Introduction
India’s advertising history did not begin with a memorable slogan, a celebrity endorsement or a national consumer brand. Its earliest printed advertisements appeared in a colonial commercial world of arriving ships, public auctions, imported merchandise, rented property, personal services and notices concerning labour.
These early announcements rarely attempted the emotional storytelling associated with modern advertising. Their primary purpose was to connect buyers and sellers within a small trading community. Yet they introduced a principle that would shape Indian media for more than two centuries: commercial communication could help finance a publication while the publication provided traders with access to an otherwise dispersed audience.
From this beginning emerged one of the world’s most complex advertising cultures. Advertising in India developed through colonial rule, the rise of vernacular print, nationalist consumption, state-controlled broadcasting, post-independence development policies, economic liberalisation and the mobile internet revolution.
The process was not simply a delayed version of British or American advertising history. International techniques were repeatedly translated, resisted and transformed. Indian manufacturers used vernacular newspapers to build markets beyond local trading networks. Nationalist organisations turned product origin into a political claim. Radio advertising adapted to a multilingual population. Television connected brands to cinema, music, mythology and the family. Digital media later allowed creators in regional languages to participate in commercial communication without depending entirely on national broadcasters or metropolitan advertising agencies.
The Indian case also challenges the assumption that media history progresses neatly from one dominant form to another. Print did not disappear when radio arrived. Radio survived television. Television remained powerful after the internet expanded. Billboards, cinema advertising, retail displays and mobile platforms now coexist.
The contemporary Indian advertising environment is therefore hybrid. A campaign may begin with television, appear on YouTube, be discussed in WhatsApp groups, adapted by Instagram creators, translated into several languages and converted into sales through an e-commerce platform.
India’s history is especially important to global marketing because it demonstrates the limits of treating a national market as culturally uniform. Hundreds of languages and dialects, major regional media industries, unequal incomes, religious diversity and the coexistence of rural and metropolitan consumer cultures require a continuous negotiation between scale and local relevance.
The history of Indian advertising is ultimately the history of that negotiation.
Commercial Communication before Modern Advertising
Commercial persuasion existed on the Indian subcontinent long before professional advertising. Market traders used cries, symbols, reputations and personal relationships to distinguish their goods. Craftspeople marked products, while merchants relied on community networks to establish trust over long-distance trade.
Textiles, spices, jewellery, metalwork, medicines and luxury goods acquired value partly through their places of origin and the reputations of producers and intermediaries.
Such practices should not be described as modern brand management without qualification. They belonged to different institutional and cultural systems. Nevertheless, they performed recognisable marketing functions by identifying sources, reducing uncertainty and communicating expected quality.
Shaw (2016) argues that exchange, distribution and persuasive selling have ancient and medieval histories, even though academic marketing and professional advertising are much more recent.
Pre-modern commerce in India was strongly relational. Merchants frequently operated through kinship, caste, religious and community networks. Trust was attached to known people and groups rather than to impersonal corporate brands.
Printing and mass media gradually changed this relationship. Identical messages could address people who had no personal relationship with the seller. Reputation could be constructed through recurring words and images rather than only through face-to-face exchange.
Hicky’s Bengal Gazette and the Beginning of Newspaper Advertising
Printing technology had reached India centuries before the development of a large commercial press. Damle (2024) notes that the arrival of printing did not immediately displace oral and manuscript traditions. Print culture developed unevenly across regions and languages.
A major milestone occurred on 29 January 1780, when James Augustus Hicky published the first issue of the Bengal Gazette, also known as the Calcutta General Advertiser. It is generally recognised as India’s first printed newspaper. Its alternative title demonstrates the economic importance of commercial notices to the publication.
The newspaper initially served a small European colonial public. Advertisements announced ships, auctions, property, employment, imported goods and services.
Some notices also concerned enslaved, indentured or otherwise dependent people. This aspect is historically important. Early colonial advertising was embedded in unequal political and labour structures. It should not be celebrated simply as an innocent beginning of Indian creativity.
The newspaper created a marketplace in print. Traders could reach readers beyond their immediate acquaintances, while readers received information about goods and opportunities in a standardised format.
