The Rise of Advertising in the United States

Book excerpt: In this unique work of scholarship, Edd Applegate surveys the key figures and events that transformed the American business landscape from its colonial beginnings to that Mad Men moment when advertising “went professional.” In The Rise of Advertising in the United States: A History of Innovation to 1960, Applegate traces how the explosion of newspapers in the American colonies laid the groundwork for the first advertising agents, leading to America’s first class of professional marketers. This entrepreneurial class of new white-collar professionals thrived on innovation in the quest for more publicity, larger clients, and greater sales. Some of the thought-leaders in what remained a novel, ever-changing form of communication included P. T. Barnum, master of the advertising “gimmick” Lydia Pinkham, queen of the patent medicine cure John Wanamaker, progenitor of modern retail advertising Albert Lasker, the formulator of “reason why” advertising Stanley Resor, the consummate market researcher Elliott White Springs, the groundbreaking purveyor of the sexual innuendo Applegate records the achievements of these individuals and others up until 1960, when advertising underwent a remarkable change, becoming a post-war subject of study and scholarship in America’s colleges and universities. Written for those interested in learning about a select group of movers and shakers in this key area of American business, The Rise of Advertising in the United States should appeal to anyone interested in American business history.