The oldest medium of mankind is not anything else, but the human body itself. People use hands, faces and other body parts to communicate non-verbally such as movements and expressions. Then language emerged. Some anthropologists believe that language emerged 100,000 years ago.
About 20,000 BC, humans used pictures to express their thoughts. Their works can still be seen today in caves in northern France. They left paintings of reindeer, wild horses and some extinct animals on the walls of these caves. These murals must have been created by the most creative humans at different times in prehistory and are one of the most primitive media of prehistoric humans.
People also carved marks on trees to indicate routes and piled stones to indicate directions or boundaries. In pre-literate societies, humans applied decorative patterns that conveyed profound meanings to pottery, weavings, carvings, and other simple, everyday items.
Beacon smoke and flags and drums were important media for long-distance communication in ancient times. The beacon smoke was used to warn people, while the flags and drums were used to direct advance and retreat. This is what China's "Sun Tzu's Art of War" said, "If you don't hear each other, it becomes a golden drum; if you don't see it, it becomes a flag." This is the situation it refers to. Despite these mediums, pre-writing humanity's ability to transcend face-to-face communication was extremely limited. Human beings have little that transcends time except those pictures on wood, bark, hides or stones. Vision, hearing, and meteorological conditions limit their ability to travel long distances. For example, people at that time could only see distant fireworks signals during the day under favorable weather conditions.
In addition to using body language to convey information, primitive people rely more on natural objects in the real world to convey advertising information. One of these natural objects is naturally generated or exists in nature, such as trees, rocks, etc., and the other, although created by humans, has not been consciously used as an advertising medium, but is in the process of transmitting information. have been borrowed from, such as pictures, ropes, etc. There are two types of substitutes: one is a specific substitute, and the other is a substitute for life.
1. Specific substitutes
(1) Knotted rope. Knotting knots to record events is a common method of primitive information transmission. The practice of tying knots to record events in ancient Chinese society is often described in history books. The Book of Changes records: "In ancient times, people tied knots to rule, and later generations of saints changed it with written contracts. Hundreds of officials "Zhuangzi" records: "In the past, the Rongcheng family... the Zhurong family, the Fuxi family, and the Shennong family were at that time, and the people tied ropes and used them." "Northern History" also mentioned. : "Hunting is a profession, simplicity is a custom, simplicity is a transformation, not writing, just carving wood and knotting ropes." The knotting method has been widely used in ancient Chinese history and has a long history. The Gaoshan people of Taiwan record dates by tying a number of knots according to the number of days and untying one knot every night. The Tibetan Lhoba people use a knife to cut a knot every day. Cutting until the last knot indicates the expiration date, and untying the knot indicates the date of the appointment. When people from Dulong, Yunnan go out alone, they often tie a hemp rope around their waist and tie a knot once a day to record the number of days they have left. The Yao people often get a decision in front of the leader when there is a dispute between two people. The method is that the disputants each hold a rope, and whoever tells a reason ties a knot until the argument is finished. The one with the most knots wins the case. In class society, the tradition of knotting was also inherited by merchants and changed in form and use. In shops, hotels, teahouses and merchant stalls, various banners or signboards are often decorated with various ornaments, strung with ropes, embellished with silk, colorful strips of fabric, various beads or Pai Sui also has many unique shapes, which are made of knotted and woven thick hemp ropes. Here, rope knots become a new medium for delivering advertising messages.
(2) Carved wood. Engraved wood is another symbolic language. History books have also recorded the historical facts of wood carvings to record events in various parts of our country. For example, the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" records, "If the adults have a call, they will carve wood as a letter." Even if there is no writing, they dare not violate it. "Lingwai Daida" also records: "The Yao people have no writing, and their offers are carved on two wooden boards. People hold one of them and keep it with great faith." "Yunnan Tengyue Prefecture Chronicle" also mentions: "The Yi people have customs , all loans and credit, financial arrangements and other matters, I don't know the writing, only use wood carving as a sign, each holds half of it, and pays as promised, nothing happens. "
The custom of carving wood as a sign is still there. In the process of commodity production and exchange, it evolved into the inscription of official workers or the marking of celebrity goods, that is, the names of official workers or celebrities were stamped on the goods sold. If you go back further, carved wood can even be regarded as the source of product trademarks and mark advertising.
(3) Wolf smoke.
During the Spring and Autumn Period of our country, there are records of using fire and beacon smoke to convey military warnings. After Qin Shihuang, a beacon tower was built every ten miles on the Great Wall, using dry wolf dung as fuel. After it was lit, the fire and smoke would rise into the sky, and emergency warnings could be sent to far away places. The line in the ancient poem "The sun sets on the flat sand in the west of the desert, the stars on the mountains rise high and low again; the beacon fires can be seen in several isolated mountains, and the strong men camp with drums and drums" is a true portrayal of the application of this primitive information transmission method. This kind of communication media was also used in the business activities of merchants in ancient society. For example, in different periods, there are records of night-walking caravans and caravans "raising fire as a signal."