The earliest advertisements were largely informational, but commercial persuasion soon expanded. Importers emphasised novelty, quality and European origin. Medicines promised cures. Luxury goods communicated social status. Auctions used urgency and scarcity.
The printed advertisement therefore became part of the colonial construction of consumption and social distinction.
The Expansion of Vernacular Print
During the nineteenth century, newspapers and periodicals in Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Urdu, Tamil and other languages expanded the social reach of print.
This did not merely increase the number of readers. It created different cultural markets. Each language press had its own literary conventions, political debates and social audiences.
Advertisers had to translate more than words. Products needed to be explained through culturally recognisable narratives. A foreign household product, medicine or drink had to be situated within existing ideas of health, family, morality and social respectability.
The vernacular press enabled commercial communication to reach beyond English-speaking colonial elites. It helped construct urban and regional consumer publics.
Nijhawan’s study of tea advertising illustrates this process. During the late colonial period, promotional campaigns sought to transform tea from a commodity associated partly with empire and export into an everyday drink for Indian households. Advertisements in Hindi periodicals embedded tea within domestic routines and emerging national culture (Nijhawan, 2017).
Advertising in this context did more than inform consumers about an available drink. It helped create new habits and normalise them across generations.
Branded Goods and Colonial Modernity
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the growth of branded consumer goods. Soap, medicines, cosmetics, food products, beverages and household goods increasingly carried standardised names and packaging.
Branding was especially valuable when goods circulated beyond the personal reach of the producer. A recognisable package and repeated advertisement could replace some of the trust previously supplied by local retailers.
Haynes (2022) describes the emergence of brand-name capitalism in late colonial India and shows how advertising participated in the making of modern domestic and marital ideals.
Global brands associated their products with scientific progress, hygiene, beauty and social advancement. Yet they also reproduced colonial assumptions concerning race, class and civilisation.
Geng’s study of Hazeline Snow demonstrates how a British medical-cosmetic product was advertised in India and China. Its campaigns connected consumption with colonial modernity, gender and racialised ideas of beauty. The company adapted messages to local markets while maintaining a broader imperial identity (Geng, 2024).
The case reveals an important function of advertising: it translates material goods into cultural promises. A cosmetic preparation becomes evidence of refinement; soap becomes a sign of cleanliness and modern domesticity.
Indian Enterprise and Vernacular Capitalism
Indian producers were not passive recipients of foreign advertising practices. They used print to build their own brands and reach buyers beyond local merchant networks.
Haynes’ research on western India shows how small manufacturers promoted indigenous medicines through vernacular advertising. Firms such as Amritdhara, Jadibuti and Dhootapapeshwar communicated directly with readers about effectiveness, authenticity and product identity (Haynes, 2020).
Advertising allowed manufacturers to influence the meanings attached to their products rather than leaving interpretation entirely to wholesalers and retailers.
This process contributed to what can be described as vernacular capitalism. Industrial production, packaging and print promotion were combined with Ayurveda, religious symbols, local languages and traditional claims.
The resulting brands were neither simply traditional nor purely Western. They were hybrid market constructions designed for changing Indian consumer publics.
This history complicates the assumption that advertising modernity flowed in one direction from colonial corporations to Indian consumers. Local enterprises actively adapted and reshaped modern commercial practices.
The Emergence of the Advertising Agency
As newspapers, brands and commercial markets expanded, specialised intermediaries became increasingly valuable.
B. Dattaram & Co., founded in Bombay in 1905, is widely described as one of the earliest important Indian-owned advertising agencies. It has been associated with advertising for West End Watches and with early Indian print and outdoor advertising.
Popular accounts sometimes attach numerous “firsts” to the agency without providing accessible primary evidence. Claims such as the first Indian advertisement or first colour advertisement should therefore be repeated cautiously.
The broader historical development is clear: professional advertising agencies emerged in the early twentieth century, especially in Bombay and Calcutta. International agencies entered India alongside multinational clients, while locally owned agencies developed knowledge of Indian media and languages.
