Some Curious Facts About Advertising

Advertising is a fascinating world. It's an entire industry that dedicates itself to studying the persuasion and projection of certain messages. Unsurprisingly, in the history of advertising, there are many fascinating facts.

Advertising has gradually become a normal part of our daily lives. In fact, there are more than a few slogans that end up being integrated into our daily language. Indeed, that’s the function of advertising: to infiltrate itself into everyone’s mind.

The need to propagate messages comes from times gone by and the first piece of advertising was believed to date back to 3000 BC. It was an announcement made on papyrus, by a merchant from Thebes, in Egypt, who was announcing the escape of one of his slaves and offering a reward to whoever captured him.

Today, advertising is everywhere. It’s on the streets, in our houses, on television, on the Internet, on the radio, and wherever we go. It’s a fundamental instrument of commerce, but also of politics and even of various social causes.

Let’s take a look at some curious facts about advertising.

Some curious facts about advertising

One curious fact about advertising involves Walt Disney. He began his career at the Pesmen-Rubin Commercial Art Studio. However, his bosses didn’t like his work and he ended up trying his luck as a cartoonist for the Kansas City Star. He also left there with his talent unrecognized.

Another story from the United States, a true Mecca of advertising, concerns the famous McDonald’s clown, Ronald McDonald. This character was launched in 1963. However, at first, he had a disposable cup as his nose, and instead of a hat, he had a tray. In fact, he provoked more horror than sympathy. He was later changed to the more recognizable figure we remember today.

There are currently many companies that invest more in marketing and promotion than in the development of their products. In other words, they care more about advertising themselves than about offering better products. This wouldn’t be too surprising if it weren’t for the fact that almost all of the pharmaceutical companies in the world do the same.

Internet advertising

There are a number of curious facts about internet advertising. For example, according to the Solve Media company, a person is more likely to survive a plane crash than to click on the advertising banners that are so abundant on the internet. In fact, it’s estimated that at least 50 percent of clicks on these ads are caused by error.

Another interesting fact is that Twitter, the world’s most famous microblogging social network, wasn’t always called Twitter. To start with, it had the cumbersome name of Twttr. The developers’ intention was for it to be original, but they ended up creating a word that no one could pronounce. They then corrected their mistake in a really simple way: by introducing two vowels.

Many think that the blue color of the Facebook network is due to an advertising strategy of representing the company as linked with the infinity of the sea and the sky. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, it was due to the fact that the creator of this network, Mark Zuckerberg, suffers from color blindness. This prevents him from clearly distinguishing green from red, so he chose blue instead.

More curious facts about advertising

The medium that first revolutionized advertising was radio. Before this, making printed promotions on paper was really expensive. Also, not everyone knew how to read and write. Nevertheless, once radio arrived, commercials begin to be produced en masse. In the beginning, almost all of them advertised tobacco or soap.

Speaking of costs, some commercials cost a fortune. They’re usually of the same quality as a movie and are associated with exclusive products. The most expensive commercial in history was a true work of art from director, Baz Luhrman, with the participation of Nicole Kidman. It promoted the famous Chanel No. 5 and cost 33 million dollars.

Astronomical sums are spent on advertising for one reason only: it works. What advertisers invest, they recover later. Experts on the subject say that, in this field, the maxim of “if you have a million dollars it’s easy to make another million” applies. The more you spend on advertising, the more you earn.

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