Advertising: Why Half the Budget Is Wasted
From Pompeii's painted walls to millisecond ad auctions, how advertising grabs attention, builds brands and tries to prove it worked.
Advertising · 50 questions
Try 3 questions
1. What kind of advertising survives on the walls of ancient Pompeii?
- Painted notices for shows, shops and candidates
- Printed paper posters glued over doorways
- Carved stone billboards for imported wines
Show the answer
Answer: Painted notices for shows, shops and candidates
Volcanic ash preserved painted announcements for gladiator games, businesses and local election candidates; printing did not yet exist.
2. What did the first advertising agencies of the 1840s mainly do?
- Wrote slogans and designed posters
- Sold newspaper space to advertisers
- Ran surveys of consumer tastes
Show the answer
Answer: Sold newspaper space to advertisers
Early agents such as Volney Palmer were brokers of newspaper space; creative services came decades later.
3. How did early-1900s copywriter Claude Hopkins test which of his ads actually worked?
- Focus groups that rated every design
- Coupons that counted each ad's replies
- Tracking total national sales by year
Show the answer
Answer: Coupons that counted each ad's replies
Keyed coupons revealed exactly which headline or offer pulled responses, an early form of A/B testing.
The whole quiz comes before your apps
BrainTok asks a few questions like these before the apps you choose open, so your screen time turns into learning. For iPhone.
Join the beta