So, how long is this thing into operation? Well, there are evidences of commercial advertisements through rock paintings from Asia, Africa and South America; messages written in the papyrus with clear sales objectives from Egypt; many many political campaign advertisement forms used in ancient Greece and Rome. But we are more interested in advent of modern advertising, so let's skip them all and fast rewind to the years between 1865-1895 (most probably) to the age of "the father of modern advertising" in action, yes, I am talking of Thomas J Barratt.
In the year 1865, Thomas J Barratt became a partner with the firm, well, by marrying Mary Pears, eldest daughter of the grandson of Andrew Pears, the founder of A&F Pears (renamed after his grandson Francis Pears joined the business). Soon after Barratt began talking like, "Any fool can make soap. It takes a clever man to sell it." and the firm's annual advertisement bill went from a mere 80£ to between 100,000£ to 130,000£. It caused in Francis Pears' retirement with the whole charge of the firm to his son, Andrew Pears and Barratt himself and some 4000£ as a loan.
What followed is still the base of many advertisement firms of today:- Thomas J Barratt's publicity approaches.
1. He began by importing French coins in exchange of British ones and having the name "Pears" stamped on every single of them and putting them into circulation. (There was no law regarding the defacing of foreign currency back then so it gained a lot of public attention) This was stopped by the order from the Act of Parliament and these coins were tracked and melted down. But the purpose was achieved by then.
2. He persuaded eminent doctors, chemists and skin specialists such as Sir Erasmus Wilson, then President of the Royal College of Surgeons, to give testimonials in favor of the Pears soap, and then he published them on leading magazines and newspapers, even handbills and posters.
3. He used popular celebrities like actress Little Langtry, religious leader Henry Ward Beecher and many more to have that publicity effect.
4. His most famous and controversial stunt is the use of "Bubbles" painting by Sir John Everette Millais as an advertisement for the soap Pears. Millais had to face the wrath of the art community for letting an art piece which was originally titled "A Child's World" to commercial exploitation. Inclusion of a transparent soap bar with Pears written over it was in the reformed painting. Other paintings were also used in more or less the same way and it all successfully portrayed the association of Pears soap with comfort and social aspiration.
5. He published the Pears Annual in 1891, basically a magazine, which other than advertising the brand, contained of fiction, illustrations and two large packaged prints for framing. It went out of operation after 1920.
6. He even tried to buy the back page of a British national census form but the attempt was failed. If he had succeeded, he would have gained at least 35,000,000 people's attention at a single go!
All in all, Thomas J Barratt started a revolution in the Advertising world. He brought finesse and quality to the then crude and hoarse world of advertisements mainly consisting of handwritten bills and posters, and he was truly the father of modern advertising. His ideas may not be totally theoretic but always applicable even today.
And it is his words that are the eternal credo of the advertising world:-
"tastes change, fashions change, and the advertiser has to change with them. An idea that was effective a generation ago would fall flat, stale, and unprofitable if presented to the public today. Not that the idea of today is always better than the older idea, but it is different - it hits the present taste."
Sources:-
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising
2. http://farisyakob.typepad.com/blog/2007/08/selling-soap.html
3. http://bubbles.org/html/history/bubhistory.htm
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Barratt