Agency organisation created a division of labour among account management, copywriting, artwork, media placement and research.
This professionalisation changed advertising from occasional notice production into a planned business activity. Agencies could coordinate multiple publications, advise clients and develop consistent campaigns.
Initially, much professional advertising remained metropolitan and English-speaking. The expansion of consumer markets gradually increased the importance of vernacular copywriters, regional offices and culturally specific creative work.
Swadeshi, Nationalism and the Politics of Product Origin
The Swadeshi movement transformed consumption into a political issue. Supporters encouraged the purchase of locally produced goods and the boycott of British products.
Product origin therefore became more than a factual attribute. It became a moral and nationalist claim.
Advertisements for Indian textiles, medicines, soaps and household products could present purchasing as support for economic independence.
This represents an early and powerful form of purpose-based marketing. The brand or product was connected to a collective political project.
The strategy also created tensions. British and other foreign goods often carried established reputations for industrial standardisation. Indian products had to combine national sentiment with credible claims of quality and reliability.
The Swadeshi context demonstrates that markets are culturally and politically embedded. Consumers do not evaluate goods only through functional utility and price. They may use consumption to express identity, loyalty and resistance.
Radio and the Commercial Power of Sound
Broadcasting in India began experimentally during the 1920s. The Radio Club of Bombay transmitted in June 1923, followed by the Calcutta Radio Club. The Indian Broadcasting Company began operating in 1927 but was unable to establish a stable commercial system. Broadcasting was subsequently brought under stronger government control and developed into All India Radio.
Radio introduced voice, music and sound effects into mass communication. It could reach people who did not read newspapers and could operate across linguistic markets.
Commercial advertising on state radio developed under restrictions because broadcasting was understood primarily as a public, educational and developmental institution.
Radio Ceylon consequently played an important role in the commercial media environment. Its popular film music programmes attracted Indian audiences and created sponsorship opportunities.
The connection among advertising, Hindi cinema and popular music became a defining characteristic of Indian promotional culture.
Jingles were especially effective. They could cross literacy barriers and become part of everyday memory. Regional-language versions allowed a campaign to travel without assuming that one language represented the entire nation.
Post-Independence Advertising and Development
After independence in 1947, advertising operated within a state-led development economy. Industrial licensing, import controls and restrictions on foreign competition shaped consumer markets.
In many sectors, consumers faced limited choice and product shortages. Advertising therefore did not always perform the same competitive differentiation role that it played in highly saturated Western markets.
It often introduced new products, explained their use and connected consumption with development, hygiene or modern domestic life.
Indian companies such as Tata, Godrej, Bajaj and Amul developed powerful reputations. Their brands could communicate reliability, national progress and familiarity.
The post-independence period involved an important contradiction. Public policy often promoted restraint and planned development, while advertising encouraged aspiration and consumption.
The growing urban middle class became a central imagined audience. Advertisements presented appliances, packaged goods and mobility as attainable components of a modern Indian life.
Amul and the Indianisation of Topical Advertising
The Amul Girl campaign is one of the most recognisable achievements in Indian advertising history.
Beginning in the 1960s, the campaign used a recurring cartoon figure, topical references and verbal humour to comment on politics, sport, cinema and public events.
Its importance lies in the way it transformed a dairy brand into a continuing participant in national conversation. Individual advertisements did not merely repeat product benefits. They responded to current events while preserving a stable visual identity.
The campaign anticipated what digital marketers later called real-time marketing. It relied on rapid cultural response long before social media dashboards and online trends.
Amul’s communication also demonstrated the value of linguistic flexibility. English and Indian-language wordplay allowed the campaign to speak to urban audiences through a distinctly local sense of humour.
The brand became familiar partly because it appeared to share the audience’s cultural knowledge. Advertising functioned as commentary as well as promotion.
Doordarshan and the Creation of a National Television Audience
Television broadcasting began experimentally in Delhi in 1959. A more regular service developed in 1965. By 1972 television had expanded to Bombay and Amritsar, and by 1975 several additional cities had been added. Doordarshan remained part of All India Radio until it became organisationally separate.
