Safekipedia

Advertising

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

Historical 1890s Coca-Cola advertisement featuring a woman enjoying a drink

Advertising

Advertising is a way to show people why something might be good or special. It helps people decide if they want a toy, food, or clothes. Sometimes, ads are also used by groups that don’t want to sell anything, like political parties or religious organizations.

People have been advertising for thousands of years! The ancient Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages. In ancient China, there were poems about selling sweets with music. In Europe during the Middle Ages, shops used pictures instead of words because not many people could read well.

Today, the world spends lots of money on ads. Most of the money goes to digital ads. Big companies like Omnicom, Publicis, and WPP make many of these ads. Ads can appear on TV, radio, newspapers, and more.

Ads help tell people about a product or service and why it’s special. They can make a company look good or show new ways to use a product. The goal is to get people interested and bring them into the store. Advertising is a big part of our world and helps people learn about new things.

Images

An ancient bronze printing plate from the Song Dynasty, used to make one of the earliest known commercial advertisements for a needle shop in China.
An historical advertising flier from Japan in 1806, showcasing a traditional medicine called Kinseitan, displayed in the Edo Tokyo Museum.
An old advertisement from the early 1900s promoting Beechams Pills with the slogan 'Worth a Guinea a Box.'
A vintage advertisement for 'Opera' wafers by Huntley & Palmers from 1890, featuring elegant design elements.
A historical painting showing people inside a London trolleybus, with women holding flowers and babies, and someone reading a newspaper.
A vintage 1916 advertisement for Woodbury soap featuring the slogan 'A skin you love to touch.' This historical ad showcases early beauty product marketing.
A colorful 1900 poster advertising Pears soap, showcasing early advertising art from London.
A historical newspaper advertisement from 1893 for Beecham's Pills, showing how medicines were promoted over a century ago.
An old advertisement for the ferry ship Aegna traveling between Tallinn and Helsinki.
Historical advertisement for the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1913, promoting learning and education.
A 1930 advertisement from the Los Angeles Times for a radio show featuring singer Lisa Roma, highlighting classical music and sponsored by a milk company.

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Advertising, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Images from Wikimedia Commons. Tap any image to view credits and license.