When we think of advertising, we visualize a TV spot or a web banner. The reality is that centuries before the first ad in a newspaper, commercial communication techniques were already structuring the economic life of cities. Town criers, painted signs, peddlers: these devices responded to very concrete constraints, starting with a predominantly illiterate audience and the total absence of mass media.
Visual signs and urban signage: communicating without knowing how to read
Imagine yourself in a shopping street of the Middle Ages. No illuminated display, no printed logo. The problem to solve is simple: how to signal a bakery or a blacksmith to passersby who, for the most part, cannot read?
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The answer lay in the visual signs fixed on the facades. A boot for the cobbler, an anvil for the blacksmith, a sheaf of wheat for the baker. These distinctive signs functioned as a universal signage, understandable by any traveler, regardless of their language or level of education.
This system relied on codes shared across a city, sometimes regulated by municipal authorities. The coats of arms of corporations and the emblems of trades played a similar role: they identified a know-how, guaranteed an origin, and created a primitive form of branding. When we look into the history of advertising before its emergence, we discover that this logic of visual recognition has never really disappeared.
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The principle remains the same today with a logo on a storefront. The difference is that the medieval sign did not seek to seduce; it sought to be understood.
Town criers in France: much more than a sales tool
The town crier is often reduced to a street vendor. This is a mistake. In the cities of the Ancien Régime, the crier fulfilled a civic as well as a commercial function. He disseminated official news, municipal announcements, and judicial decisions. He was the mass media of his time, with a reach limited to the marketplace but with real authority.
Specifically, the crier would position himself at defined crossroads, often at the same times. His announcement followed a codified format:
- A sound signal (bell, drum, trumpet) to capture the crowd’s attention
- The official or commercial announcement, recited aloud in a standardized formulation
- The repetition of the message at several points in the city to maximize coverage
This setup solved a logistical problem: without a press, without a poster readable by all, the human voice remained the most reliable vector. The crier was often sworn in, which gave his announcements an institutional credibility that any street vendor lacked.
Peddlers and itinerant merchants: the mobile distribution network
Outside the city walls, commercial communication passed through a mobile network. Peddlers, showmen, and street vendors transported goods, but also news, almanacs, and printed images as soon as printing began to spread.
Their role in advertising is underestimated. A peddler who traveled through several villages in a week acted as a living catalog. He described the products, told their origins, and adapted his speech to each audience. This is personalized communication, long before algorithmic targeting.
This itinerant network operated on trust and repetition. A peddler would regularly return to the same places, creating an ongoing relationship with his buyers. Reports vary on this point, but several historians note that this ground-level loyalty foreshadowed modern sales tours.
Oral communication vs. written support: two distinct logics
Before printing, commercial communication was almost entirely oral. With Gutenberg and the gradual spread of printed paper, a shift occurred, but not overnight.
For a long time, both systems coexisted. The oral dominated for local announcements and proximity commerce. The written word, on the other hand, primarily served institutions: royal edicts, papal bulls, and then gradually the first commercial posters in major cities like Paris.
The printed poster changed the game because it allowed a message to be fixed in public space, without relying on a human intermediary. We moved from ephemeral communication (the crier’s voice fades as soon as he stops) to persistent communication (the poster remains visible day and night).
This transition from one model to another took several centuries. The daily press, which appeared much later, accelerated the transition by offering a reproducible medium on a large scale. The first advertisements in newspapers in France are part of this direct continuity.
What these ancient practices reveal about current advertising
Three mechanisms traverse all these eras without fundamentally changing:
- Adaptation to the audience: visual sign for the illiterate, crier for the marketplaces, peddler for rural areas. Each medium responded to an access constraint
- Repetition as a lever for memorization: the crier returned, the peddler came back, the sign remained in place
- Trust as a currency of exchange: the sworn crier, the regular peddler, the corporation emblem certified by the city
These three pillars can be found in any contemporary communication strategy. The tools change, but the mechanics of persuasion remain the same. A town crier in a marketplace and a push notification on a phone solve the same problem: reaching the right person at the right time with a credible message.
The main difference lies in the scale. The crier reached a few hundred people a day. An online campaign can reach millions in a matter of seconds. The underlying logic, however, has not changed since the first signs hung on the facades of medieval cities.