Early television emphasised education, agriculture, public information and national development. Commercial advertising grew gradually.
The medium’s marketing value expanded significantly with the introduction of colour television around the 1982 Asian Games. Television-set ownership increased, and brands gained access to a more visually compelling national medium.
Popular serials during the 1980s created shared viewing occasions. Families watched the same programmes, allowing advertisers to reach large audiences simultaneously.
Doordarshan helped create the image of a national consumer public. People living in different regions encountered the same brands, jingles and celebrity endorsers.
However, the apparently national audience remained culturally diverse. Advertisers frequently relied on broadly recognisable themes such as family, aspiration, cinema and cricket.
Nirma and the Discovery of the Mass Consumer Market
The rise of Nirma is a landmark in Indian marketing history. The detergent challenged established brands by offering a much lower-priced alternative.
Its success depended on more than advertising. Low-cost production, appropriate distribution and clear market positioning were essential.
The famous Nirma jingle created mass recognition, while the brand’s communication framed affordability as a positive and respectable choice.
Nirma demonstrated that India’s consumer market could not be understood only through affluent urban households. Companies needed products and prices suited to the purchasing power of much larger populations.
The competitive response from Hindustan Lever changed the detergent category and encouraged more differentiated product portfolios.
This case illustrates the importance of the complete marketing mix. Promotion amplified the proposition, but the proposition rested on product, price and availability.
Television Advertising and the Indian Family
Indian television advertising frequently presented products through family relationships.
Detergents, cooking products, appliances and vehicles were shown within domestic life. The household served as both target market and narrative environment.
These representations often reinforced gender roles. Women appeared as responsible for cleanliness, cooking and family care. Men were associated with earnings, mobility and major purchases.
Advertising did not merely mirror society. It helped normalise particular expectations about domestic labour, masculinity, femininity and middle-class respectability.
At the same time, advertising changed as women’s employment and urban lifestyles evolved. Campaigns increasingly addressed female autonomy, although they sometimes combined empowerment claims with traditional expectations.
A critical marketing history must therefore examine not only creative success but the social identities that advertising reproduces.
The Formation of ASCI
The expansion of advertising created a need for standards concerning truthfulness, decency, safety and competition.
The Advertising Standards Council of India was established in 1985 by members of the advertising, media and business communities.
Its code requires advertisements to be honest, truthful, fair and not harmful. ASCI continues to operate as a major self-regulatory institution.
Self-regulation does not replace legislation, but it provides an industry mechanism for evaluating complaints and developing guidance.
The organisation’s role expanded as advertising moved into new categories and media. Health claims, education, financial services, children’s advertising and influencer disclosures created new regulatory challenges.
ASCI’s development shows that the institutional history of advertising includes not only agencies and media, but also systems intended to protect consumer trust.
Liberalisation in 1991
India’s economic reforms of 1991 transformed the advertising industry. Reduced trade barriers and greater access for foreign investment brought new companies and products into the market.
Competition increased. Brands had to differentiate themselves more actively, and advertising expenditure grew.
At approximately the same time, satellite and cable television challenged Doordarshan’s dominance. Private entertainment, news and music channels fragmented the audience and created more specialised advertising environments.
Liberalisation therefore changed both the supply of products and the supply of media.
International agency networks expanded, while Indian agencies developed partnerships and became more integrated into global advertising systems.
Campaigns increasingly displayed global lifestyles, but local culture remained essential. Brands used Indian film stars, cricket players, festivals and family narratives to make international products culturally familiar.
Rajagopal (2001) demonstrates how satellite television, consumption, politics and religious nationalism became interconnected within the changing Indian public sphere.
Global Brands and Cultural Localisation
The post-liberalisation market made India a major target for global consumer brands.
Successful international companies did not simply translate global advertisements into Hindi. India required differentiated strategies across income groups, languages and regions.
Coca-Cola and Pepsi connected themselves with cricket and Bollywood. Food and personal-care brands developed local flavours, package sizes and price points. Automotive advertising adapted international ideas of mobility to Indian roads and family use.
This process is commonly described as glocalisation. The global brand maintains a recognisable identity while adapting execution and sometimes the product itself.
