ABSTRACT
In order to understand advertising as a form of communication and as an influential social institution, it is important to see it as part of an historical and social process firmly linked to the economies of western industrialized nations. Modern advertising is effectively no more than a hundred years old, dating from a period when the capitalist system of production underwent major changes. Before this time advertising was a relatively simple system of proclamation and announcement on the periphery of the national economy. Today advertising is an enormous and highly organized institution controlling vast sums of money, highly profitable in its own terms as well as being a vital component of capitalist economies. In order to understand the social meaning of advertising and assess its place in modern society, we need to look at why and how it has developed from a simple to a sophisticated system of communication from the few (the producers) to the many (the consumers).
