A Brief History of Memetic Advertising from Trade Cards to the Internet

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Abstract: Internet memes have become such a prevalent aspect of contemporary social media communication that brands have begun to use them as vehicles for advertising. However, the concept of a meme predates its colloquial understanding as an internet-based artifact. Advertisers have been creating memes—and conversely, incorporated memes into advertisements—for longer than these modern technologies and platforms have existed. This original historical account applies memetic theory to a selection of advertising forms, campaigns, and influential individuals throughout modern history in an effort to trace the relationship between memes and advertising from the early seventeenth century to the dawn of the internet era. Of specific interest in this history is how advertisers and creators have relied upon memetic processes of imitation and transformation to maximize advertising effectiveness, memorability, and longevity through consumers' existing knowledge of content and form. Though necessarily limited in scope, this account provides a first step toward documenting how advertisers have implemented memetic approaches over time and how they inform current internet-based memetic advertising practice.