India demonstrated that localisation cannot be limited to advertising copy. Product formulation, package size, distribution and pricing may all require adjustment.
Marketing in India therefore challenged the assumption that global standardisation automatically produces efficiency.
The Internet and Early Digital Advertising
India’s early internet advertising developed through web portals, banner advertisements, company websites, email and search marketing.
Initial access was concentrated among urban and relatively affluent computer users. Digital advertising consequently represented only a limited section of the wider market.
The smartphone changed this structure. Affordable devices and mobile data brought internet access to people who had never regularly used a desktop computer.
India became a mobile-first digital market. The smartphone combined media, communication, payment, shopping and entertainment.
Advertising formats had to be designed for small screens, short attention spans and varying network conditions. Video, apps, messaging and voice interfaces became important.
Research from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad demonstrates the centrality of social media, online video and mobile digital services in contemporary Indian media consumption while also showing substantial differences among users (Sharma and Sharma, 2023).
Social Media and Participatory Brand Communication
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp changed the structure of Indian advertising.
In mass media, brands generally purchased access to an audience and delivered finished messages. Social platforms allow audiences to respond, reinterpret and circulate content.
Consumers publish reviews, complaints, demonstrations and parodies. Their experiences become part of the public identity of a product.
Brands therefore operate in a less controllable environment. A campaign can spread rapidly but can also generate criticism at the same speed.
Social media increased measurability. Marketers can monitor reach, engagement, clicks and conversions. Campaigns can be adjusted continuously.
However, measurable interaction should not be confused with complete understanding. High engagement may reflect controversy rather than positive brand response.
Social media transformed advertising from a primarily distributive activity into a continuous process of community and reputation management.
The Rise of Regional-Language Digital Media
One of the most important developments in Indian digital advertising is the growth of regional-language content.
Early internet marketing focused disproportionately on English-speaking urban users. The expansion of smartphones into smaller cities and rural areas created demand for content in Hindi and numerous regional languages.
Platforms such as ShareChat and Moj were designed around Indian-language participation. Global platforms also invested in regional creators and interfaces.
For brands, this creates an opportunity to reach audiences previously underserved by national campaigns. Yet literal translation is inadequate. Regional humour, festivals, music and social norms differ.
Recent industry reporting shows that platforms are increasingly investing in hyperlocal and regional creators, particularly outside the largest metropolitan markets.
The digital future of Indian advertising is therefore not simply more personalised. It is increasingly multilingual and regionally specific.
Influencers and the Creator Economy
India has a long history of celebrity endorsement through cinema and cricket. Social media extended endorsement to new groups.
Creators can now develop influence primarily through digital activity. Beauty specialists, gamers, comedians, teachers, finance commentators and regional entertainers attract niche audiences.
Brands can collaborate with large celebrities, but also with micro-influencers whose communities may be more specialised and engaged.
The creator’s apparent authenticity is commercially valuable because a recommendation may resemble personal advice.
This creates a transparency problem. Audiences need to know when content is sponsored. ASCI’s influencer guidelines require paid relationships to be disclosed clearly.
The regulatory issue continues an old advertising question in a new form: when commercial communication adopts entertainment or personal expression, how can the audience recognise it as advertising?
WhatsApp, Trust and Private Circulation
WhatsApp has particular significance in India because of its role in everyday personal and business communication.
Retailers and service providers use it for customer support, product catalogues, appointment reminders and ordering.
Users also forward promotions, recommendations and videos within private groups. This activity is difficult to measure through conventional public social-media analytics and is often described as dark social.
A message forwarded by a trusted relative or friend may carry more credibility than a public advertisement.
This pattern resembles the two-step flow of communication described by Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet (1944), in which media influence is mediated by social relationships and opinion leaders.
WhatsApp demonstrates that social media marketing is not limited to public profiles and visible influencers. Private networks are a major part of digital market communication.
Online Video, Music and Entertainment
India’s digital advertising growth is closely connected to online video.
YouTube, Instagram Reels and other short-video formats build on a long cultural relationship among advertising, cinema and music.
