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Looking back on the marketing industry over the last 25 years

Exploring the pivotal moments that shaped marketing

Advertisers love to be on the cutting edge. Since the turn of the century, the cutting edge has been sharp enough to draw blood.

In the year 2000, TV advertising was king, print media was abundant, and static billboards and good old-fashioned radio gobbled up traditional ad spend. But over the last 25 years, it’s all been turned on its head. Digital media now reigns supreme, with Google- and Meta-owned platforms claiming dominance over most of the internet (and ad spend). The TV industry continues its own digital transformation as consumers embrace streaming television over cable boxes. Retailers became ad platforms. Entire job functions have shifted. AI tools are on the precipice of ubiquity.

While the core job of a marketer in 2000 and in 2025 is still to promote brands, products, and services, the toolkit has entirely shifted—and the entire media landscape has somehow both fractured and congealed.

Marketing Brew is highlighting some of the most transformational moments in the marketing and advertising world throughout the last 25 years, with a particular examination of how some of the biggest events have brought us to where we are today. Whether that’s looking at how media consolidation changed the landscape, how Netflix put the TV industry on defense, or how Facebook (literally) lost its cool, this project is our effort to not just make sense of the past, but better understand what the next 25 years might bring.

We’ve compiled it all here in an interactive timeline—so stay a while and explore the past, present, and future of adland.

2000

Screenshot of an early iteration of the pet.com homepage. The design is crowded with lots of links and decorative dividers.
November 2000

Pets.com, a symbol of the dot-com crash, shuts down

2001

January 2001

AOL completes purchase of Time Warner

A teenager in a hoodie sits at a desk interacting with a boxy desktop computer, wired mouse, and keyboard.
June 2001

SmarterChild, an early AI chatbot, debuts

Step and repeat portrait of Jennifer Lopez wearing a sheer dress with a plunging neckline showing revealing her mid section down to her belly button.
July 2001

Google introduces Google Images, inspired by queries for Jennifer Lopez’s 2000 Grammys dress

A close cropped image of a hand holding a chunky electronic device with a circular navigational button and digital screen.
October 2001

Apple announces the iPod

2002

A woman with curly brown hair, wearing a structured moto jacket sings into a microphone. She is surrounded by bright lights.
September 2002

Kelly Clarkson is crowned the first winner of American Idol

2003

Myspace homepage open on a browser window. The page design is blocky and graphic.
August 2003

MySpace debuts, revolutionizing social networking

2004

February 2004

TheFacebook debuts as a website to connect Harvard students

The cast members of friends standing in a cleared out set space holding hands, about to take a final bow.
May 2004

Friends’s final episode, “The Last One,” is viewed by 52.5 million people on NBC

A times square digital billboard that reads Nasdaq welcomes Google Inc. August 19, 2004.
August 2004

Google goes public at $85/share

August 2004

Napoleon Dynamite is released widely in the United States

Host Alec Trebek and contestant Ken Jennings stand side by side behind the Jeopardy game show podium showing a score of $1,004,960.
November 2004

Ken Jennings’s 74-game Jeopardy! winning streak comes to an end

Looking for More?

We’ll be adding to our Quarter Century Project every month for all of 2025. Check back for additional stories or subscribe to Marketing Brew for all of your industry needs.

Script Stuff!

Editorial

Executive Editor: Josh Sternberg
Managing Editor: Margarita Noriega
Editor: Kelsey Sutton
Editorial Operations: Ben Marx
Reporters: Ryan Barwick, Katie Hicks, Alyssa Meyers, Jasmine Sheena, Jennimai Nguyen
Standards & Style Desk: Nicole Jones (Managing Editor), Becca Laurie (Deputy Editor)

Design

Design Director: Alyssa Nassner
Art Director: Frank Scialabba
Designers: Anna Kim, Emily Parsons
Illustration: Jiawen Chen

Special Thanks To

Lance Holt, Abbie Winters