Main forms of advertising during the Republic of my country period

(1) Oral advertising Oral advertising, also known as hawking, is the most primitive and simple form of advertising and is still the most common form of advertising. According to legend, Jiang Taigong, who assisted King Wen of Zhou to establish his hegemony, lived in seclusion in the market and engaged in butchering when he was not appointed. In the shop, he "drums, knife and shouts" and shouts to attract customers. The slave markets and livestock markets in ancient Greece also used rhythmic shouting for advertising. Oral advertising in the form of poetry also appeared. In ancient China, hawking advertisements were also very developed. Vendors often used different tones when hawking, so that people could tell what the vendors were selling at a glance. Nowadays, the cries with special charm that are occasionally heard in the streets and alleys, such as the Yangzhou dialect of "grinding scissors and sharpening kitchen knives", are probably still a relic of ancient times.

(2) Physical advertising Physical advertising is also an ancient form of advertising, which relies on displaying product styles to attract customers. In order to sell goods, merchants put the goods out for buyers to watch and choose. There is a description of this form of advertising in the "Book of Songs": "The hooligans hold cloth and trade silk." This illustrates the form of barter-for-barrel display of goods at that time. Physical advertising is still the most basic form of commercial advertising, but the level of display design is much higher than in the past.

(3) Audio advertising. The so-called audio advertising uses the sound produced by tools to replace verbal hawking, such as a rag collector who sounds a gong as a trumpet to attract customers. This is also a form of advertising that has existed since ancient times. In the Book of Songs, there is a record of merchants playing the flute as a trumpet when selling maltose. In the Southern Song Dynasty, tea stalls often used the ringing cup to sing and sell tea, and the ringing cup was used as a sound advertising tool. In our country, in the old days, all walks of life had their own sound tools, such as cloth dealers playing drums, salesmen playing small gongs, pot menders playing large gongs, oil sellers playing oil bangers, and so on. This original audio advertisement can still be seen occasionally today.

(4) Flag advertising In the old days, flags were used for advertising. They were very popular in a certain historical period, especially wine flags, which led poets to say "wine flag style". This kind of flag is also called a cover. As far back as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Han Feizi recorded the wine flag in his "Wai Chu Shuo Upper Right": "In the Song Dynasty, there were people who drank wine. Very high." It can be seen that flag advertisements appeared long before the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and even today, there are still people in the north who use wine flags as signs for small hotels.

(5) Hanging advertisements Some shops, especially some small restaurants in the south, often hang items related to their business characteristics (such as wild game) or customary signs (such as lanterns) in front of their doors ) as advertising. This custom also has a long history. "Historical Records: Biography of Sima Xiangru" records that "Xiangru bought a wine house to sell wine, and asked Wen Jun to serve as a crocodile." That is to say, a mound of soil was built in front of the hotel, a wine urn was placed, and the wine seller sat beside the crotch to sell wine. She uses the dragon as the symbol of the hotel. There are several examples of this situation, such as the medicinal gourd in front of the traditional Chinese medicine store, the hoe and sickle in the blacksmith shop, etc.

(6) Signboard Advertising Signboards are hung in front of stores, which can serve as advertisements and are also a form of ancient advertising. Signboards can be divided into banners, vertical signs and hanging boards. Generally, the store name is written in words, and some use both pictures and text. For example, in addition to the store name, the advertisement of a blacksmith shop also draws pictures such as pliers and knives. In addition, there are also couplets in the form of couplets, such as hotel couplets:

"Set up for the night before it's too late, watch the sky early when the rooster crows." During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, restaurants used more couplets, such as Jiujiang Xunyang Tower. Such a couplet: "There is no such wine in the world, but there are famous buildings in the world." In the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" painted by Zhang Zeduan more than 1,000 years ago, various horizontal and vertical signboards have been widely seen in shops at the cross streets in Bianzhou City in the Song Dynasty. , it can be seen that the appearance of signboards occurred long before the Song Dynasty. To this day, all shops and businesses, whether Chinese or foreign, have a signboard.

(7) Cailou advertisement Ancient shops already had colorful buildings. Its essence is the store’s facade decoration, which makes the store’s decorative facade unique, easy for people to recognize, and plays the role of signboard advertising. In the old days, Cailou advertisements were mainly used in hotels. When introducing the Bianjing Hotel in the Song Dynasty, "Tokyo Menghua Lu" wrote: "Every Jingshi hotel has Cailou and Huanmen as its entrance." Cailou is a permanent advertising facility. It is usually re-embellished during festivals.

(8) Print advertising Print advertising is a relatively advanced form of advertising in ancient times. Our country was the first to invent printing and paper, and later developed the woodblock printing process. According to research, the woodblock printing process began in the Sui Dynasty, became popular in the Tang Dynasty, and developed to an extremely sophisticated level by the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng invented letterpress printing, and the history of printed advertising began. The emergence of print advertising has brought the development of Chinese and Western advertising to a new stage. The earliest extant printed advertisement in my country is the advertising copper plate of Liujia Needle Shop in Jinan during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127 AD). The four-inch square copper plate is engraved with the words "Jinan Liu Family Kung Fu Needle Shop". In the middle is a pattern of a white rabbit holding an iron pestle and pounding medicine. On the left and right of the pattern are four words: "Recognize the white rabbit in front of the door as a mark." "The lower part of the copper plate is engraved with words explaining the quality of the product and the sales method: "Buying high-quality steel bars and making fine needles will not be used in the house; if the customer turns to a seller, please remember." This copper plate is now in the Shanghai Museum and is the earliest printed advertisement found in the world so far.