Advertising in Spain: A History

A Brief History of Advertising

 Starts in Europe: 1600’s  a time of globalization & exploration of the New
World
 Advertisements to promote colonialism were placed in British newspapers
 Ads promoted fulfillment of dreams & the realization of hopes
 England opens up to the world
 Advertisement was very different and brands did not exist
 Modern advertising starts in the 1850s
 French Revolution & the Industrial Revolution
 Bulk products made way to brands
 United States & England were the principle sites of advertising birth
 Big names start to arise
o Colgate (1806)
o Goodyear (1844)
o Campbell’s (1869)
o Coca-Cola (1886)
 The need of brands to advertise was in a response to capitalism & mass
production
 Intermediates purchased spaces in newspapers & sold them to companies &
individuals
 False advertising & mistrust began to form
Ads in Spain
 In the 1930’s in Spain, advertising started to become more professional
 Birth of the New Modern Advertising
 Pedro Prat Gaballí became a pioneer of technical advertising in Spain
 Influential Spanish advertisers
Pedro Prat Gaballí
 Born in Maresme Barcelona in 1885
 Published initial literary works in various Catalan magazines during early
20th century
 Author of first book on advertising
La Guera Civil and Francoism
 The Civil War was a disastrous time for advertising
o Little advertising because little manufacturing
 Post-war Francoism was so censured that it was also difficult to advertise
 Despite these setbacks, advertising through the radio became a huge source
of sharing news about products
o Live advertisements and sponsored “soap operas”
Post-War Economic Growth Encourages Advertisement
 New inventions prompted more ads
o Pressure cookers, washing machines, refrigerators, etc.
 TV changed the way products were introduced to consumers
 o Estudios Moro & Movierecord
o Cartoons were frequently used in commercials
One of the most successful animated ads during this time  Cola-Cao “canción del
negrito”

Debate 3 main topics

1. What is the role of advertising in our current societies?
a. Is the role diminishing/prevailing?
b. Commercials on TV, Spotify commercials, Instagram, not the same as
it used to be but still very relevant, social media celebrity
representatives
2. What is surveillance capitalism?
a. How does it relate to advertising on the Internet?
b. Surveillance capitalism  term coined by academic Shoshana Zuboff
that denotes a new genus of capitalism that monetizes data acquired
through surveillance
3. Is advertising a practice, a technique, and eventually/potentially aiming at
social transformation? Can advertising promote radical social
transformation? Total mania/radical politics

Definitely a question from March 29 reading*

Advertising Cont.…
Social Change in the 70’s
 Advertising used for a new product: a political candidate
 In conjunction with the more risqué cinema in La Movida, advertising also
began to become more uninhibited
 Notable ads in the 70s: the Fa Blonde, El Almendro “Come home for
Christmas.” The Schwepps “Tonic Water Man”
Advertising in the 80’s and Beyond
 In the 80’s Spain joined the EU which also opened up more advertising
possibilities
 In conjunction with the more risqué
 Because of this, the country experienced the best advertising decade in
history
 The rise of the Internet has changed the way that companies reach out to
their customers, since advertising has always been dependent on
technological advances

4/3/17
Spain as an economic world power
 House prices rose 220% between 1997 & 2007
 “Modernizing laws” on same sex marriage
4 factors of post-85 economic recovery
1. Low interest rates
 2. Incorporation into the Eurozone
3. European Union liberalization policy
4. Privatization of the equivalent private-sector companies in Latin America
“Spanish Miracle”
 Primary accumulation circuit: production of surplus value in expanded
reproduction schemes
 Secondary-circuit accumulation: circulation of capital in the built
environment
Government Help in the “Miracle”
 “Build anywhere laws”
 Lax environment laws
 These kick started the economic growth and the “bubble”
El Partido Socialista Obrero España (PSOE)
 Under leadership of José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
o Talante politics

Roots of the Spanish Model

 Spain’s macro-economic model
 Origins lie in 1950s during Franco
 Based on the rise of mass-market tourism from northern Europe and
expansion of private home ownership
Development of the Spanish Model (1980-1990s)
 A “revamp” in this model occurred in the 1980s but wasn’t really a revamp at
all: continued to be based on tourism, property development, construction
 Spain entered the EEC (European Economic Community) in 1986, other
countries began to invest:
o Mostly German, French & Italian investments in companies in the food
industry or industrial companies (banks, construction firms, & state
owned electricity & telecommunications companies were off limits)
o This led to a huge upshot in the markets
Euro Boost
1. The Maastricht Treaty:
 Economy recovered via the Maastricht Treaty – reduced public
spending, targeted inflation and deregulated the labor markets
(Peseta recovered)
 Contradictions of treaty:
o “Low interest rates… led to a continual fall in the price of
credit”  started the decline to be the country in Europe with
the highest level internal indebtedness
o Joining the Eurozone in the late 1990s gave Spain a sense of
security and an “international umbrella” that allowed for
strong purchasing capacity abroad and the ability to
marginalize the country’s deficit
o Joining the EU allowed for previously public owned companies
(electronics, telecommunications) to become privately owned
 o Privatization of former public companies in Latin America
allowed for Spain to buy companies for low prices and
therefore relocate their companies to Latin America, i.e., bring
over big banks
Results of Euro Boost
 Deficit spending from 1997-2007 was transferred from the state to private
households
o Household income increased
o This led to 7% increase in private consumption
o 36% growth rate of employment
o 10% fall in average real wages
State Backing
“State intervention played a crucial role in lubricating the different parts of the
property circuit to maintain a permanently increasing housing supply”
 1998 Land Act (‘build anywhere’ law) – speeded up procedures for obtaining
building permits and made available a huge amount of land for construction
o Reduced public housing stock, marginalizing renting and provided tax
relief for home buying
Growth of Property-Price Asset Bubble “boom years”
 Decentralized government structure allowed for each autonomous
community to compete with each other
o Local governments boosted their areas
o Got investors for unrealistic projects, like Las Vegas-type casinos and
ports that outnumbered the realistic amount (i.e., got investors for 8
super-ports when only 2
Politics of the Property Bubble
 Key consequence of property bubble: people moving to the coast
o 75% of inland cities and towns continue to lose inhabitants
 Both sides of the political spectrum were interested in increasing the housing
market by handing out loans and permits (the Socialist Andalusia and the
conservative Valencia)
 Madrid emerges as “Global City,” headquarters of big Spanish multinational
companies
Recovery
 By 2009, changed tune from rescuing the banks to rescuing the nation-states
o Budget cuts, wave freezes and dismantling of social programs
May 2010 Amendment passed that established the deficit cap limit of public
spending
 Only Amendment
 Targeted economy with purpose of austerity measures
 Managerial approach to the problem

4/5/17
Popular Party had to handle crisis on 5 points:
1. Economic
 2. Financial
3. Institutional
4. Social
5. Constitutional
Social & economic crisis among Spanish youth