Ad Infinitum

We flip past ads in magazines, zip past billboards at 70 mph and plow through commercials with TiVo. But after devouring Stéphane Pincas and Marc Loiseau’s A History of Advertising (out now), we may alter our ad-averse ways. In their comprehensive book filled with vintage posters, print ads and photos and stills from commercials, the authors mine iconic ads for minutiae, giving each its own engrossing narrative.

Spanning from the 19th century (when the first ad agency opened in the U.S.) to present day, History clues us in to facts that are bound to fascinate: In early incarnations, the Jolly Green Giant was neither green nor giant; the 1917 “I Want You” Army poster featuring Uncle Sam was cribbed from, of all things, a British design; and Levi’s had an 820% spike in sales after airing its 1985 commercial featuring model Nick Kamen stripping down to his undies in a Laundromat. See what you’re missing when you hit fast forward?

A History of Advertising is available now from Taschen Books.

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