The Sell: Australian Advertising 1790s to 1990s – exhibition at the national library

The National Library of Australia in Canberra is holding an exhibition called The Sell: Australian Advertising 1790s to 1990s from 23 November 2016 to 25 April 2017. It is a vast collection of advertising over the centuries from posters to packaging, campaigns to magazine ads.

The NLA exhibition explores how Australian advertising has used words, images and sound to inform people about products and to persuade them to try and buy. It traces how advertising has evolved as society and technology have changed, revealing the everyday lives of Australians from the 1790s to the 1990s.

One example is advertising for the Billy Tea Company. British tea culture, imported to Australia with the arrival of the British in Australia in 1788, has been distinctly adapted by Australians. One of the key early differences is the use of the ‘billy’, a lightweight metal can used most commonly for boiling water or cooking over a campfire. To advertise its tea, the Billy Tea Company used an image of a swagman, or ‘swaggie’, boiling his billy. Early in the 20th century, Billy Tea’s owner James Inglis purchased the rights to the song Waltzing Matilda. Some of Banjo Paterson’s original words of Waltzing Matilda were changed for an arrangement of the song, which was published in 1905 and was the earliest printed version of the song. Marie Cowan, the wife of Billy Tea’s manager, was credited on the cover as having arranged the music, which is an example of the importance of music in advertising.

Australian advertising projected an image of comfort, fun, and a carefree life. The Sell exhibition showcases the messages and mechanics of advertising in Australia from the 1790s to the 1990s. It begins with Australia’s earliest surviving printed document, a 1796 playbill advertising an evening’s entertainment at Sydney’s first purpose-built theatre, and ends with a 1998 poster from a Body Shop campaign to promote Reconciliation.

The exhibition considers how image and text work to inform and influence, and what makes a good slogan, from the blunt ‘Bile Beans for Biliousness’ and the enticing ‘They’re delicious! Delicious!!’ to shock tactics like ‘Read this and spew’. The exhibition addresses advertising controversies, how advertising has reflected a changing Australia, and the different tools used in advertising over the centuries.

 http://www.nla.gov.au/exhibitions/the-sell

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).