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The Beginnings of Advertising in the Ljubljana Newspaper Laibacher Zeitung

Abstract

Modern advertising appeared in the age of industrialisation, in the process of the formation of a modern consumer society. The following discussion focuses on the beginnings of advertising in the Ljubljana newspaper Laibacher Zeitung in the first few decades of its publication. The marketing texts from this time paved the way for subsequent economic commercials. In the world of trade crafts any and all advertising was rejected, and the competition which associated the social status with market success was branded as evil. The artisans’ shop signs by no means represented advertising in the modern sense. They merely functioned like signposts, intended to provide information to transit passengers unfamiliar with the local business tradition. The transition to modern capitalism did not only call for the expanded production of goods and extension of the market principle to human workforce, but also for the expansion of this capitalist market. The industrial age factories were based on competition and aimed at the transregional market. As the division between producers and consumers took place, advertising became necessary in order for them to find each other. The following discussion also looks at the emergence of modern registry offices in Europe and in the Habsburg Monarchy, collecting and disseminating information, carrying out the exchange of goods and real estate, as well as providing information about the work and services opportunities. Special attention is paid to the relatively late establishment of Ignac Karel Pichler’s private supply and demand office in 1816 in Ljubljana. However, most of the research analyses advertising in the Ljubljana newspaper Laibacher Zeitung in the end of the 18th century and in the first decades of the 19th century.