137 years of marketing magic

A new Web essay entitled “Selling Shiseido: Cosmetics Advertising & Design in Early 20th Century Japan,” and written by Gennifer Weisenfeld, associate professor of art, art history, and visual studies at Duke University, explores how Japanese cosmetics company Shiseido creatively produced and conveyed meaning through the visual and material aspects of its marketing since 1872. “There is no Japanese company whose advertising design better represents the aesthetic of cosmopolitan chic seen through the visual sphere in the early 20th century than Shiseido,” Weisenfeld says.

Weisenfeld analyzed elements of Shiseido’s advertising and marketing to illustrate how the company’s products and promotional strategies tell a distinctive story about Japan’s experience of modernity, including the impact of mass-market consumerism, urbanization and changing gender roles on national culture.

To read the full essay, visit http://bit.ly/yF7eR