This updated edition of Adland: A Global History of Advertising provides readers with an overview of the history of the industry and a very brief peak into the future. Originally published in 2007, the second edition is updated to include new media and the technological advances that have occurred since it was originally published, but the book does not hold any secrets for how to be successful in playing the advertising game. Adland is, as the author Mark Tungate points out, “[…] a history book. Pure and simple” (p. 9).
The British author is a Paris-based journalist who has covered the advertising industry for trade publications and newspapers and is clearly knowledgeable about the industry. Because of his location and international knowledge of advertising, the book focuses a good bit on Europe’s role in the development of the industry and the people behind it. His writing style makes the biographies of the large number of individuals profiled an enjoyable read that is more like a novel than a historical text.
Thanks in part to the nostalgic yearning for advertising agencies of old because of the success of the American hit television show Mad Men, Adland conveys a feeling of what it was like in the 1950s and 1960s when the industry was coming into its own. Fortunately, the book progresses past advertising’s heyday and includes the advances seen in the past 50 years. Rather than focusing on past campaigns, this book looks at the people behind those campaigns and gives the reader a glimpse into the thoughts of the best advertising minds over time. “In roughly chronological order it endeavours to cover the most famous agencies, the best known personalities, and the most compelling themes” (p. 5).
The book is made up of 20 short chapters that chronologically take the reader from the beginning of advertising to current day. In Chapter 1, Pioneers of Persuasion, Tungate quickly mentions what many believe to be the origin of advertising – ancient Greece and Rome. He quickly moves to mid-nineteenth century Europe when advertising took off with the industrial revolution. It was during this time that individuals began to stand out, and agencies were formed that would shape future of the profession.
Chapter 2, From Propaganda to Soap, jumps the pond, so to speak, and focuses on the USA and the role advertising played during the World Wars. “The USA propaganda machine was cruelly efficient, with the establishment of a Committee on Public Information and its “four minute men”, who would deliver encouraging speeches to potential volunteers” (p. 19). This chapter also takes a look at the advertising agencies that were developing in the USA during this time. And in Chapter 3, Madison Avenue Aristocracy, Tungate remains in the USA to discuss the growth of advertising in New York, but he quickly points out that David Ogilvy, considered to be the patriarch of the modern advertising agency, is indeed British. Chapter 4, Creative Revolutionaries, focuses on the creative talent that took over advertising in the 1950s and 1960s, and in Chapter 5, The Chicago Way, the author travels West to focus on Leo Burnett Worldwide and the growth of the advertising industry in Chicago. “And perhaps it’s slightly unfair to link Leo Burnett inextricably with Chicago. After all, the man himself wasn’t born in the city”. “I snuck up on her slowly by way of outlying cities”, he once said. “When I finally got there, I was 40 years old and stuck in my colloquial ways” (p. 62).
Beginning with Chapter 6, The Brit Pack, the focus of the book returns to the UK to profile the minds that were spearheading the growth of the industry in Britain during the “creative revolution”. Chapter 7, Eighties Extravagance, advances the reader to the 1980s, which “are often regarded as the golden age of TV advertising. Cable television was in its infancy, expensive global campaigns were newly fashionable and agencies could afford the best directors, many of whom were honing their craft, creating shimmering images for music videos” (p. 89).
We move on to France in Chapter 8, The French Connection, for an inside view of who was behind the growth of the industry in that country. “Apart from Marcel Bleustein-Blanchart – and indeed Maurice Levy – there have been other notable French admen” (p. 113). And in Chapter 9, European Icons, advertising pioneers such as Italy’s Armando Testa and Emanuele Pirella and Germany’s Juergen Scholz are profiled. Jump to Chapter 12, Japanese Giants, and we are in Japan. Chapter 13 looks at Amsterdam (Wieden + Kennedy in particular), then after a short chapter on the dot-com bust, Chapter 15 focuses on Spain and Latin America. Chapter 16, International Outposts, pays homage to African and Australian advertising leaders, and Chapter 19, New Frontiers, briefly describes how the industry is developing in China.
Chapters 10, Media Spin Offs, and 11, Consolidated Incorporated, focus on the fragmentation and then consolidation of the advertising industry worldwide. “This development has left the advertising agencies rather shamefaced. Having spun off their media departments into highly profitable self-contained units, they may now have to figure out a way of getting them back” (p. 143). Chapter 17, Shooting Stars, takes a brief look at video and film producers and their role in advertising. The Cannes Lions International Festival, which is the “Academy Awards” of advertising, is discussed in Chapter 18, Controversy in Cannes. Tungate concludes with a look at social media and the role it now plays in Chapter 20, The Agency of the Future. “This is the most exciting time to be working in advertising since the 1950s. During my global tour of the business, more than one person told me that the industry had experienced three revolutions: the invention of the printing press, the creative revolution – and the digital one that is happening right now” (p. 251).
Adland would be an enjoyable read for anyone interested in the history of advertising. While not a typical textbook or supplement for the classroom, Adland does offer scholars of the industry a much-needed international perspective of how the industry has developed. The book would also be helpful for faculty teaching advertising and advertising professionals looking for a source of inspiration and motivation.
