The Invention of the First Advertisement in History
Abstract
This contribution analyses a story that locates the beginning of advertising in ancient Egypt, by means of the so-called papyrus of Hapu. It argues that this story cannot be supported by any documentary evidence. This story has been repeated in many occasions, for more than a century, having even been cited in recent works in the field of History of Advertising. However, the constant in all these citations is the lack of reliable references to primary sources. After tracing the history of the diffusion of this story in the bibliography, the present article verifies the non-existence of the papyrus of Hapu the weaver and the phrase “donde se tejen las más bellas telas al gusto de cada uno”, cited for decades as the first advertisement in history.
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