Evolution of advertising in India

By Arya Thakur

From black and white sheets of newspapers to today’s world of fast-paced social and digital media, the story of the evolution of advertising over the last 75 years perfectly reflects how the country has changed socially and economically over time.

Ads are as old as our civilization. Probably older! Most probably the first ads were hawkers shouting at passers-by to get their attention on their wares. So, if we look at ads like that, then they are as old as our markets. In India, the first ads to appear in print were in Hickey’s Bengal Gazette, which was India’s first weekly newspaper. The newspaper mainly published classified ads. Before that, the role of advertising in the lives of people was minimal and that’s because of the limited consumption and access to media platforms.

Advertising in the 18^th century was merely meant to inform the public. That included periodicals that announced deaths, births, sale of household furniture, the arrival of ships from England, etc. Pre-independence journals generally printed information with the intent to persuade the public to buy, trade, and provide information about government activities and propaganda.

The Swadeshi Movement (1907-11) and the installation of the printing machine in Calcutta (1907) were the two main events responsible for the beginning of the ascendancy of Indian advertising agencies.

During the initial days of post-independence, the pace of advertising was not very smooth due to limited access to media platforms. The use of mascots like Murphy baby, The Zodiac man, Air India Maharaja, etc., was mostly done in order to gain memorability from the audience.

In the 1960s-70s, when the craze of cinema started booming, advertising started to take on the element of fantasy. Brands like Liril, Nescafe, etc., started painting a glamorous and larger-than-life picture in every minor daily activity.

The 1980s saw a phase of liberalisation where advertising helped in creating a tangible idea of the consuming class organising a diverse constituency under a common sphere. This era also brought campaigns like ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara’, which was not selling anything.

The 1990s-2000 was the time when the concept of storytelling was first incorporated into the art of advertising. Many brands like Fevicol, Coca-Cola, Happy Dent, etc., produced their series of ads focusing on the theme of storytelling using a particular emotion.

In recent years, we have seen that the ads being produced serve more than their purpose of selling products or entertaining people. They are slowly beginning to take the responsibility of shaping the society. Ariel’s ‘Share the Load’, and Dove’s ‘Stop the Beauty Test’ are a few examples of such campaigns.

Advertising over these 75 years has also documented the changes women have gone through over the years. Apart from being mother, daughter, sister, and wife, recent ads have started portraying women as independent individuals. Stereotypical ads related to the physical attributes of women like beauty standards, objectification, and body sizes have also been overthrown. Several brands have started creating their new archetypes to adapt and reflect on the new changes in society. Brands like Lux, as well as Glow & Lovely, are examples of that.

Thus, we can say that Advertising plays a prominent role in consumer’s mindsets, it is shaping societal attitudes and influencing the behaviour pattern of people. The remarkable growth of digital and social media has elevated the Indian advertising trajectory giving them a new height.