The poster as an advertising document during the first third of the 20th century. Analysis of consumption, society and culture through Carulla's poster collection

Abstract

This article analyses the importance of the advertising poster as a document for the understanding and contextualization of consumption and culture between 1900 and 1936. The research uses a quantitative and qualitative methodology, analyses the content of advertising posters and in-depth interviews with a variety of experts, in order to find out which were the most representative advertising posters of each period and the role they played in advertising communication. The exhibition was made up of 200 pieces from the Carulla collection chosen for their representativeness corresponding to the historical period and divided into four-time sub-periods (1990-1910, 1911-1920. 1921-1930 and 1931-1936) in order to allow a more detailed analysis and to be able to understand the evolution of consumption phenomena. The results allow us to draw an accurate portrait of the sociocultural and consumption relationships at that time and give us valuable information about the production of advertising posters as a support of commercial communication, the proliferation of artists linked to advertising, the most advertised product categories, the type of story used as a sales pitch, the use of colour or black and white, the lifestyles represented and the social class to which their messages were directed.