Pensar la Publicidad Vol. 9 -- Num.1 - (2015) 63-86 64 Advertising, main advertising tool of advertisements center Roldós y Compañía (1872-1900)

Abstract

The first advertisement centers in Spain were born in the second half of the 19th century. One of them was Roldós y Compañía. In a context in which advertising was in an early-stage, to promote their activity its first professionals made what they knew how to do best: advertisements.
Through the study of the auto-announcements this agency made during the last decades of the 19th century, we will see their progressive development (formal and content wise) and the evolution of all actors involved in the activity: agency, advertisers and media. In this context, the first advertisement centers have a triple function: they are the sender of the message and they are, at the same time, the ones who make it and who manage its insertion in the media.
History of advertising in Spain is written along with the Roldós y Compañía agency. Therefore, its announcements to advertise itself are a reflection of everything that happened in Spain since the birth of the profession until the end of the 19th century, a period where the presence of this type of advertisements in the newspapers of the time was usual.