Advertising is a phenomenon that has helped to mould societies over the past century. Now a researcher from the King Juan Carlos University has studied how it was communicated to society, in order to discover its impact on the processes of change during the Spanish civil war.

This original and novel piece of research, which has been published recently in the Revista Latina de Comunicación Social, encompassed three stages. The first involved demonstrating the evolution of modern advertising techniques in the Spanish media, and then comparing the ways in which advertising was aligned with propaganda during the Spanish civil war, as well as the needs it was designed to meet and the different means by which it was transmitted to consumers as events changed. The third stage was to observe daily life on both sides of the trenches through the medium of advertising.

For her sources, Araceli Rodríguez, a researcher at the King Juan Carlos University, used the most representative newspapers that took positions on both sides of the war – the Seville edition of Abc, for Franco’s side, and La Vanguardia for the Republicans, also consulting issues of La Voz, El Sol, the Madrid edition of Abc and the political daily El Socialista.

The study focuses on the pharmaceutical sector, a driver of commercial publicity at the end of the 19th Century. This choice is persuasively founded. As the researcher tells SINC: “Medicines give an approximate overview of daily life in the most basic aspect of survival – health. This was a real challenge during the war. Except for a very few exceptions, the products were not elitist consumer goods, because these remedies were the recourse for the majority of the population in treating their illnesses.”

The expert says the recommendations given in advertising clearly reveal people’s most pressing problems in terms of food, hygiene conditions and infections. “This advertising would come to create a negative image of the picture of the state of the nation’s health during the conflict,” says Rodríguez.

“Although censorship imposed a tone of optimism and reassurance in other areas, advertising for pharmaceutical products betrayed the real hardships and physical and mental health problems caused by rationing.” For this reason, the research has focused on personal hygiene products, while retaining a broad overview of other advertising.

Advertising in Republican Spain tried to maintain an impression of normality in relation to daily life. According to the researcher: “Digestive problems and physical weakness were never blamed on the lack of food.” However, the real cause could become evident if we were to look around and find a news article about meat rationing.

On the sidelines of these elementary causes and effects, however, Republican advertising “tried to make everything fall as far as possible into line with the optimistic atmosphere that censorship and propaganda imposed on information about the war”, says the expert. “It tried to avoid worrying readers, instead providing hope as a kind of cure.” In terms of communications, it contributed indirectly to the official strategy of mitigating public despondency.

An example that illustrates this trend is the advert for Hipofosfitos Salud, published in La Vanguardia in July 1937. This deals delicately with the problems of fainting and lack of energy, without specifying a cause. In fact, it gives a positive gloss, with the product being prescribed for “women who work” and need to recover their strength.

The features of so-called ‘scientific advertising’

The conclusions of this research show the potential of the sphere covered by this study, which looks at advertising within the context of the History of Social Communication.

“Characteristic features of scientific advertising can be seen in the aesthetics and arguments used in press adverts, which show a notable progression from the rudimentary forms of advertising employment at the end of the 19th Century,” Rodríguez tells SINC.

Advertisers committed themselves to significant financial outlay, and newspapers came to incorporate the adverts as an essential feature of their pages. Advertising started to acquire a modern layout, although the hangover from spoken advertising still had to be ironed out.

Solid indicators also show that press advertising kept within the limits of what was deemed acceptable by the authorities’ media strategy, although the way in which this was done differed from area to area. In the Republic, advertising focused on its basic commercial objectives and, insofar as was possible, reflected the image of normality and optimism provided in the news, in order to win over civilians. The texts of the advertisements contained nothing more than this. Advertising was not used to spread ideological slogans, nor did it emotionally involve consumers by making them complicit supporters in the struggle. In Nationalist Spain, however, the one-way direction of propaganda allowed for a much more intense involvement with consumers. Advertisers contributed to the war effort, both morally and economically. They tried to make consumers believe in victory, and helped to transmit the ideological values and references of the new Spain, which were also to be found in other channels of communication.

The researcher says this different form of positioning affected how official propaganda came to be spread by each side. Advertising favoured Franco supporters much more than Republicans.

By looking at advertising texts, it has been possible to get down to the nitty-gritty of daily life and show – despite the media censorship – how the situation deteriorated in Republican areas, where scarcity gnawed away at people’s health and, possibly, their perception of the war. “This leads us to see it as a useful resource, which has been interpreted with justification as part of the studies looking at events taking place within the orbit of micro-history”, concludes the researcher.

Material by Platforma SINC

Tags: advertising, historical study, spanish civil war