Marketing – version 0.00001

I have become a regular reader of Seth Godin’s blog. He has usually has really timely, and also readable entry. Today was one of the ones that was just a wonderful little entry that packed a big punch. As a history teacher I think that it has great potential, but I’m fairly sure that it wouldn’t take a long time for someone else to come up with good uses for it. Today’s highlight was Vintage Ad Browser, and just like the title says, it’s a large repository of vintage ads (in my brief searching I found some stretching back well into the 1800s).  What a great place to look for primary sources about life over the last two hundred years.  If you’re not a teacher this offers a fascinating snapshot of our history that may seem quaint and traditional (check out these ads from the 1840s).  As a teacher I was thinking about how we present so much to our students filtered through the lens of a  textbook and this one of those fabulous opportunities to present one of the most significant forces that has shaped as well as reflected our society in a manner that is free from this type of filtering.  Of course the database is by no means complete which means that it is still somewhat restricted, but again in my short time browsing I found ads from Canada, France and Germany, not to mention the large number form the United States.