First ads

Someone on substack was defending the need for advertising when done for honest purposes. I commented:

Yes! Advertising is part of nature. “Buy my pollen, get a free honey drink!”

This seems like something I must have written here already, but oddly I didn’t. Despite all my musings on the Duane Jones book, and my thousands of items about bees and flowers, I never made this connection! Now it’s done.

In fact the Jones boxtop principle was invented by flowers. All of his rules are there. Glamorize the premium, induce FOMO by limited quantity.

Jones didn’t make the connection either. In his intro he guesses that oral advertising has always been around, and traces written advertising back to the Rosetta Stone. I knew the language/coding aspect of the Rosetta Stone but had to look up the content. From Wikipedia:

= = = = = START QUOTE:

The decree records that Ptolemy V gave a gift of silver and grain to the temples.[23] It also records that there was particularly high flooding of the Nile in the eighth year of his reign, and he had the excess waters dammed for the benefit of the farmers. In return the priesthood pledged that the king’s birthday and coronation days would be celebrated annually and that all the priests of Egypt would serve him alongside the other gods.

= = = = = END QUOTE.

Aha! The priests were the first ad agency. In return for silver and grain, they touted the king as a god.

Modern politicians could take a lesson from old Ptol. When you build dams you don’t really need advertising. FDR built dams and windbreaks to benefit the farmers, and they were loyal to him. Even Kansas, Alf Landon’s home, voted for FDR in 1936.

Modern politicians bomb dams and bomb all of civilization, so they need propaganda.