The Presidential Library marking the Advertising Workers’ Day

October 23 marks the Advertising Workers’ Day. The term "advertising" originated from the Latin clamare, which means "shout". The first advertising shouts appeared with the birth of the trading business.

The Presidential Library’s collections contain a lot of materials that spotlight the features of a domestic fair.

Print advertising in Russia is associated with the name of Peter the Great. During his reign, “flying sheets of mass consumption” appeared, which contained information about new decrees, explained the meaning of assemblies and festive spectacles. Such leaflets were distributed in markets and taverns. Following the flying sheets, the first printed newspaper appeared. The book by Sergei Poltoratsky News of the early printed Moscow and St. Petersburg statements published under Peter the Great says that in 1711 the "St. Petersburg Vedomosti" were published. It was here that the first printed ads began to be published.

For a long time, domestic advertising was in a state of stagnation. Its timid steps sounded distinctly in the 19th century, when the newspaper and magazine press in Russia began to develop intensively. At this time, the number of advertisements on the pages of periodicals gradually replaced literary texts. In order to determine the place for literary material, it was necessary to first type up ads, and “add or subtract articles” on the remaining pages. Energetic advertising headlines attracted attention and assured of uniqueness.

Nikolai Plisky's book Advertising: its meaning, origin and history (1894), which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal, can be called one of the first textbooks on advertising in Russia. The author sees the purpose of his work in "to make it easier for everyone to advertise to do it properly, so as not to spoil the matter" and compares advertising with the rays of a lamp that "squeeze into the most brilliant chambers and into the most modest shack, because everyone needs them".

Among the examples of advertising, Plisky cites the case of a hat manufacturer who had a shop on Nevsky Prospekt. He presented "the clown Durov, who worked on the stage of the Cinizelli circus, with a good top hat so that he would advertise his company". The witty clown came up with such an entree: at his speech, he demanded that “before, by agreement, he was given several other hats, he rejected them, and then called for an old, but beautiful top hat of a factory”. So very soon the business of the hat manufacturer went uphill.

A significant event in Russia took place in 1878, when Ludwig Metzl opened the first advertising bureau, the Central Office of Advertisements of the Trading House L. Metzl and Co. The employees of the bureau compiled the text, translated it into foreign languages, took care of the "external design" and placed it on the pages of the world's leading publications. The affairs of the advertising bureau were so productive that Emperor Alexander III awarded Ludwig Metzl with the medal "For Usefulness".

At the beginning of the 20th century, advertising subjugated journalism and literature, became a “new” genre and found a lively response from avant-garde artists. Defiant posters, leaflets, disputes and rallies were a full-scale advertising campaign. Cheerful and inviting intonation, shamelessness in the "presentation of the subject" became a feature of the new poetics. The ringing of slogans and the cry of posters is another step in the development of advertising. In this regard, it is impossible not to recall the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky: ““It is more elegant without galoshes” - this is a lie! All the elegance is from our galoshes”. Or: “How to deal with rodents and pests? Gosizdat's book is the best teacher". The Presidential Library’s portal features the book by Vladimir Mayakovsky Terrible Laughter. Rosta Windows (1932), in which the poet speaks of the time when agitation was one of the varieties of advertising: “We worked without focusing on history and glory. The range of our topics was enormous: agitation for the Comintern and for the collection of mushrooms for the starving, the fight against Wrangel and typhoid lice”.

In subsequent years, advertising again went into the shadows, became simple and unpretentious. Nevertheless, in the 60s, specialized advertising organizations appeared: Soyuztorgreklama, Glavkooptorgreklama, Vneshtorgreklama and others.

The "golden" period of Russian advertising begins in the 1990s. Sparkling kitsch and cunning provocation are embodied in slogans that are remembered for a long time and act like a magical refrain: “Your legs will walk like a Swiss watch”, “He is like me, only a bank”, “Shock is our way”, “And let the world wait".

After a long journey of ups and downs, advertising has become a powerful industry. The methods of its distribution are huge: banners and billboards, LED screens and supersites, structures installed in the subway and in elevators, and much more.

But no matter how far the progress was, the requirements for the quality of advertising remain unchanged. The commandments of advertising, formulated more than a hundred years ago in the book by Nikolai Plisky “Advertising: its meaning, origin and history, do not lose their relevance to this day. Among them is the assertion that “the main conditions for good advertising are a quality product, a solid price, a clean store and polite treatment of customers”. The totality of these conditions is conducive to sing, praise and glorify the product, because, according to the “main advertising activist” of his time, Vladimir Mayakovsky, “advertising is first of all the name of a thing. Advertising should endlessly remind of every, even the most wonderful thing”.

The Presidential Library’s collections contain comprehensive materials about advertising. These are both legislative documents and illustrative products - for example, advertising images of household items on matchboxes or advertising leaflets presented in Soviet-era trams. The electronic reading room of the Presidential Library also contains a list of abstracts covering various aspects of advertising - these research papers indicate that in the 21st century advertising has become a significant phenomenon that affects the "nerve" in all spheres of human life.