There were only four million Swedes back then. We were nobles, priests, burghers and farmers. The farmers were most numerous. And then there were servants, farmhands, crofters and cottars. They were most numerous of all. But they didn’t count. Many of those who didn’t count left for America, where the streets were paved with gold. During 1867 and the three following years, 122,000 Swedes emigrated. They were young, strong and poor.

Many of us have had grandparents who told us how it was. It’s actually not any further back in time than that. The stories from the period are often dark tales that we don’t have much desire to hear. After all, we are modern, sensible and forward-looking. We know the good old days never existed, right? The good old days are right now! And tomorrow will be even better, right?

Of all the products and helpful aids we have today, essentially none were available in 1867. They are available in our modern society because a great chain of connectedness has pushed them out to us.

No single person, organisation or political party can take all the credit for this. Our unique welfare depends on enlightenment and accelerating knowledge, spread to more and more people. The freely competitive production society has been a rich soil.

Every product or idea is the result of great human efforts and material inputs to develop something better than what went before. Many of the advertisements you see in this newspaper bear witness to something that is better than what went before.

Advertising was born in the same instant as the modern production and consumption society. Initially it was a passive successor to production. Today it is an active driver of consumption. From this fact was born the vulgar attitude that says advertising foists products on people that they don’t actually want.

Initially, people didn’t want to have toothpaste. Initially, people didn’t want to have tape, paperback books, frozen foods or tinfoil. People don’t want to have anything before they need it. It is advertising that lets them know they need it. And why.

In this way, we are writing new history every day at an advertising agency. Fascinating stories of a society that is constantly improving, because every new product or idea that is presented is better than what went before. If a person buys a new product, it also means that eventually it will force a competitor to emerge that is even better. In the meantime, all this provides jobs for countless people. This is what is called the affluent society, which many people criticize. The bad guy in the critiques and satires tends to be advertising. Maybe because it is often so silly, stale and inane. As for the exaggeration, everybody wishes it would go away, especially advertising people themselves.

What many do not know, however, is that behind the advertising you see, there is a thought process based on research and science. Communication, speaking to another person, is difficult. Speaking to tens of thousands is a science. It is far from perfect, but enormous sums are going into making it better. If it becomes better, and a producer can get more people to listen at a lower cost – the product will grow cheaper. It is the consumer who will benefit in the future from the work that the ad world’s marketing and contact strategists are doing today.

You may see the results they arrive at in the form of an advertisement designed by creative talents, writers, photographers, advertising designers, all of whom have a unique ability to speak convincingly to another person. If they do it, you will read the ad. If they do it right, you will be glad you did afterwards.

Svenska Telegrambyrån, Scandinavia’s largest advertising agency, has no history of its own. Our history is the history of society in the modern welfare state. We have not written it, but we have taken part – for 100 years, as of today.