Why the history of advertising matters – Tom Knox writes for Campaign

“Congrats – are you an exhibit?”

This was typical of the messages I received following the news that I had become Chair of the History of Advertising Trust.

It made me laugh, but it also got me thinking about why the combination of advertising and history seems to be counterintuitive and even ridiculous for many people.

The obvious explanation for why the advertising industry suffers from collective amnesia about the past is that we are addicted to the new.

At its worst this is a form of slightly unthinking arrogance; the kind of youthful naivety that thinks your grandparents have nothing interesting to tell you in a world of TikTok and NFTs – what lessons could possibly endure in the ever-changing world of advertising?

Broadly, there are two camps in advertising:

1.    Good-old-days junkies

2.    Next-big-thing junkies

It really doesn’t have to be so binary. It’s not about past vs future, but a continuum. If we choose not to understand the past or review the present, how can we make the future better?

Capitalism itself has an inherent anti-history bias famously summed up by the pioneer of mass production Henry Ford: “History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.” (Incidentally, this cavalier attitude to history undoubtedly contributed to his vile antisemitism.)

At a deeper level I think our neglect of the history of advertising relates to an industry-wide crisis of confidence and a lack of self-respect that is corrosive and debilitating.

We should be proud of what our industry contributes to the economy and culture not just of this country but the world.

Advertising traces social history and HAT’s extraordinary archive (the biggest of its kind in the world) is a vital resource for academics and students, whether they are studying societal issues like the representation of gender and race, or they are marketing undergraduates looking to make a career in the industry. The archive also gives valuable insight into the beneficial role of advertising in society and underlines the effectiveness of the industry’s long-established self-regulatory system.

One of HAT’s most extraordinary and inventive uses of the archive is a product called “Ad-Memoire”. This is designed for use in care homes and hospitals as an activity for residents or patients living with dementia. It uses the power of old TV advertisements to stimulate memories in an enjoyable and powerful way that taps into how advertising is part of popular culture. With 900,000 people living with dementia in the UK right now, and 31 million family members and friends affected, the potential for advertising to help is enormous.

It’s not surprising that our industry occasionally appears to have some self-esteem issues. As the Advertising Association has shown, there has been a steady decline in public trust in advertising and acceptance of it (from getting to the cinema early to watch the commercials to the widespread use of ad blockers in one generation).

At a time of proliferating channels and a seeming crisis in confidence of doing what we do as effectively as we used to, what can we learn from what came before us? The resources available from HAT are mind-blowingly rich and practical. As Paul Feldwick argues in his brilliant book The Anatomy of Humbug, the advertising industry will only be able to deal with the increasingly rapid change in the media landscape if it both understands its past and is able to criticise its most entrenched habits of thought.

The past offers lessons for the present. In a world that relentlessly celebrates the new, it’s refreshing to focus on those enduring lessons for our craft from history that don’t change. The HAT online archive contains a treasure trove of interviews with legends like Sir Frank Lowe, Alan Parker, Rosie Arnold, Trevor Robinson and people you should have heard of, but probably haven’t, like one of the pioneers of planning, Judie Lannon, plus many more which offer education and inspiration.

Brands have always played a vital role in reflecting a diverse range of society, to our collective benefit. At their best, they challenge the status quo and change the cultural values we live by.

We have a responsibility to preserve that extraordinary collective body of work. For the present. And the future. That is the purpose of HAT.

(And it’s a mistake to think that digital assets are indestructible and don’t need professional archivists to preserve them.)

The recent richly deserved tributes to the late Jeremy Bullmore [whose scribblings are pictured above] showed that the industry does have a latent appreciation of the value of experience, of wisdom and of historical perspective and HAT played a major role in celebrating the legacy of one of its greatest supporters.

Imagine next time you’re pitching, you could have a pack delivered with an entire catalogue of brand assets from the original launch to the present day. Well, you can right now – from HAT. That brand muscle memory. The secrets you might unearth, that even your clients might never have known.

This archive is an incredible testament to the world-changing power of creativity.

We must preserve more. Learn more. Inspire more.

As Kipling (not the cake guy, the other one) put it: “If history was taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”

Tom Knox is chairman of MullenLowe and chairman of the History of Advertising Trust