The World’s First Advertisement

Morning Marketers!

Ahhh, advertisements.

Our favorite little digital stalkers.

You know like when you’re quietly telling your friends about your… digestive issues…

Then 5 minutes later, Instagram’s like:

Ya lol Meta’s basically got your phone bugged to serve you the best ads.

Which begs the question: what was the world’s first advertisement?

I won’t hold out on you. Prepare yourself. Here it is:

Can't read the glyphs? 

I'll translate:

“Missing: Shem, the slave of Hapu. If anyone brings him back, the owner will give one gold coin. For those who turn a blind eye: the shop of Hapu the weaver is where the finest linen is woven to your desire.”

Banger.

A lost-and-found notice, but also ‘yo, come to my shop for sick drip’.

Smart move, Hapu. That's some next-level content marketing!

But unfortunately, Shem the Slave was never found..

Doesn’t really matter, though, because Hapu's business EXPLODES after that papyrus went viral around town.

Now, from ancient Egypt we need to travel to the middle ages (800 AD) to witness the invention of the billboard.

See, at the time, if you want to get your message out, you have to grab a monk:

Tell him your idea:

Then the monk scurries off to the monastery to put pen to paper for weeks on end.

What he comes back with is a beautiful manuscript.

Meticulous penmanship to promote the town’s apothecaries, blacksmiths, and leech collectors.

Something like this:

Little problem, though..

I said we were arriving at the invention of the billboard.

That’s not a billboard.

So..

Ah, yes. The town crier.

The person responsible for taking the monk’s copywriting, running to the middle of town, and shouting their message at the top of their lungs for everyone within earshot to be advertised to.

First. Billboard.

Now fast forward a few thousand years...

This dude Johannes Gutenberg is kinda fed up with that whole small-scale handwriting and town crying situation.

So he invents the printing press:

And suddenly everyone's like:

So they start printing handbills, flyers, and pamphlets for everything.

And now advertising is no longer just about who’s within earshot.

Papers can be dispersed far and wide, massive audiences can be reached, more products can be sold, and profits become unlimited.

Here’s the first book advertisement:

The first newspaper advert:

The first TV ad:

But here's the thing...

Up until the 1960s, advertising was basically just everyone shooting in the dark.

Nobody really knew what worked.

So TV execs call a meeting with psychologists…

BOOM! 

They invent focus groups and advertising becomes a ~science~.

Advertising explodes.

We’re talkin’ brand campaigns, jingles, slogans, highway billboards, Super Bowl commercials.

Now what’s most interesting to me is how we basically went from the town crier (shouted ads) alllllll the way back to modern town criers (influencers shouting ads):

Hell, even this is an ad!

If you’re a business owner, creator, or marketer looking for marketing ideas that actually work (unlike poor Hapu), you need to check out marketingideas.com.

They send you the most beautiful, bite-sized once-per-week marketing tactics from the world’s most successful startups, like:

Or:

Marketing’s really hard… Do the easy thing and sign up at marketingideas.com

Stay Cute,

Henry & Dylan 🌈

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