This first Chapter is a brief history of events leading up to the appearance of John E. Kennedy.

But it highlights a few milestones in advertising.

1704   The first newspaper ad appeared. It was in a Boston Newsletter and sought a buyer for an estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island

1729   Benjamin Franklin starts to publish the Pennsylvania Gazette in Philadelphia – which included ads.

1742   America’s first magazine ads published by Benjamin Franklin in General Magazine.

1784   America’s first successful daily newspaper, the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, starts in Philadelphia.

1833   Benjamin Day publishes the first successful “penny” newspaper – The Sun. Circulation reached 30,000 by 1837 which made it the largest in the world.

1843   Volney Palow opens the first ad agency in Pennsylvania.

1868   Francis Wayland Ayer opens N.W. Ayer and Sons in Philadelphia with just $250.

His first clients included Montgomery Ward, John Wannamaker, Dept. Stores, Singer Sewing machines, and Pond’s beauty cream.

1873   The first convention for ad agencies held in New York.

1877   J.W. Thompson buys Culter and Smith from William J. Carlton and pays $500 for the business and $800 for the office furniture.

1880   Department Store founder John Wannamaker becomes first retailer to employ a full-time advertising copywriter – John E. Powers.

1881   Wannamaker makes famous statement: “half my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.

1881   Daniel M. Lord and Ambrose L. Thomas form Lord and Thomas in Chicago.

1882   Procter and Gamble advertise Ivory Soap with an enormous budget of $11,000.

1886   N.W. Ayer promotes advertising with the slogan: “Keeping everlastingly at it brings success.”

1886   Richard Warren Sears became the world’s first direct marketer.

1891   George Batten and Co. opens.

1892   N.W. Ayer hires full-time copywriter.

1892   Sears Roebuck formed.

1893   Printer’s Ink founded by George P. Rowell. A magazine that serves as the ‘little schoolmaster” in the art of advertising.

1898   N.W. Ayer helps National Biscuit Co. launch the first pre-packaged biscuit – Uneeda.

1899   Campbell Soup makes its first advertising.

1899   JWT becomes the first agency to open an office in London.

1900   N.W. Ayer establishes a business-getting department to plan ad campaigns.

1904   John E. Kennedy bursts onto the scene to change the face of advertising – forever.

Go to Chapter Two to find out more.