An Adventure with the History of Advertising

            Advertising has been around for ages.  I kind of figured this was true, though I couldn't believe just how long it had been around for.  Or how it originated.

            In some of advertising's earliest forms, it was used as persuasion.  Like persuasion to view a gladiator match (yes, that's how long advertising has been around).  The concept of advertising really blew up when the Gutenberg press was invented because it was much easier to print those advertisements, and place them in magazines/newspapers.  Which also helped these publications to become cheaper than before (and sometimes even free).

            As technology became more advanced, advertising became more and more prevalent.  Media buying (essentially purchasing advertising space in bulk and selling to others) started to arise, making advertising a bit more affordable.  This practice is still in use today.  Just like many of the other practices that have come out of advertising's history.

            Personally, I find this pretty interesting.  As students in grade school, as well as in college, we learn all about our world and country's history.  Its really cool to learn about the history of why advertising is the way it is.  It makes the subject matter more interesting to me.  Advertising is not a new concept.  It is a concept that is constantly changing, but also remaining fairly stable, that affects peoples lives just like the history of our country.  It has shaped, and is still shaping our culture.

An Adventure with Creative Briefs

            To be honest, I did not know what a creative brief was until Thursday.  Once I learned what it was, I was quite intrigued.  For those that don't know, a creative brief provides inspiration but also focus for the creative team and their advertising campaign.

            I know that doesn't sound all that intriguing, but the way my professor explained it to me was what really caught my attention.  Her first explanation:  "What was told to Michelangelo about painting the Sistine Chapel?  What was the direction given to him, that produced the result we have today?"  You obviously wouldn't want to be too specific, because you wanted to leave some creativity to him.  But there had to be some focus, because if you just told him to paint the ceiling, people could interpret that differently, and you're might end up with an unintended result.  In other words, whatever was told to Michelangelo about painting the Sistine Chapel would be the creative brief.  Some other examples that were given to us were the Great Wall of China and Egypt's pyramids.

            Having been given that description, I got to thinking about a few other things and their potential creative briefs.  One that most all of us are aware of...  What might have been the creative brief for Burruss Hall here on Virginia Tech's campus?  Was the building intended to be a central point on campus when it was built?  Or did that come after?  Was it designed knowing that it would be a symbol of Virginia Tech?  There are so many things I would need to look up before I could even begin to think about what the creative brief for Burruss Hall was.  But its still fun to think about, right?

            Thinking about actually writing a real creative brief scares me.  Luckily, we have a group assignment in Advertising that requires our group to write a creative brief and present it to the class later in the semester!  As scared as I am, I am excited to dive in and learn more about what works and what doesn't in a creative brief.