Musée de la Publicité – A Paris Museum of Advertising

UNUSUAL PARIS MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES – MUSEE DE LA PUBLICITE:

If you’re into old advertising posters, the Musée de la Publicité has them in spades! In this museum of advertising history there are over 100,000 posters – about 50,000 French and foreign period posters covering a period from the mid 18th century to 1949, and roughly 50,000 contemporary posters donated by advertising agencies, advertisers and graphic designers. There are also film, TV and radio commercials from the 1930’s to today.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

A visit to the Musée de la Publicité is like a trip down memory lane in the world of advertising. The core of the Musée de la Publicité’s collection covers the history of posters worldwide from the origins to the present day. There are classic movie posters, travel posters, lottery posters, luxury product posters etc.

Those of us of a certain age remember well that “Aristide Bruant dans son cabaret” poster and others by Toulouse-Lautrec.

Lautrac’s famous poster of this cabaret singer, best recognized as the man with the red scarf and black cape, has graced many a student flat wall… But even today, when you visit Montmartre, this poster is still much sought after by many tourists.

But of course, there’s a lot more than that in this paean to advertising. Although Musée de la Publicité’s collection tends to emphasise the print medium, the museum also has a whole range of packaging campaigns for everyday products such as Coca-Cola. Helen’s favourite was a special edition 2010 Coke bottle designed by Karl Lagerfeld, featuring a silhouette of the fashion supremo on the bottle and his signature. Other popular product packaging include Perrier, Chanel and the iconic French Banania hot chocolate…

Rotating Themes

Basically, the Museum of Advertising presents rotating thematic, artist and brand retrospectives. They host temporary exhibitions at a rate of three or four per year.

The idea is to show the artistic and sociological tendencies of society throughout the decades in a world where consumerism has been and continues to be a growing phenomenon. The museum features advertising in all sorts of different media, such as bill board posters, TV and radio commercials, press ads and much more.

The Musée de la Publicité is now one of the branches of Les Arts Decoratifs. The interior was designed by star French architect Jean Nouvel to be cutting-edge (well, it was in 1999) using interactive screens and displays of avant-garde video techniques.

The Musée de la Publicité is well worth visiting and some of the posters and product packaging have become collector’s items. The Karl Lagerfeld Coke bottle is certainly a collector’s item and the landlord our Paris apartment has a collection of Banania hot chocolate cans in the flat.

Place Palais du Louvre
107, rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris
Tel: 01 44 55 57 50 fax: 01 44 55 57 84
www.museedelapub.org

Metro: Palais Royal (Lines 1 or 7), Tuileries (Line 1), Pyramides (Lines 7 or 14).
Bus: 21, 27, 39, 48, 68, 72, 81, 95.
Parking: Carrousel du Louvre, Rue des Pyramides.
Access for the disabled via a lift at
105, Rue de Rivoli 75001 Paris
Open:
Tuesdays to Fridays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Closed on Mondays and national holidays.
Entry: Adult: €11 (decorative arts, fashion and advertising); Concession: € 8.50

Paris Pass: If you have a Paris Pass, entry is free.

Next page : Palais de Tokyo, Site de Création Contemporaine

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