The Man Who Sold the World Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pompeii

"Gaius Pumidius Diphilus was here" can be found on one of the walls in the ancient city. There is a time stamp attached to it and this has enabled historians to date it back to October 3, 78 B.C. The things that some vandals will write on walls - who'd have thought it? The volcanic eruption that was Mt Vesuvius buried the ancient city of Pompeii under tonnes of ash and, in doing so, preserved a wealth of information. Amongst this are examples of graffiti and billboards advertising a range of things but, in the main, political agendas. Who said social media is a modern-day phenomenon? The Atlantic Daily published a story in March of 2016 indicating that the walls held well preserved public notices advertising a range of items from political campaigns to gladiatorial contests to a lost horse poster.

Nowadays historians are hastily scrambling to document and digitalise as much of this data as possible before our modern day vandals scrawl their own forms of graffiti over it.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

The first known paid advertisement in the United States is reported to have appeared in a New England newspaper in 1704. It did not succeed. In the 1760s Benjamin Franklin purchased the Philadelphia Gazette and turned it into a vehicle for communication with the masses.

He supported its publication with advertising. In this way he could keep the costs down so that it was affordable to almost "everyman". Not only did Franklin appreciate the power of pictures in advertisements, he was quick to realise how potent white space was and he ensured he left lots of it around his headlines.

Answer: P.T. Barnum

A founding member of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, P.T. Barnum is also remembered for his creation of a museum that promoted a number of human curiosities (such as General Tom Thumb) and hoaxes (like the Feejee mermaid).

His contributions to advertising were enormous, from his foresight to his ability to turn a phrase and wax lyrically with headlines such as "After an Unbroken Night of Twenty Centuries, the Resplendent Sun of Imperial Roman Pastimes Reappears". A number of his innovations are still in use today. He would drape buildings with enormous, out-sized banners as a way of promoting new attractions. He would place large posters and signs onto horse drawn wagons and have them hauled through the streets of New York in much the same manner that buses and trams are decorated today.

Answer: Text written for the purpose of advertising

An expression of emotion is lyricism, and whilst "copy write" may be used to play on emotions it is not necessarily required to be delivered with the skills of a poet. Legal recognition of authorship is "copyright" and lurid sensationalism alludes to tabloid journalism. Whilst Caples' headline does elicit a response from the reader it couldn't be described as lurid; in other words, something that is vividly shocking.

Caples put his headline together for the U.S. School of Music as a means of advertising music lessons. He recognised that if he merely tried to deliver music lessons as a means to develop a skill he would get a limited response. Accordingly he provided the reader with an emotional benefit i.e. see how proud your friends and family will be when you do show them what you can do. His ad became a huge success and essentially became the forerunner to "Direct Response" advertising.

With the dawn of the internet and the myriad of advertisers seeking attention, Caples' initial strategy has become one of the most sought after forms of copywriting in the marketplace. A modern version of this is the online technique known as "clickbait", exemplified by such viral content that reads "What Happened Next Will Make You Cringe" or "How He Did It Will Blow Your Mind". How can you possibly resist clicking on the link?

Caples passed away in 1990 but the five books he authored on copywriting are regarded as essential reading by many advertisers.

(Note) My spelling is not incorrect. Copy and write are a minor tautology (saying the same thing using different words) hence copywrite is recorded as two separate words. However, the act of producing copy is generally accepted as a single word - copywriting.

Answer: Paul Harvey

"Paul Harvey News" was aired on over 1600 radio stations and it was estimated that he was reaching in excess of 24 million listeners each week from the 1950s through to the 1990s. Harvey was a pioneer who not only had trademark catchphrases and pauses in his armoury, but also a writing style that was both florid and hyperbolic, it was little wonder then that sponsors were knocking down his door for his endorsements.

Some would claim that he was overly lavish in his praise of products and, at times, fawning.

However, none could deny his ability to move seamlessly from news content to product endorsement in the same breath.

Answer: Volkswagen

Picture this; It is the end of the 1950s, the aftermath of World War II is still fresh in people's minds, you're looking to propel your tiny little "Beetle" to the forefront of the American conscience. You're going to preach to an audience that has a love affair with gas-guzzling giant automobiles and you possess a product that was designed by Nazi Germany... good luck.

Enter Julian Koenig from the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) agency, who designed an advertisement that went against everything that had made those earlier "created for Americans" vehicles so successful. In a stroke of extreme simplicity, Koenig placed the image of a small VW Beetle against a field of white so that the reader's attention was drawn straight to the vehicle. Above it is a headline that states "Think Small" and below is some fine print that speaks of thrift, easy parallel parking and 32 miles to the gallon. The VW Beetle soon became a household name and the advertisement would be rated the best ad of the twentieth century by Advertising Age magazine.

Answer: Apple

Not only did this ad launch Apple's MacIntosh computer, it also helped create a new form of Super Bowl-specific advertisements. Apple's advertisement borrows from George Orwell's novel "1984" and sees a large group of "grey" people marching in line and assembling in a hall where they're fed a whole heap of dogma. The place is meant to represent the future where technology is controlled by a select few. Into this scene rushes the only colour - Anya Major - dressed in bright orange shorts and a brilliant white singlet. She is armed with a sledgehammer and is being pursued by four "thought policemen". She swings the hammer twice and hurls it at the screen and shatters both it and the power of IBM.

When Steve Jobs spoke to the team at Chiat\Day, he advised them that his computer was not going to be just another product, that it would change the world and, as such, he wanted something that was going to be dramatic, famous and different. He certainly got that. His other order was that the Super Bowl would be the only airing of the advert. This was primarily because they didn't have the product ready yet and it would be remiss of them to continue advertising it, but it had the effect of only heightening the mystery, with punters saying "the game was good, but did you see that ad?" Seeing the power behind this, it soon opened the doors to many more ads to be screened solely during the Super Bowl and it also increased the secrecy behind them.

Answer: Google

Google started life as a research project for Page and Brin while they were Ph.D students at Stanford University. They quickly realised the power of their creation but needed capital to expand the operation. They launched a highly successful IPO (Initial Public Offering) in August of 2004 and the massive injection of funds opened the door to rapid expansion through product research and development and aggressive acquisition.

Google soon became the most visited website in the world and it didn't take them long to realise that its site was more than just a mere search engine. They concluded that the internet gave power to the consumers by making them active rather than passive observers. Consumers could now search for what they wanted/needed when they wanted to. Google responded by introducing a regime that sold access to visitors in a variety of ways including new adaptations of keywords and banner advertisements.

Answer: Facebook

That is a staggering base within which to work and to sell to. This is especially so when you consider that the platform was launched as late as 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and some mates, and then primarily as a social toy for themselves whilst at Harvard University.

It is now one of the most effective advertising mediums in the world. One of the reasons for its success is that your journey through Facebook sees you making "friends" and who is best placed to know what you want and point you in the direction to look but... your friends.

Answer: YouTube

According to Karim the inspiration for the site came from their inability to track down videos on the internet to two major events of 2004 - the Indian Ocean tsunami and Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction". A year and a half after they launched the site, Google purchased it from them for a cool $1.65 billion.

Google have since turned it into a brilliant marketing machine. A brief glance at the operation's promotional video and you're informed that you can "target any kind of person and we (YouTube) have the sophisticated tools to help you find them". If you think that the Super Bowl presents a prime marketing opportunity then YouTube provides a far greater advantage. Consider this; YouTube has a billion users and 70% of the traffic through its site is via mobile phone. YouTube will attract more eyes to your product on a daily basis than the Super Bowl will do on its best day.