History of Advertisement in India

The first Indian newspaper started by James August Hickey on January 29, 1780, was called the Bengal Gazette or Calcutta General Advertiser. It was full of informative advertisement. In 1785, The Bengal Journal published with Government advertisement free of charge. In 1790 Courier of Bombay carried advertisement. Though the newspaper was published in English, but advertisement was appeared in regional languages like Gujarati, Marathi, and Konkani. By the dawn of 19th century the pattern of advertising changed-and the power of advertising increased rapidly with the growth of trade and commerce. 

With the Industrial Revolution in India, the number of advertisements from British Business Houses rose considerably. The Times of India and The Statesman started their own facilities for layout and copy of the advertisement. The development of advertising agency was founded due to the development of Indian industries provided by the Swadeshi Movement of 1907-1977. The major advertising agencies were, The Calcutta Advertising Agency, Alliance Advertising Associates, Publicity Society of India, and J. Walter Thompson, Mumbai.

The 1970 was the important year of the growth of advertising in India. The Vividh Bharati and Doordarshan played a great role in the form of commercial broadcasting and telecasting. Now radio commercials made a real dent on the rural audience and urban working class. Besides these many periodicals and various film magazines made their appearance in Indian advertising. The role of tabloids in English and the Indian languages were very examples in the field of advertising in India.