piece of advertising is called an advertisement,
or ad.
The goal of most advertising is to make
the public want to buy whatever is being
advertised. People also use advertising to
make the public form opinions about
things. For example, an ad could try to
make the public believe that a company
treats its workers well. Another ad could
try to make voters choose a certain candidate
for president.
Ads appear almost everywhere. They are
found in newspapers and magazines.
They appear on television, radio, and
the Internet. Ads are also posted as signs
in all kinds of public places.
The Media and Advertising
When advertisers want many people to
see or hear their ads, they pay the media
to have the ads published or broadcast.
Newspapers and magazines publish, or
print, ads between their articles. Television
and radio networks broadcast, or
play, ads during their programs. (Television
and radio ads are also called commercials.)
Web sites, buses, movie
theaters, and many other places also
display ads in exchange for money.
Control of Advertising
Advertisers are regulated, or controlled,
in several ways. Governments usually
pass laws to make sure that ads are
truthful and do not offend consumers.
Also, the media usually set their own
rules that advertisers must follow.
History of Advertising
Signs were the first form of advertising.
Even thousands of years ago people created
hand-lettered signs to advertise
their goods and services. The invention
of the printing press in the 1400s
expanded this type of advertising. Merchants
could print dozens of the same
posters and fliers to advertise what they
were selling. In the 1600s and 1700s
newspapers appeared in Europe, the
Americas, and Japan. Advertising then
became even more widespread.
Today advertising is a huge part of business
around the world. A major corpora-
Bright advertisements compete for attention
in New York City.
32 Advertising BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
tion may spend hundreds of millions of
dollars a year just on advertising.
#More to explore
Magazine Newspaper Radio
Television
Aegean
Civilization
The earliest European civilization arose
sometime after 3000 BC, in the region of
the Aegean Sea. It took place on the
islands and the mainland of what is now
the country of Greece. This civilization
went through several stages. It began on
the island of Crete. That early part is now
called theMinoan civilization.On the
mainland of Greece it developed later.
That is now calledMycenaean
civilization.
Minoans
The Minoan civilization lasted from
about 2500 BC to about 1400 BC. The
Minoans are named for their legendary
king Minos. Their capital city was Knossos.
The palace at Knossos was enormous,
covering 5.5 acres (2.2 hectares)
of ground. Large towns spread around
other Minoan palaces. Houses were
often two stories high. They were built
with stones, timber, and mud bricks.
The Minoans painted their pottery and
walls with images of plants, flowers,
animals, and goddesses. They worshipped
a mother goddess.
The wealth of the Minoans was based
on seafaring and trading, especially trade
with the Middle East and Egypt. Pottery
made on Crete has been found in Egypt,
and ancient Egyptian pottery has been
found on Crete. A powerful navy protected
Knossos.
Mycenaeans
The Mycenaean civilization developed
in the 1500s BC, when Greek-speaking
people settled down on the Greek mainland.
The Mycenaeans conquered the
Minoans in about 1400 BC. Their civilization
is named after Mycenae, its most
important city.
A king headed the society. Kings built
fortresses with strong walls. This was
because the Mycenaeans fought many
wars, includingaccording to legend
the TrojanWar. There were also landowners,
farmers, slaves, and priests. Like
the Minoans, the Mycenaeans decorated
their walls with paintings. They were
skilled jewelers and goldsmiths.
Mycenaean trade extended to Sicily,
Egypt, Palestine, Troy, Cyprus, and
The throne room of the palace in Knossos
still holds the throne of the ancient Minoan
kings.
Ancient Greek
mythology tells
of the Minotaur,
a fierce
monster of the
Minoan kingdom.
The
Minotaur had
the body of a
man and the
head of a bull.
BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA Aegean civilization 33
Macedonia. The Mycenaeans imported
food, cloth, and copper. They probably
exported woolen goods, olive oil, timber,
and silver.
TheMycenaeans adopted theMinoan
system of writing on clay tablets. Unlike
theMinoan language, however, the
Mycenaean language has been translated.
It is the oldest known form of Greek.
Toward the end of the 1200s BC, the
Mycenaean civilization fell apart. Many
people moved away to other lands.
Scholars think that the decline may have
been due to drought, bad harvests, lack
of food, disease, or anger about the high
taxes the people had to pay.
In about 1100 BC Greece was taken over
by tribes from the north. These peoples
were the ancestors of the modern
Greeks. It is with them that the history
of ancient Greece began.
..More to explore
Aegean Sea Greece Greece, Ancient
Aegean Sea
An arm of the Mediterranean Sea, the
Aegean Sea lies between the countries of
Greece and Turkey. The region was the
site of two great ancient civilizations,
those of Crete and Greece.
The Aegean Sea is about 380 miles (610
kilometers) long and 185 miles (300
kilometers) wide. In the northeast it
connects to the Black Sea through a
series of narrow straits. The sea has hundreds
of islands stretching from Greece
to the shores of Asia. The islands are
actually the mountain peaks of an
underwater landmass called Aegeis.
The Aegean contains few nutrients so
very little plant life grows there. Its
warm waters, however, encourage fish to
enter it from the Black Sea to breed.
The chief products of the islands are
wheat, wine, oil, figs, raisins, honey,
vegetables, marble, and minerals. Fishing
and tourism are also important. Visitors
come to see the villages of
whitewashed houses as well as the ruins
of ancient civilizations.
The clear blue waters of the Aegean Sea
lap at the shores of a beach in Greece.
34 Aegean Sea BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA
Scientists believe that people began to
explore the Aegean about 15,000 years
ago. By the 1st century BC the Roman
Empire ruled over the area of the Aegean
and the Mediterranean. The region later
came under the control of the Byzantine
Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and
finally the independent country of
Greece.
#More to explore
Aegean Civilization Greece
Aesop
Hundreds of stories called fables are
credited to a person named Aesop.
Ancient scholars claimed that Aesop
lived in the kingdom of Thrace in the
500s BC. It is now known that many of
the stories are even older and that Aesop
probably never existed. But the fables
that are credited to him are still used to
teach children.
The fables of Aesop were probably part
of an oral historystories that were told
aloud. About 2,000 years ago the
Roman writer Phaedrus wrote down