CONDITION USED ,BRAND NEW , ADVERTISING THROUGH THE TIMES OF INDIA, HARDCOVER, 1989

In 1926, the venerable Philadelphia advertising agency N.W. Ayer and Sons made the following bold prophecy:

“Day by day, a picture of the times is recorded completely and vividly in the advertising in American newspapers and magazines. Were all other sources of information on the life of today to fail, the advertising would reproduce for future times, as it does for our own, the action, colour, variety, dignity, and aspirations of the American scene.”

However, it might be naive to assume that advertising from any era serves as an entirely authentic and uncomplicated mirror of its times. Nevertheless, it would be reasonable to argue that advertisements often surpass most other forms of recorded communication as a basis for plausible inference about popular attitudes and values. At the very least, they reveal what products and services were sold during a given era, when new products were launched, and what explanations or suggestions were offered for their use.

In this volume, we have sought to preserve advertisements culled from the columns of The Times of India since 1838. These advertisements, retrieved from the “dungeons and dustbins of history,” serve as a fascinating record of the overwhelming spectrum of changes witnessed over the last century and a half.

Advertisements are a regular feature of our daily lives. But to truly understand advertising as a form of communication and as an influential social institution, it is important to view it within the broader historical, economic, and social processes of the nation.

While rudimentary forms of advertising existed in pre-industrial societies through announcements and proclamations, advertising in its modern form only emerged with the development of machine-based mass production. Advertising stepped in to create mass demand. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution had significantly altered the relationship between advertisers and consumers.

The advent of printing and the subsequent rise of the modern newspaper marked another watershed for advertising, enabling manufacturers to place their goods before thousands of eyes. The Times of India—the oldest continuing English-language daily in India—was born as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce on November 3, 1838. It was a biweekly publication released on Saturday and Wednesday mornings. The eight-page, four-column paper resembled a bulletin, carrying shipping notices, local sales advertisements, and commercial news. Interestingly, its very first edition featured a notable ad announcing “the fast sailing clipper ARDASEER’s departure to China for freight of opium only, the principal part of the cargo being expected to arrive from Malwa immediately.”

Now that The Times of India has completed 150 years—years that also saw the making of the Indian nation—it is fitting to use its pages to explore the economic and social spectrum as reflected through advertising over these 15 eventful decades.

In retrospect, advertising reflects its times by encapsulating the prevailing environment, values, and lifestyles into vivid, accessible imagery. The products and services advertised often indicate how people lived—and aspired to live. Creators of advertisements typically assume that consumers prefer messages aligned with their cultural realities. As a result, advertisements tend to focus more on aspirations than contemporary realities.

Advertising’s primary function is to introduce a wide range of consumer goods to the public, thus supporting the free-market economy. However, this is not its only role. Over the years, advertising has increasingly become involved in the articulation of social values and attitudes—often more than in the communication of essential information about goods and services.

The objective of this volume is to document changing times as reflected through a wide range of advertisements dating back to 1838. It also seeks to illustrate changes in advertising itself—from the classified ads that appeared on page one to the large display ads that emerged toward the end of the 19th century. These changes include evolution in typography, copywriting, illustrations, and, in more recent decades, the emergence of social consciousness among advertisers. This culminated in the institution of the Ashok Jain Awards for Public Awareness Advertising—a marked shift from the single-minded “hard-sell” philosophy of yesteryears.

The ads selected for this volume have been arranged into ten chapters. They present, at a glance, the phenomenal growth in the range of products available to Indian consumers. Due to space constraints, we have not been able to include complete ad series for specific products or trace the full advertising journey of long-standing brands. Selectivity was necessary, which may have left out some advertisers and agencies.

Contemporary advertisements have been included to juxtapose with older ones, establishing contrast and progression—and, in some cases, simply to show that a particular brand remains popular even today.

In various ways, these advertisements offer glimpses into past and present social realities. Advertisers have always recognised the need to align their messages with the values and attitudes held by their audiences. Often, advertisements also attempted to promote modernity and social change by portraying idealised lifestyles—mirroring popular fantasies more than grounded social realities.

Yet, the central purpose of any advertisement—past, present, or future—remains the same: to sell merchandise.