History of Advertising

The historical development of advertising in Nigeria is as old as an entire. In Nigeria, the

earliest recorded advertising activities include town crimes, gong, signals and through

many other traditional media that were used to alert the village dwellers about an

impeding event. This impala that traditional media were so instrumental in the process

of advertising in the primitive days. The gong was the most effective means through

which advertising was done then, because it was able to catch attention of people.

Town criers were mainly used to disseminate information about important ceremonies

and events such as intertribal wars, disasters, marriges, births and so on. Advertising in

Nigeria started as far back as the first few people (male and female) who began what

today known as Nigeria. This, advertising is said to be one of the earliest forms of mass

communication in Nigeria.

Advertising as a discrete form is generally agreed to have begun with newspapers, in

the seventeenth century, which included line or classified advertising. Simple

description, plus prices of products served their purpose until the late nineteenth

century, when technological advanced mental that illustrations could be added to

advertising, and color was also an option. Excavation in Pompeii and other ancient

cities have also thrown up evidence of some form of advertising. Says one advertising

in Latin found in Pompeii: 'A copper pot has been taken from this shop. Whoever brings

it back will receive 65 cents. If anyone shall hand over the thief, he will receive an
additional reward.' Such a publis announcement has a striking resemblance to modern

'classified' advertisement. Further, and excavation suggestions that notices of theater

performance, games, entertainment, and other public events were painted on the walls

of the busy centers of the city.

In 1846, the first printing press was established I'm Calabar and in 1859 "I we Iroyin Fun

Awon Egba" was established in Abeokuta by Reverend Henry Townsend. It was used to

advertise goods and services, birthdays, weddings, deaths, church activities and

vacancies for house boys and girls and other special events. This however marked the

beginning of modern advertising in Nigeria. This implies that the first modern

advertising was found in "Iwe Iroyin" and the advertising were giving information

concerning the movement of ships and cargoes to Lagos. Modern advertising was

made possible by the invention of printing, and the subsequent attempts to print

notices, posters and bills in large numbers. However, it was the industrial revolution in

Europe, combined with large scale urbanization,and mass production of goods and the

growth of the publishing businesses that made the expansion of competitive

advertising possible. The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Europe and the United

States were witness to massive migration of people from rural and urban areas, there to

work in factories and live in unhygienic condition. The industrial revolution proved to be

a success on the back of the working class, and the availability of large markets in the

'colonies' from where cheap raw materials could be bought.

newspapers were established. The Anglo African Newspaper came into existence in

1863, Lagos Times in 1880, Lagos Observer in 1890, Nigerian Pioneer in 1914, and

African Messenger in 1926. These newspapers and others that were subsequently

established engaged in serious competition in terms of who gets the advert from the

government. As the commercial activities in Nigeria were on the increase, the need for

proper advertising became so pressing and this motivated the United Africa Company

(UAC), which was then known as Royal Nigger Company to set up the first agency in

Nigeria; it was called West Africa Publicity Limited, but now knowing as Lintas. The

agency was incorporated on August 28, 1928, London. It is however worthy to know that

a company known as Pearl and Dean, which was last situated in Obanikoro area of

Lagos pioneered cinema advertising. As at the, film production was done in England.

Advertising development could be traced to about 1928 with the birth of West African

Publicity Limited.

In 1935, radio broadcasting was officially launched in Nigeria, and in 1959, television

broadcasting was also launched in Ibadan. The establishment of radio and television

broadcasting in Nigeria brought about radio and television advertising. Between the

early 1960s and 1970, there was no spectacular development in the industry. But the

promulgation of Nigerian Enterprise Decree of 1972, popularly known as Indigenization

Policy ubered in a new phase of the industry. The policy transformed key positions in
corporate organizations to indigenes. The need to establish an institution to regulate

advertising practice became apparent.

Mass production results in the need to market the products as they rolled out of

factories. Advertising was hit upon as a powerful tool to stimulate public demand for

standardized factory products. Advertising was welcomed by the growing printing and

publishing trades as it subsidized their cost of production, this went a long way in

keeping the price of newspapers low. By 1861, there were as many as 5,000

newspapers and magazines in the United States, with several of them publishing more

advertisements than news and articles. "Space sellers" entered the business world to

act as middlemen or brokers between the manufactures and the press. This gave rise to

the establishment of Advertising Parishioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) by Decree 55

of 1988, later renamed Act 55 of 1988 by the civilian administration in November 1989.

The first meeting of the association held somewhere in Ebute-Meta, Lagos. APCON

started operation in 1990 with the employment of the pioneer registrar in the person of

Dr. Charles Okigbo. It is the duty of APCON to regulate the practice of advertising in

Nigeria. Today, we have different forms of advertising, which among others include

transmit advert, web advert, internet and outdoor advertising.

The growth in the industry in the recent times can be attributed to the recapilisation

exercise by banks, a director of the apex bank, Central Bank of Nigeria and libralisation

of the telecommunication industry which broke NITEL's monopoly, thereby attracting

tremendous marketing communication activities with agencies raking in millions of

naira worth advert billings.

Today, Nigerian advertising industry is making efforts to ensure it measures up to global

industry practice. Affiliations also available them of technical know-how in the areas of

creativity and training. Meanwhile, it was until October 28, 1928 when the United Africa

Company (UAC) incorporated an advertising agency in Nigeria. It was initially known as

West African Publicity Ltd, but later metamorphosed into LINTAS in the 1960s.

By 1953, the notable advertising agencies in Nigeria were LINTAS, S.H Benson, Graham

and Gillies, Horniblow, Cox Freeman and the Nigeria Bureau of publicity, reputed to be

the first indigenous agency. It was the same year that the first known voluntary

association was formed to regulate advertising practice and lend some responsibility to

the profession. Christened as the Advertising Association of Nigeria (AAN), it drew its

membership from agencies and media owners.