'The Huns have got my gramophone': advertisements from the Great War

In the nineteenth century, Britain led the world in the production of illustrated books and magazines. As a consequence, advertisers began to use illustrations of a similar quality to those which accompanied the works of Dickens and Thackeray.

By the 1890s, commercial artists often drew for both magazine publishers and advertisers, which gave a continuity of style. Some well-known 21st century brands were already spending heavily on advertising in the 1900s; they understood the value of advertising. And when war broke out in 1914, companies were quick to seize the opportunities which the war offered. They searched for new markets to replace their lost German trade, and invented new products.

Using illustrations from wartime magazines, this talk outlines how the First World War changed the face of advertising.