Print Era (1700-1899)
Newspaper classifieds, almanac ads, the Pears Soap "Bubbles" painting. Quack medicine, soap, sewing machines. Advertising as plain product description; the first illustrated brand campaigns.
Part of Advertisements
10 moments in this segment.
- — Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette Ads. 1729. Benjamin Franklin takes over the Pennsylvania Gazette and runs print ads with prominent headlines, white space, and illustrations. The first American to treat ads as a designed form, not just legal notices.
- — Singer Sewing Machine Print Campaign. 1850s-60s. Singer's newspaper ads — instalment-payment plans, demonstrations, women-in-the-home illustration — created the first global consumer brand to use coordinated international advertising.
- — Pears Soap "Bubbles". 1886. A. & F. Pears acquires Sir John Everett Millais's painting "Bubbles" of his grandson and turns it into a soap advertisement — adding a bar of Pears to the bottom corner. The first major use of a famous artwork as commercial advertising.
- — Jules Chéret — Father of the Modern Poster. 1881. Jules Chéret's lithographed posters for Folies Bergère, Le Vin Mariani, Saxoléine paraffin oil. Pioneered the three-stone colour-lithography method; produced 1000+ posters. Awarded the Légion d'honneur (1890) — first time France honoured a commercial poster artist.
- — Coca-Cola First Ad. May 1886. The first Coca-Cola newspaper advertisement runs in the Atlanta Journal — "Coca-Cola. Delicious! Refreshing! Exhilarating! Invigorating!" Pure adjectival hype; the formula that built one of the longest-running brand campaigns ever.
- — Aunt Jemima Brand Character. 1893. R.T. Davis Milling Co. introduces Aunt Jemima at the Chicago World's Fair. First major brand built around a fictional character; survived for 127 years before being retired in 2021 under racial-stereotype scrutiny.
- — Toulouse-Lautrec — Moulin Rouge Poster. 1891. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's "Moulin Rouge: La Goulue" poster — the first time fine-art skill applied itself to street-level advertising as equals. Made the Moulin Rouge a global symbol; framed the Belle Époque visual language.
- — Alphonse Mucha — Sarah Bernhardt Posters. Christmas Day 1894. Mucha's "Gismonda" poster for Sarah Bernhardt — overnight made him a Paris celebrity. The defining Art Nouveau commercial style; spawned six years of Mucha-style imitators globally.
- — Uneeda Biscuit Boy. 1899. National Biscuit Company launches Uneeda Biscuit with the slicker-clad boy in the rain. First $1M ad campaign in US history; first product to be sold in a recognisable branded package rather than from a bulk cracker barrel.
- — Morinaga Milk Caramel Ads. 1899. Morinaga Seika starts the first wide-distribution candy + canned-milk newspaper campaign in Japan. Translated American mass-marketing approaches with Japanese aesthetics; foundational to modern Japanese ad practice.
