Advertising is a Business of Monetizing Attention

In today's consumerist society, advertising is ubiquitous. Although the forms of advertising have changed significantly over the past century, its ultimate goal remains the same: to capture the public's attention and successfully sell products.

Selling Attention

In the early 18th century, most advertisements were merely informative and did not aim for eye-catching effects. This began to change when Benjamin Day launched his own newspaper in 1833. To attract more readers, he priced his newspaper at one cent while his competitors charged six cents. With the newspaper's success, losses were inevitable. To increase profits and reduce losses, Benjamin started inviting advertisers to place ads in his newspaper and charged them for it. Ultimately, his publication achieved great success, making the world gradually aware of the value of selling attention.

Advertising Methodology

By the 20th century, advertising began to take shape as a systematic field and was regarded as a science. An advertisement could be crafted to grab attention. Creating demand is one of many scientific methods. This method involves heavily promoting a problem that the public is either unaware of or that is entirely fabricated, and then claiming that a certain product can solve this problem. Additionally, advertisers in the 1920s realized that word of mouth could also be shaped by establishing and popularizing a brand.

Forms of Advertising

Before the 1920s, advertising was primarily focused on public spaces. However, shortly thereafter, radio advertising became extremely popular. Advertisers were eager to sponsor radio content just to hear their names mentioned during broadcasts—because this would immediately attract a large audience's attention. Later, television quickly replaced radio as the dominant medium for advertising, becoming a more effective way to capture attention, a trend that continues to this day.

The rise of the internet ushered in a new wave of advertising revolution, with email emerging as a new form of advertising. A survey in 1973 showed that emails accounted for 75% of traffic on the internet. Emails are highly effective because they feel like a reward or incentive for customers—receiving an email feels good. Meanwhile, search engines like Google gradually became important resources for capturing user attention. To monetize attention, Google's founders introduced the Adwords advertising tool: it displays relevant ads alongside search results based on user queries.