Print Advertising

Advertising is not merely a tool of commercial promotion; it is a mirror of its times, a guide to desires, a chronicler of cultural shifts.
This exhibition seeks to highlight print advertising as a valuable cultural artifact of 20th-century Greek society — a folkloric, historical, and artistic source all at once.

Advertisements were not an unprecedented phenomenon. One of the earliest and most skillful advertisers was Solon himself, who, by printing an image of an Attic olive oil amphora on the Athenian didrachms, aimed to promote the exceptional quality of Attica's olives.

In Greek, advertisements were once referred to as reklámes, borrowed from the French réclame, meaning advertisement, publicity, or a cry in favor of a product. From 19th-century Paris and the theatrical posters of the Belle Époque, the word entered Greek through the early magazines, flyers, and illuminated signs. The word came to embody the anxieties of the modern world — the need to be seen, to stand out, to impress.

From the simple, monochrome ads of the early 20th century, promising a new age paradise, to the exuberant, colorful images of material happiness in the 1960s, Greek advertising followed the social turbulences of the time: from survival to modernization, from community to individualism.

Through the exhibition's cultural heritage objects, one can comprehend the design, narrative strategies, and visual codes of print advertising — as well as the art of graphic design art which flourished in the 20th century. From the modernist movements (such as the Bauhaus, De Stijl, or the Russian Avant-Garde) to the development of primitive corporate identities, many Western aesthetic influences found their way into the Greek context.

In parallel with the development of international typographic styles, the foundational principles of graphic design were established: geometric structure, use of grids, primary colors, sans serif fonts, negative space, and the golden ratio as a compositional guide.

Both visually and in terms of messaging, Greek advertisements followed international trends. Iconography flirted with the concept of the “New Woman” — the so-called flapper, a term describing educated, urban young women who were independent and showed a certain disdain for social norms. They were associated with driving and cigarette smoking, symbols of their modernity. A classic example of this trend is the iconic red Sante cigarette pack featuring Zozo Dalmas — reportedly a lover of Kemal Atatürk.

The advertisements of the period can be classified into broad thematic categories such as beauty and fashion products, technological goods, leisure and pleasure items, modern services and products, traditional goods, and health-related products.

The typography, fonts, colors, and compositions of these print ads reveal the convergence of graphic design and consumerism — a space where design carries a visual message, and aesthetics take on an instrumental dimension. The communication embedded in these ads allows us to listen in on the era’s aspirations — whispers of wealth, prosperity, material fulfillment, sex appeal, independence — the siren calls of capitalism, which Greek society was experiencing for the first time, with fascination and awe.

Newly established companies such as Loumidis, the Lampropoulos Brothers, and the Piraeus Electric Company commissioned engravers and typographic designers to create advertisements, packaging, and logos — some of which remain unchanged to this day. A notable example is the emblematic logo of AGET HERACLES featuring the lion-bearing Hercules, or the famous slogan of MISKO pasta: “Akakie, make sure the pasta is MISKO!” — a line rooted in a true anecdote. Slogans often made use of rhyme, humor, and catchy phrases to more effectively capture the viewer’s attention.

The exhibition invites us to reflect on how print advertising captured the transformation of Greek society from community to “mass personalization,” in which personal happiness became synonymous with the consumption of goods and services, projecting an ideal of “modern life”.

Through these advertisements, the story of consumerism and capitalism unfolds — a narrative of consumer habits, social classes, gender roles, and ideals. The exhibition is an invitation to travel into the past not just with nostalgia, but with critical introspection: to examine not only what we consumed, but who we were aspiring to become as a society in the previous century.