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In advertising more than in almost any other field, there is constant pressure to keep up with the times. It really is a matter of life and death if you work in marketing and advertising.

Marketing advertising campaigns need to come up with constant new ways to appeal to a changing market, and this requires advertising executives to be more in touch with current popular culture than even the hippest teenager.

This is a good thing but does have its pitfalls, too. Most advertisers tend to be almost unaware of the history of advertising though they are up to date in current events.

They are generally required to take a class or two on the history of product advertising in school, but this is about as far as it goes. Some of them know a bit about the history of art or literature, being humanities people, but almost none of them have any knowledge about the origins of their own field.

This is a shame. The history of advertising is both interesting and useful. Ad people tend to be very pragmatic people, therefore, they skip over the advertising history, thinking its dry and academic. Nothing could be further from the truth.

You see, advertising is designed to be tuned in to popular culture. As such, it is subject to all of the constantly shifting whims and trends that pop culture experiences. Studying the history of advertising is so important because valuable advertising strategies tend to fade away almost as quickly as they are invented.

Studying the history of print advertising, for example, can put you in touch with the past masters of marketing. They had to work wholly in print, and as such their word play and use of language was often much more sophisticated than that used by modern advertising executives.

By studying history here, you can learn ideas from the past as a way of implementing new advertising campaigns for the future. That is why learning your history in your field is mandatory in your company

A lot of our competitors find our obsession with the history of advertising to be somewhat quaint, but they do not question the success that we have had in recent years. We are one of the fastest growing firms in the industry, and it is because we pay equal attention to the past and the future!

Article by Chris B, you can find more about him on his profile.

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