Personalities and Products: A Historical Perspective on Advertising in America

by Edd Applegate

Profiling such luminaries as Benjamin Franklin, P. T. Barnum, John Wanamaker, and Harley Procter, this book examines the contributions that several prominent individuals have made to advertising in America. The work opens with a discussion of Colonial advertising and the printers, such as Benjamin Franklin, who created it. It then goes on to consider early advertising agents such as Francis Wayland Ayer and the contributions of the great promoter P. T. Barnum.

Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and the advertising of patent medicines is also covered, as is John Wanamaker's impact on retail advertising. The book then examines the advertising style of Albert Lasker, owner of Lord and Thomas advertising agency, as well as Harley Procter's advertising of Ivory soap and Procter & Gamble's first 100 years. Elliot White Springs's use of sex in advertising and the Springs Cotton Mills advertising campaign of the 1940s and 1950s concludes the volume.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 21, 1998

About the author

Edd Applegate has written articles for refereed academic journals and conference proceedings, chapters for academic and scholarly books, entries for encyclopedias and other reference books, and several books of nonfiction for the academic and reference markets. He received his doctorate from Oklahoma State University.