The Publicidad Gisbert’s collection in Filmoteca Española. The process of recovering an archive of advertising documents

Abstract

Advertising reflects the desires and needs of the people, with the result that its study allows us to analyse the economic, historical and sociological evolution of the individuals for whom this advertising has been created. The access to the advertising messages produced throughout History is fundamental to study the transformation of our societies, but media such as the advertising cinema are very difficult to access to due to its material fragility and to the lack of projects devoted to the analysis and dissemination of its content. This article summarises the process carried out by a group of researchers and professionals of the Spanish Film Archive to recover, catalogue and analyse a collection of documents that belonged to the historical agency Publicidad Gisbert. To do so, the team used the methodology applied to all the materials that are recovered in the institution. The study of this collection resulted in the recovery of advertising films, slides, pictures and a document archive produced in the agency from 1953 to 1976. These materials are an interesting primary source of information that allows us to study not only the advertising cinema, but also the different possibilities of the cinema screen and the cinema theatres as vehicles for the advertising exhibition.