The Image of the Business World in Advertising (1885–1935)

Abstract

Advertising for the industry and trade of goods and services in Portugal during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century followed the development of its modernisation, through the display of business facilities and, in some cases, through verbal descriptions. Images, first in drawings, then also or preferably in photography, helped to enhance the value of companies and their businesses, seeking to extend the public space on the ground into the public space of the press, reinforcing the perception of their uniqueness. Advertising and promotional illustrations of the external and internal spaces of factories, shops, and other services were associated with brand image and even the symbolism of the registered trademark itself. This advertising is a practical manifestation of the optimistic ideology of liberal capitalism, imbued with ideals of progress.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21747/21829748/cem21a4