Animated Advertising: 200 Years of Premiums, Promos, and Pop-ups

Thursday, December 1st, 2022 - Saturday, February 11th, 2023

"Animated Advertising" features more than 200 unique advertising objects from 200 years that demonstrate how animated and dimensional paper devices are used to promote products, art, entertainment, and ideas. Curated by Grolier Club member Ellen G. K. Rubin from her extensive pop-up and movable book and ephemera collection, the exhibition displays the creativity of advertisers in the areas of food, fashion, tobacco, pharmaceuticals, travel, music, and politics to catch the eye, hold the attention, and inform patrons and clientele about the items that they are marketing.

Exhibition highlights include a pop-up baseball card signed by Yogi Berra, a pop-up “vanity table” package containing make-up, a postcard of a new Wanamaker store that inflates, an annual report for Eskimo Pie in the form of an ice cream popsicle, the first automobile ad, prototypes for prospective advertisements, and a video showing many of the objects in motion. An accompanying color catalogue of the exhibition explores the history of advertising, from the effects of the Industrial Revolution on business, to the birth of ad agencies, social advances, and the application of new printing techniques to advertisements.

Mon - Sat 10am - 5pm
Sun CLOSED

Second Floor Gallery
The Grolier Club
47 East 60th Street

New York, NY

40.76400956369, -73.9699713

Animated Advertising: 200 Years of Premiums, Promos, and Pop-ups