Evolution of Advertising Communication in the Pre-war: Analysis of Federico Ribas’ Advertising Portfolio for Gal Fragrance House (1916-1936)

This article contains a study of 1,436 pieces of printed advertising which were illustrated by Federico Ribas Montenegro for the Gal Fragrance House between 1916 and 1936.Through the use of a double-level analysis –technical and figurative– some interesting findings concerning the narrative and iconography of the catalogued ads were obtained. By studying the discourse of the advertisements for a company who changed the history of advertising in Spain, one can see evidence of sociocultural changes as well as how advertising evolved from being an artisanal craft into a more technical and systematic industry as a result of the application of scientific principles.