3000 BC
Babylonians introduce the first known forms of advertising--store signs and street barkers. Babylonians also invent "sponsorships," allowing kings to stencil their names on the temples they'd constructed.
Advertising in the civilized world consists of variations on signs, pitchmen (later known as town criers) and sponsored public works for the next 3500 years.
1525 AD
First printed and publicly distributed ad (mass media) appears in a German news pamphlet.
Print media grows over the next three centuries. Due to a scarcity of paper, the ads in these publications are small, all type announcements, similar to today's classifieds.
1700 Postmasters in the American colonies act as the first advertising agents, accepting and forwarding ads to publications in distant towns.
Expanding on patent medicine techniques, Phineas T. Barnum pioneers integrated marketing and global brand management in the entertainment industry through the end of the century.
