Book Review: A History of Advertising: The First 300,000 Years by Jef I. Richards

Abstract

No, advertising has not been around for 300,000 years. The author is teasing us. But it has been around for several thousands of years, perhaps as early as 6000 BCE if one counts marks on Middle Eastern pottery as a form of advertising in clay. And, yes, Jef is spelled correctly. At this writing, Richards chairs the Department of Advertising+Public Relations at Michigan State University and was Professor of Advertising at the University of Texas, Austin, where he taught for 22 years and served as Chair for four of them. He has been an active advertising scholar and clearly loves the history of his field.