Posters and Print Ads
Advertising on paper. Lithographic posters and the poster artists, the newspaper and magazine page, the copywriting era, and the campaigns that hung in people's homes.
Part of Advertisements
20 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.
- - 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.
- - Arrow Collar Man. 1907-1931. J.C. Leyendecker's "Arrow Collar Man" illustrations for Cluett, Peabody. The square-jawed icon received 17,000 fan letters in 1920 alone, more than Rudolph Valentino. Defined the masculine ideal of the early 20th century.
- - Rodchenko + Mayakovsky - Mosselprom. 1923-1925. Alexander Rodchenko's posters for Mosselprom (Soviet food trust), Lengiz publishing, Krasnaya Zvezda cigarettes, paired with Vladimir Mayakovsky's slogans. Constructivism applied to mass advertising; predates Bauhaus poster work by 5+ years.
- - El Lissitzky - Constructivist Soviet Posters. 1929. El Lissitzky's exhibition posters + advertising work for Pelikan Ink and Soviet ministries. Diagonal compositions, photomontage, typography-as-image. Inspired most Western mid-century graphic design.
- - A.M. Cassandre - Dubonnet. 1932. A.M. Cassandre's "Dubo, Dubon, Dubonnet" poster, minimalist, geometric, sequential. The defining French Art Deco advertising masterpiece; voted greatest poster of the 20th century by AIGA.
- - Rosie the Riveter. May 1943. J. Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" poster for Westinghouse Electric. Hung only briefly in Westinghouse factories during WWII; rediscovered in the 1980s and became the most reproduced feminist poster of the late 20th century.
- - Rosie the Riveter Wartime Industry Posters. 1942-1945. The full series of Office of War Information industry-recruitment posters (Howard Miller's "We Can Do It!" being the most famous). Defined US wartime visual mobilisation; Norman Rockwell's 1943 Rosie cover for the Saturday Evening Post is now in the Smithsonian.
- - Hathaway Shirt Man (Eyepatch). 1951. David Ogilvy puts a black eyepatch on a model wearing a Hathaway shirt. Saved a near-bankrupt brand; ad ran in The New Yorker for 25+ years. The single most-cited Ogilvy print ad.
- - Milk Mustache Celebrity Posters. 1995-2014. The "Milk Mustache" celebrity portrait campaign for the Milk Processor Education Program. 250+ celebrities. Defined the celebrity-print-ad model of the late 1990s, also intersected with Naomi Campbell, Britney Spears, Michael Jordan portraits already in the loreline.
- - Absolut Vodka Bottle Series. 1980 onward. TBWA's Absolut Vodka campaign, minimalist photographs of the bottle with one-word puns ("Absolut Perfection," "Absolut Heaven"). Ran 1500+ executions over 25 years; the longest continuous advertising campaign in history.
- - Casper Subway Posters. 2014-2017. Casper Mattress's NYC subway-poster campaign, long-form copy, illustrated, conversational. Defined the late-2010s DTC subway-poster aesthetic that Glossier, Allbirds, Hims, Warby Parker all copied.
- - Absolut "Statehood" Campaign. 1985 onward. TBWA's Absolut Vodka campaign, minimalist bottle photographs with one-word puns ("Absolut Perfection," "Absolut Heaven"). Ran 1500+ executions over 25 years; longest continuous ad campaign in history.
- - Apple "Shot on iPhone". 2015 onward. Apple's "Shot on iPhone" billboard campaign, user-submitted photos. Won the 2015 Cannes Outdoor Grand Prix. The most successful long-running user-generated brand campaign.
- - Lucky Strike "Reach for a Lucky". 1929. Lucky Strike's "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet", explicitly targeting women dieters. Edward Bernays (Freud's nephew) ran the campaign. The launch of consumer advertising as psychological manipulation.
