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WALL ADVERTISEMENTS IN PARIS, 1900

Over fifty years ago, the gabled walls of the French capital were covered with gigantic, painted ads, lauding the merits of cigar, chocolate, and aperitif brands. This tradition of murals has not disappeared, but it no longer serves an advertising goal.

Wall advertisements, background to the great historic events of Paris (take a look at photographs from Front Populaire demonstrations, the occupation by the German army or the events of May 1968), have practically disappeared from the urban landscape. Some traces still remain, like phantoms from the last century.

The History of Wall Advertisements

Stemming from industrialization and competition during the first half of the 19th century, shop owners took to painting ads in the area around their boutiques to indicate the location to passersby. By 1852, the first sign companies appeared and, in 1852, public authorities decided to tax painted signs.

Murals started to develop from the beginning of the 1860's, partly because the Haussmann renovation freed up many gabled walls and partly due to department stores, which were growing substantially at this time and in need of lasting, monumental publicity campaigns.

Food and drink products soon followed the department stores' example.

Public authorities were interested in the development of painted signs for two reasons.First, they envisioned taxes (municipal stamp taxes and road maintenance taxes, which applied to Paris). Secondly, the city owns these gabled walls and therefore gives up their use as publicity spaces, through licensing, to sign companies.Dufavel, one of the most important figures, was the licenser for the city of Paris until 1900.

Aperitif Advertisements

Popular from the second half of the 19th century on, the aperitif is a symbol of wall advertisements. More than any other form, this media allowed aperitif producers to reach their marketing goals. For these producers, it was more important to maintain the product's reputation than to laud its merits so that the customer would have the brand name in his/her head when ordering. Due to visibility and durability, wall advertisements were the ideal form. Moreover, it was aperitif producers who caused wall-advertising design to evolve. At first, the ads resembled printed posters and the designer prioritized illustration over the brand name. At the request of aperitif producers, the brand became the most important feature, sometimes unaccompanied by a slogan. Under tight competition, these producers would dedicate, in some cases, more than a quarter of their revenues to marketing and advertising expenses.

There are three different kinds of aperitifs: flavored wines (Dubonnet, byrrh, Saint-Raphaël), liquor made from bitters (Suze, Amer Picon), and anise-flavored liquor (Ricard). Ricard, the first French pastis, is the only one of the big name brands that did not use murals as advertising, preferring to promote on a smaller scale (sponsoring bocce tournaments, cycling races; all sorts of publicity objects: glasses, carafes, caps).