The purpose of advertising is to spread the word.

The traditional view is that advertising appears along with commodity production and commodity exchange, and is an inevitable product of the development of commodity economy. This traditional view only reveals the origin of "commodity advertising". However, judging from the development and evolution history of advertising and people's understanding of advertising, advertising in both the original and modern senses does not only refer to "commodity advertising". ", but includes "social advertising" such as politics, military, and culture, which originated earlier than "commodity advertising." The author believes that advertising is the product of human beings' purposeful information exchange and dissemination activities. "Commodity advertising" emerged at the end of primitive society and the early stage of slave society, and "social advertising" appeared around the early stage of matriarchal communes.

It is mainly divided into social advertising and commercial advertising. The most common ones we see are commercial advertisements, while social advertisements include political advertisements, public service announcements, etc.