Archivio Fondazione Fiera Milano
23
01
Tour

Milan Fair’s publications between reality and advertising

The images preserved in the Historical Archive show the role of the Milan Fair as a major platform and marketing stage for Italian companies to launch new products, showcase innovation in production techniques, and compare the technological advances made in entire sectors.

The Milan Fair supported its activity with a great editorial production: catalogs, periodicals, newspapers during the days of the Campionaria… These documents are kept in the Historical Archive and are being catalogued and filed in these months.

The images preserved in the Historical Archive show the role of the Milan Fair as a major platform and marketing stage for Italian companies to launch new products, showcase innovation in production techniques, and compare the technological advances made in entire sectors.

The Milan Fair supported its activity with a great editorial production: catalogs, periodicals, newspapers during the days of the Campionaria… These documents are kept in the Historical Archive and are being catalogued and filed in these months.

The voice of the fair

The publications served a dual purpose. On the one hand they were a service for exhibitors (the catalogues) and visitors (the paper and guides). On the other, however, they were a means for the Fair Board to reach out to a general public and tell of its role as a national economic driver, through articles and editorials offering economic and technical analysis of all of Italy’s production sectors and industries, including tourism.

The publications served a dual purpose. On the one hand they were a service for exhibitors (the catalogues) and visitors (the paper and guides). On the other, however, they were a means for the Fair Board to reach out to a general public and tell of its role as a national economic driver, through articles and editorials offering economic and technical analysis of all of Italy’s production sectors and industries, including tourism.

PROPORZIONE Stand: Fair = Advertising: Publications

“Promises, great promises, are the soul of advertising”
So wrote Samuel Johnson, an eighteenth-century English scholar.

The fair’s publications feature thousands of advertisements for both large and small Italian firms and worldwide companies. With their slogans, graphics, and messages, the adverts cover the full range of the country’s industries—from heavy industry to food & beverages, fashion to toys, typewriters to automobiles.

The sweeping panorama they form gives us a picture retracing the history of advertising in Italy.

 

“Promises, great promises, are the soul of advertising”
So wrote Samuel Johnson, an eighteenth-century English scholar.

The fair’s publications feature thousands of advertisements for both large and small Italian firms and worldwide companies. With their slogans, graphics, and messages, the adverts cover the full range of the country’s industries—from heavy industry to food & beverages, fashion to toys, typewriters to automobiles.

The sweeping panorama they form gives us a picture retracing the history of advertising in Italy.

 

In this tour

  • Official Catalogue of the 1926 Milan International Fair


  • The house organ “La Fiera di Milano. Rassegna della Fiera Campionaria Internazionale di Milano”. Year IV. Number 5


  • The house organ “La Fiera di Milano. Quotidiano ufficiale”. Year III. Number 16


  • Souvenir edition "La Fiera di Milano 1921 numero unico speciale”


  • The house organ “Il Giornale della Fiera". Year II. Number 14


  • The magazine “Milano nel Mondo. Ufficiale della Fiera di Milano”. Year VII. Number 8


  • Cover of the Official Catalogue of the 1929 Milan Fair


  • The house organ “La Fiera di Milano. Rassegna della Fiera Campionaria Internazionale di Milano”. Year III. Number 6–7


  • The magazine “La Fiera di Milano nel suo primo decennio. Le Grandi Industrie partecipanti”. Supplement to No. 4


  • Brochure edition “La Fiera di Milano. Rassegna della Fiera Campionaria Internazionale di Milano. Edizione di propaganda”. Year I. Number 1


  • Milan Fair advertisement


  • Special edition “Fiera di Milano. Secondo numero speciale per la XXV manifestazione giugno 1947”. Number 2


  • The house organ “La Fiera di Milano. Rassegna della Fiera Campionaria di Milano”. Year VI. Number 1


  • The Fair Board house organ "Fiera di Milano. Rassegna dell'Ente Autonomo Fiera”. Year XIII. Single issue


  • Barbisio advertisement


  • Rhodia–Albene “high fashion fabrics” advertisement


  • Illustrated advertisement for the textile fibre Lanital


  • Advertisement for the Olivetti Studio 44 typewriter in the house organ for the 1953 Milan Fair


  • Fiat advertisement


  • Gilera advertisement in the 1950 Milan Fair house organ


  • Montecatini advertisement for Nailon stockings


  • Snia Viscosa advertisement in the 1939 Milan Fair house organ


  • Cinzano advertisement


  • Magnesia San Pellegrino “The Purgative” advertisement


  • Montecatini—Società generale per l'industria mineraria e chimica advertisement


  • Singer sewing machine advertisement


  • Linoital advertisement


  • Masonite advertisement by Società Anonima Feltrinelli


Other tours

Explore all tours
Contacts

Fondazione Fiera Milano
Largo Domodossola 1
20145 Milano
Tel. +39 024997.1
archiviostorico@fondazionefiera.it

The Historical Archive is open to the public by appointment.

The Archive
  • Archive
  • About the project
  • History of The Milan Fair
  • Main characters
  • Tours
Social
Archivio Storico Fiera Milano
powered by Archiui