Friday Fun Facts About Advertising

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Unless you go completely off the grid there is no way of escaping advertising in our 24/7/356 sound bite world. Virtually everything we pick up or see during our daily lives has a brand name printed on it somewhere.

Does all this bombardment really sell products? The short answer is yes and here are some fun facts that back that premise up.

Fun Facts About Advertising

• You’ll be happy to know that your average pharmaceutical company will spend twice as much on advertising as they do for product research.
• “The Marlboro Man” began TV advertising in 1955 with many rugged people but the cowboy character was the most popular. Three of the Marlboro characters promoting the popular cigarette died of lung cancer.
• Advertisers spend $500 billion dollars hocking their wares to you.
• By the time you reach age 65 you will have seen an estimated 2 million TV commercials.
• Billboard advertising along the nations highways began in 1900.
• Your kids are an advertising target too. Over $15 billion is spent to get you to purchase breakfast cereal or fast food.
• Advertising experts agree the “greatest commercial ever made” was the 1984 Super Bowl commercial that introduced the Macintosh computer and ran only once. Directed by Ridley Scott.
• The first same sex couple ad was aired in 1994 and featured a male couple shopping for furniture in an Ikea advertisement.
• Your children see over 40,000 television ads each year or about 100 or so a day.
• Studies show that your child will ask for a food, toy or some other item they saw on TV nine times before you finally give in and get it for them.
• The very first paid ad appeared in the Boston News Letter advertising an Oyster Bay, Long Island estate. The first paid ad ever was a real estate ad? Wow! What a surprise.
• The first paid magazine advertisement appeared in Ben Franklin’s “General Magazine” in 1742.
• Life Magazine was the first magazine to sell $100 million in yearly advertising.
• Elections attract big bucks. In 2008 Obama spent $70 million on ads for the primary and $240 million in the general election. John McCain spent $10 million in the primary and $126 for the general election.
• Companies spent $42 billion on Internet advertising in 2013.

Some Final Thoughts

Christmas ads are in full swing. White sales will be coming in January, Valentine’s Day in February and so on throughout the year. As long as there’s a buck to be made by letting you know where to spend it, advertising won’t be going anywhere, anytime soon.

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