(4) Drum. The original information transmission method affects both vision and hearing. Information transmission that affects hearing is mainly carried out with the help of sound communication tools, among which signal drums are the most common. The cowhide wooden drum of the Jinuo people in my country is made by hollowing out both ends of a thick tree, then tying it with furry cowhide, hanging it on the tree and beating it with a wooden mallet. During the New Year, when the drum is heard, men and women gather together. Young people gathered together, singing and dancing.
(5) Bamboo number. The Nu people in my country use bamboo trumpets to spread information during funerals, and announce the funeral to the whole village by blowing different numbers of bamboo trumpets. The number of bamboo trumpets increases or decreases according to the status of the deceased: one bamboo trumpet is played for the unmarried deceased, two for the married, and five or six for the elderly and the leader. After hearing the news, the tribe members rushed to the deceased's house and brought eggs to express their condolences. Entering class society, with the differentiation of merchants and merchants, merchants walked through the streets and alleys, creating a variety of information dissemination tools such as blowing, playing, playing and singing. For example, there are records of merchants in the Han Dynasty playing flutes and selling sugar candies.
(6) Audio equipment. The pottery bells and pottery xun unearthed from the Miaodigou site in my country's Neolithic Age, and the three-hole pottery xun from the Jiangzhai site all have the function of producing music. After entering class society, with the development of commodity production and commodity exchange, the forms of sound advertising have become increasingly rich and colorful. Various utensils in daily life may become the communication media of sound advertising, such as bowls and lamps that are closely related to daily life. , pots, etc., and entertainment-related flutes, harps, harps, drums, gongs, etc., have also become tools for transmitting advertising information. For the purpose of advertising, many businessmen also specially made rattles and utensils to express the characteristics of the industry. Typical examples include rattles for salesmen, tweezers and forks used by barbers, and copper clappers used by knife sharpeners.
The widespread use of specific metonyms shows that the methods and approaches of advertising communication have changed greatly. With the frequency of communication activities and the advancement of communication technology, people are borrowing all available tools or objects to deliver advertising messages more effectively and more targetedly. The richness of media forms enables human advertising to spread over a wider area and convey richer ideas, culture and business information.
2. Life substitutes
(1) Grass mark. Also called grass mustard. It is a naturally growing thing, but when it is inserted into items sold or for sale, it has a symbolic meaning. In different historical periods of ancient Chinese society, grass mustard was used in everything from daily necessities to poor families selling their children due to hunger and cold. "Water Margin" has mentioned grass marks many times. The most famous one is the record about Yang Zhi selling knives: "Yang Zhi took the sword that day, inserted the grass marks into it, and put it on the market for sale." The grass marks here are all there. Functions of advertising media.
(2) Grain ears, fences, and wickers. It often appears in front of restaurants in rural areas. Hanging it randomly in front of the door or on the fence not only serves as a sign, but also shows the simplicity and hospitality of the store. Small fences and wickers can immediately bring the store closer. The distance between customers, businesses and passers-by is also a low-cost advertising medium with excellent communication effects.
(3) Bottles, ladles and brooms. The straw broom is also called "grass brush", "grass pole" and "broomstick". After the Song Dynasty, after the market restrictions were broken, shops could not only be opened in residential areas, but also in markets and countryside. As an advertising logo, straw brooms often appear in wine shops and teahouses. There are many records of these things in the literature of the Song Dynasty. Hong Mai of the Song Dynasty once mentioned in "Rong Zhai Xu Bi": "Today's capital and county wine clerks, as well as the relationship between wine and wine. Everywhere, large curtains are hung on the outside, with blue and white cloths measuring several feet high. The small ones are hung with bottles, ladles, and broom sticks as advertising signs. , in addition to its particularity as an auxiliary tool for winemaking, it also has a deeper allusion. The main meaning is "broomstick". Su Shi of the Song Dynasty once recited: "If you want to establish a name, you can't ask for a promotion. It should be called fishing hook, also known as broom."
The "broom" here has obviously become the name of wine. Another name.
It means "drinking to relieve one's sorrows" and "one drunkenness will relieve one's sorrows". Therefore, using a broom as the logo of the hotel is both vivid and vivid, as well as symbolic and has a strong folkloric color.
In ancient Chinese society, there were many signs of life, most of which were attached to the activities of shops and merchants. The scope of use basically did not exceed the business area and the narrow "market" scope. Due to frequent use and consumers, Conventions reflect the joys, sorrows, joys and aesthetic tastes of ordinary people. At the same time, they also reflect the collective wisdom of media users or businesses. However, the widespread use of this type of advertising media also reflects the limitations of people's development and utilization of advertising media at a low level of productivity.