Saturday, July 30, 2016

10 Firsts in U. S. Print and Broadcast Advertising

Copyright 2016 by Gary L. Pullman

Today, advertising is everywhere. It's also incredibly effective in selling everything from baby food to burial plots. But, like everything else, advertising had a beginning. In fact, it's had lots of beginnings, if we consider the first types of ads that appeared.

The very first newspaper ad appeared in the Boston News-Letter, “seeking a buyer for an Oyster Bay, Long Island, estate.”

There's some debate, though, concerning the first radio ad. “The orthodox answer” is that “the first paid commercial,” by AT&T, aired on New York City's WEAF “in August of 1922.” The programs' sponsor, the Queensboro Corporation of New York, pitched real estate. The company's $50 (“plus the long distance access fee”) paid for a “set of five programs,” which aired “over five days,” beginning August 28, 1922. However, earlier the same year, other radio stations reported airing ads. KFC in Seattle, Washington, broadcast a Remick's Music Store ad in March. WGI in Medford Hillside, Massachusetts, aired an ad by “car dealer Alvin T. Fuller” on April 4. Before either of these stations' ads, “the first 'trade-out' spots were likely broadcast on Charles Herrold's San Jose station, KQW, in the mid 19-teens.”

Although identifying the first newspaper ad and the first radio ad may be iffy, it's clear as to which other types of ads, whether they appeared in print or on the air, are the first of their kinds. Here are 10 firsts in U. S. advertising.

10 First Coca-Cola Print Ad (1886)


The first Coca-Cola ad appears to have debuted in a newspaper. Published in 1886, the ad is all text. It's headline reads, “COCA-COLA SYRUP AND EXTRACT,” its subheading adding, “For Soda Water and other Carbonated Beverages.” Billing itself as an “INTELLECTUAL BEVERAGE and TEMPERANCE DRINK,” it also offered medicinal value. The ad claims it contains a “valuable TONIC and NERVE STIMULANT,” thanks to “the properties of the Coca plant and Cola (or Kola) nuts” it contained. It was also a “valuable Brain Tonic and a cure for all nervous affections,” including “SICK HEAD-ACHE, NEURALGIA, HYSTERIA, MELANCHOLY, &c.” Oh, yes! It made a “delicious, exhilarating, refreshing and invigorating Beverage,” too, and was “dispensed from soda fountains in the same manner as any of the fruit syrups.” The ad was signed by J. L. Pemberton, Chemist, Sole Proprietor, of Atlanta, Georgia.

9 First Automobile Print Ad (1898)

If a person has a horseless carriage, a horse is unnecessary. A horse tends to be expensive, too. Not so the Winton Motor Carriage, the first ad for which appeared in the Scientific American magazine on August 13, 1898. The automobile could be operated at a mere half-cent per day, the ad declares. It could run as slowly as three miles per hour or as fast as 20 miles per hour. Unlike a horse, even at such a breakneck speed, it didn't vibrate, due to its “suspension wire wheels,” its “pneumatic tires,” and its “ball bearings.” Also, of course, there was “no odor.” For all these reasons, it made good sense, the ad's title suggests, to “DISPENSE WITH A HORSE.” In response to the ad, 22 customers bought the automobile, including James Ward Packard, “who later established his own automobile company,” named for himself.

8 First Fast Foot Print Ad (1920s)


In 1921, in Wichita, Kansas, White Castle began selling a simple square hamburger consisting of a small beef patty with onions and a pickle in a bun. “Easy to eat, it was dubbed the Slider.” The company ran the first fast food ad, which debuted in newspapers during the 1920s.

7 First Television Commercial (1941)



There is no confusion concerning the first TV commercial aired in the United States. This honor goes to Bulova. It was broadcast at 2:29 p. m. on July 1, 1941, on WNBT-TV in New York City, prior to a baseball game. The Brooklyn Dodgers were playing against the Philadelphia Phillies at Ebbets Field. Before the game began, the face of a Bulova watch is superimposed upon a blank map of the United States. In a “voice-over,” an announcer declares, “America runs on Bulova time.” The 10-second commercial cost the watch company $9.

6 First Televised Beer Ad (1945)

Although Modern Brewery Age magazine identified Hyde Park brewery's February 1947 sponsorship of “a man-on-the-street” interview as involving the earliest televised beer commercial, New England's Narragansett Beer “sponsored the first telecasts of Boston Red Sox games” in 1945, making its commercials the first televised beer ads in the United States.

5 First Televised Toy Ad (1952)


In 1952, the first toy ad, starring Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head, was televised. On a suburban sidewalk, a girl on a bicycle stands next to her brother. Spying Hasbro, who “makes toys,” the boy calls to him, asking “what's new?” A cartoon figure labeled “HASBRO” introduces his new toy, a Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head boxed set. Soon, the children are playing with their new toys, potato heads wearing wigs and eyeglasses the kids have installed themselves, as they have the potato heads' facial features, by pushing the rods on which they're mounted into slots in the heads. The heads come in various fruit and vegetable shapes. There are also accessories, such as clothes, an automobile, a boat trailer, a shopping trailer, a vanity kit, and doctor's and nurse's bags. Basic sets cost $1 and $2, depending on size.

4 First Televised U. S. Political Attack Ad (1964)


The one-minute so-called Daisy commercial sponsored by Lyndon Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign is “widely known as the first politicalattack ad.” It was meant to “frame Republican Barry Goldwater as a reckless warmonger.” A young girl, standing in a field and picking the petals off a daisy, looks up. The camera comes in close on her. As she picks the last petal from the flower, the camera moves toward her left eye, offering viewers an extreme close-up, as her eye fills with the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb. As smoke and fire ascend into the sky, text appears on the screen: “Vote for President Johnson on November 3.” Off-screen, an announcer states, “The stakes are too high for you to stay home.”

3 First Computer Print Ad (c. 1970s)


Equipped with “2,250 transistors,” the Intel 4004 was fast for its day. Able to perform approximately 90,000 operations per second, “in four-bit chunks,” the microprocessor was manufactured by Busicom, a Japanese company that made calculators. The first of its kind to be promoted, its ads appeared in the November 15, 1971, issue of Electronic News. The size of an upright table, it was sold to businesses only. The ad also announced Busicom's decision to make the Intel chip available to other businesses, which helped to launch a revolution in computer technology.

2 First Televised Condom Ad (1975 or 1991)

In 1975, “a TV station in San Jose,” California, aired “the firstcondom commercial.” However, the first nationallybroadcast commercial for this product seems to have been the Trojan ad that was broadcast during Herman's Head, a “teen show.” The message was subdued and indirect. A young man assures viewers he's a decent person who enjoys the company of “nice girls.” To protect them both from the “terrible things . . . happening to some really nice people,” the ad implies, as it shows a package of condoms, the youth buys Trojans. The spot's announcer then summarizes the message: “Trojan latex condoms: To reduce the risk.

1 First Instagram Ad (2013)

After purchasing Instagram, Facebook implemented its plan to make its acquisition “profitable.” A “colorful image” appeared on the app, featuring one of fashion designer Michael Kors' “luxury” ladies' watches “lying among tea-time snacks and gold embellishments.” The ad appeared on November 1, 2013; “by mid-morning,” it had accumulated “65,000 likes and more than 540 comments.” To make Instagram ads readily identifiable from the platform's other content, Instagram ads would “be labeled 'Sponsored' in the upper right corner.” To keep the ads relevant to Instagram users, they could be closed with a mouse click and users could “provide feedback to Instagram about what they didn't like” concerning the ads.

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