Brands produce short advertisements, tutorials, product demonstrations, branded entertainment and creator collaborations. Music and humour help content travel across language and literacy barriers.
Online video allows detailed targeting while preserving the emotional qualities of television and cinema.
Current industry analysis identifies social media, online video and paid search as leading components of India’s digital advertising market.
This development represents both change and continuity. The screen has moved from the family television set to the personal smartphone, but entertainment remains a primary vehicle for commercial attention.
E-Commerce and Social Commerce
The growth of Amazon India, Flipkart and direct-to-consumer companies brought advertising and distribution closer together.
On e-commerce platforms, sponsored products appear beside search results, reviews and purchasing options.
Social media further shortens the path from discovery to transaction. A creator can demonstrate a product and provide a link or promotional code.
Promotion, retail and measurement are integrated.
This system allows smaller brands to build awareness without immediately obtaining national physical distribution. Digital reputation may precede entry into traditional retail.
However, platform dependence increases. Brands rely on algorithms, marketplace rules and advertising systems that they do not control.
Data, Targeting and Ethical Challenges
Digital platforms enable advertisers to target users by language, location, interest and behaviour.
Such precision is attractive in a market as diverse as India. A campaign can be adjusted for regions, cities and audience segments.
The same infrastructure creates privacy and accountability concerns. Platforms collect large volumes of behavioural data and determine which content receives visibility.
Political advertising, misinformation, discriminatory content and unsubstantiated health or financial claims present further risks.
The history of Indian advertising therefore does not conclude with a simple transition from inefficient traditional media to efficient digital targeting. The digital period introduces new concentrations of power.
Advertisers, regulators and consumers must negotiate who controls data, how persuasion is disclosed and which organisations are responsible for harmful content.
India’s Contribution to Global Marketing History
India expands the conventional history of advertising in several ways.
First, it demonstrates that modern advertising developed within colonial and postcolonial conditions as well as Western industrial economies.
Second, it reveals the importance of vernacular markets. National marketing cannot be understood only through one official or elite language.
Third, it shows how advertising participates in the construction of modernity, nationhood, family and gender.
Fourth, India illustrates the continuing coexistence of media. Print, radio, television, outdoor advertising, cinema and digital platforms interact rather than simply replacing one another.
Finally, India’s mobile and regional-language growth offers a model for the future of global digital marketing. Growth increasingly comes from users whose cultural and linguistic experiences differ from the English-language assumptions of early internet advertising.
Conclusion
The history of advertising in India began with printed notices within a colonial trading community. The Bengal Gazette and other early newspapers connected merchants, buyers and service providers through a new commercial medium.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, vernacular newspapers created broader consumer publics. Foreign brands linked products with science, hygiene and colonial modernity, while Indian manufacturers used the same media to promote indigenous medicines and locally produced goods.
Advertising agencies professionalised the industry. Nationalist movements made product origin politically significant. The decision to buy Indian goods could express resistance and collective identity.
After independence, advertising developed within a state-directed economy. It helped explain new products and represented an emerging urban middle class. Radio, cinema and television connected commercial communication with entertainment.
Doordarshan created large national audiences, while campaigns for Amul, Nirma, Surf and Bajaj developed distinctive Indian forms of humour, music and family storytelling.
The liberalisation of 1991 increased competition and brought global brands, private television and international agency networks into a rapidly changing market. Globalisation did not eliminate local culture. It made localisation more strategically important.
The mobile internet then transformed access. Social media made audiences visible participants in advertising. Creators became media businesses, consumers produced influential content, and e-commerce platforms connected promotion directly with purchase.
India’s current advertising market is increasingly regional, mobile and video-based. Much of its future growth lies in languages and cities that were marginal to early digital marketing.
Across these transformations, one principle has remained constant. Advertising succeeds when it makes an economic offer meaningful within a particular social world.
India’s contribution to global marketing history lies in demonstrating how difficult and productive that process can be. Its advertising culture developed neither through the simple importation of Western models nor through cultural isolation. It emerged through continuous translation among global technologies, regional languages, national ambitions and everyday consumer life.
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