Danish Maiden from the 1760s
Subscribe to our Newsletter for more artworks and coupons
This is quite the adorable maiden with her pretty dress. It makes me a bit hungry. Doesn't it remind you of the decoration of a cake. Anyhow, this was the beauty aesthetic of the Rococo period. During that time, advertisement was starting to become a thing. Maidens were drawn with pretty dresses in front of stores to lure nobles in.
Before then, advertisements were made through town cries. These people would run all over the town shouting slogans. Most of these cries were people from the lower class and were mostly illiterate. This does not diminish their efforts. They relied solely on memory. So considering how many businesses they had to work with, it was pretty impressive.
This is not to say that banner advertisement was a new European idea. There were traces of it in Ancient China, and even in Gilgamesh's Sumerian civilization. It is possible to look even further back and to find some traces of advertisement. This subject matter does not get often studied. People tend to hate it a lot, considering the bad rap it has gotten thanks to the internet and television.
These days it feels like public television has 10 minutes of ads per 20 minutes of programming. It is even worse in the internet with the pop ups, centry and other monstrosities. It makes people wonder why people websites bother to produce content people can't even see. I suppose some things cannot be helped. Food must be put on the table by some means or another. It certainly gives one plenty to think about.
