A History of Advertising

What is A History of Advertising about?

Henry Sampson’s A History of Advertising provides an exhaustive survey of how humanity has bought and sold products, services, and ideas from antiquity to the mid-nineteenth century. Sampson argues that while the media change—from the whitened tablets of Greece to the coded columns of the Victorian press—the underlying psychological triggers remain constant. The book begins with an exploration of the physical and auditory landscapes of ancient Rome, where wall graffiti and street criers served as the primary methods of mass communication. Sampson highlights the libelli, or written bills, that functioned as the original lost-and-found posters, proving that commercial needs were as pervasive in the forum as they are in modern cities.

The narrative shifts toward the Middle Ages, documenting a period where low literacy rates forced advertising back into the sensory and auditory realms. The text details the rise of official criers and aggressive touters who physically blocked passersby to sell goods. With the advent of the printing press, the book examines how the mechanism of trust shifted toward the written word. This transition enabled massive financial frauds like the South Sea Bubble of 1720, where scammers used the perceived authority of typography to sell shares in absurd schemes, such as making butter from beech trees.

Sampson concludes his study by examining the Victorian era’s Agony Column, where the press became a tool for clandestine communication and personal theater. He illustrates how advertising evolved from simple informational notices into a sophisticated art of large promise, where merchants sold aspirations rather than just products. The work resolves that the history of advertising is effectively a history of human desire and credulity. By the time of the book’s conclusion, the essential tactics of the industry—including celebrity endorsement, fear-mongering, and emotional manipulation—are already fully formed and operational within the public sphere.

Who wrote A History of Advertising?

Henry Sampson (1841–1891) was a prominent Victorian journalist, editor, and sporting writer, best known for his work with The Referee. He published A History of Advertising from the Earliest Times in 1874. Written during an era of unprecedented expansion for the British press, the book reflects a period when newspapers were moving away from government-taxed monopolies toward a more independent and commercialized model. Sampson’s work is historically significant because it was one of the first to treat the ephemeral scraps of history—handbills, newspaper clippings, and criers’ oaths—as serious objects of sociological study. The text was produced during the height of the Victorian Agony Columns, a time when the personal advertisements in The Times functioned as a public stage for everything from family dramas to secret spy ciphers. This context makes the book an essential record of how the Victorian public navigated an increasingly complex and deceptive media environment.