your partner:

What are your favourite / least favourite advertisements?

Have you ever bought something that you didn’t really want because of a good ad / salesperson?

What happened?