From perfumes to powders: advertising as a historical object

Abstracts

This article is a study of cosmetics advertisements published in Fon-Fon Magazine between 1911 and 1934. It discusses the continuities and ruptures observed in these advertisements. More specifically, face powder advertising and models of the feminine are analyzed, drawing on two major series: advertisements with female images and those without any. Also introduced and discussed is the production methodology of a history based on advertisements. Methodologically, we emphasize the importance and centrality of the image in the analysis, observing the composition of the images and the proposed models of the feminine. The tools for the analysis of images were based on the work of Sophie Cassagnes and Martine Joly, while the theoretical postulations were drawn from Haskell.

advertising; cosmetics; historical object