electrifying!
Electricity Advertising 1890 to 2010
Electricity label for all devices, 1926 / Label: Umspannwerk Recklinghausen. Museum Strom und Leben
Colourless, shapeless, without smell or taste - how can you sell electricity? That challenge is explored in electrifying! Publicity for electricity, 1890 - 2010, an exhibition that tells the story behind the advertisements.
The exhibition illustrates how the electricity industry has used advertising to increase the popularity of electricity from early on, in the process turning it from a luxury good into a utility. As recently as the 19th century, electricity was a good without buyers. But with the growing use of electricity in industry, business, transport and households, the electricity sector became a major new industry. Hence, electricity was heavily promoted, be it through image advertising by electricity producers or ads for lighting, home appliances, electrical engines or agricultural equipment.
Advertising for electricity spoke to a wide range of target audiences: In customer service centres and through ads, posters, postcards, films and other channels, customers from agriculture, business and homes were won. Electricity was shown as a symbol of progress and modernity - until the energy crisis of the 1970s when advertising started to reflect a new social awareness of the need to use energy efficiently. In Germany, the market liberalization laws of 1998 further highlighted this trend, with more and more promotions for natural and ecological electricity.
The exhibition provides the first ever systematic overview of publicity for electricity in Germany. Using many different media, it covers the entire breadth from the initial ads for electricity itself to today’s promotion of energy.
A catalogue of the collection will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.
March 3 - September 5, 2010
Tu - Sun 10:00 - 17:00; from June - August also Mondays from 10:00 - 17:00
Umspannwerk Recklinghausen - Museum Strom und Leben
You can find further information (in German) at
www.umspannwerk-recklinghausen.de
The interactive portal www.EnergieKulturRuhr.de provides information on the current state of the RWE projects for cultural capital year. The tension is rising.