A long way is the simple answer to that question, but just how far?

The real truth is that advertising in its own right dates back thousands of years and the Egyptians are known to be the real inventors. The Egyptians are credited for many, many inventions and how they created the pyramids is still a great mystery. Of course they needed to invent paper before advertising came in and they did this in the form of papyrus. The Egyptians then did something that was quite remarkable, they started to write down advertisements on this paper and post it around the cities. It was this that kicked everything off with the rest of the world's future generations.

It is also known that Pompeii, the city destroyed by the terrible forces of nature, actually had used adverts to show off commercial messages.The middle ages took on the idea of advertising in their own special way, as they invented the image form of advertising.It was also around this time that Town Criers were used to advertise many things such as fruit and vegetables.

Leap forward many years and you get to the stage in which door to door salesmen started doing the rounds and then came the invention of the radio in which companies were able to do short advertisements on between music and talk. Next came the invention of the TV, which was closely followed by the arrival of the design agency started to come into play.

Leap foward once more and you will realise the scale of things as advertising is now used in a variety of ways from public transport to schools. These days of course we see a variety of different advertising and branding media, from direct mail marketing to twist stands - all a natural part of the evolution of advertising.

Just how long is it possible for advertisment to grow? It seems that with every new invention, advertising is not far behind, sneaking its way into everything and everyone.