We always felt that advertising is essential to sell a branded dress material, a motorbike, a car, toiletries, TVs and refrigerators. But now comes the age of advertising for education. This applies more to professional courses, pursuing which is today seen as the only way to excel in life, earn a high income and command respect in society.

Advertising for professional courses gained prominence in India during the early 1990s. The economy was opening up and private sector was coming up into the education arena. Privatization first put a firm foot in to technical education. A number of institutes opened up that offered BE courses in the traditional streams of mechanical, electrical and civil engineering. These institutes were located in the south with prominence in Bangalore and Chennai. Advertising was mostly limited to the print media. However, since the Indian population was not accustomed to technical education in the private sector, the advertisements received lukewarm response. Alarmed, the managements of these institutes appointed agents in the metros to recruit students for them. The agents started advertising in the prominent newspapers of the metros with special emphasis on the vernacular newspapers. The advertisements would be small, not mentioning the name of the institute. It gave the contact address of the advertiser and asked students to meet them. A typical advertisement would be a four-liner and would look like this "Failed in Joint Entrance, no need to waste a year. Join BE degree course without Joint at very nominal fees. No capitation. Contact ." A student would contact the address and get all information and, if required, get enrolled. These advertisements helped the institutes to fill up the seats. After a few years, the initial skepticism gave way to reliability and privatization in the field of technical education gained ground. More and more private engineering colleges started coming up. The advertising pattern also gradually changed. The agency system gave way to direct advertisements.

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