SINGAPORE - A Ribena advertisement from 1965, a 1984 Gardenia ad and a SPIN detergent ad printed using scented ink are among the highlights of a unique exhibition where newspaper advertisements take centre stage.
Launched on Wednesday by Singapore Press holdings and titled "For The Love of Newspaper Advertisements - 50 Years of Newsprint Creativity", the exhibition features iconic and nostalgic newspaper advertisements from the last half-century.
The advertisements are curated by year, transporting visitors across five decades and showing them how newsprint creativity has changed over the years.
Ads from 1965 to 1974 were mostly printed in black and white, while the 1975 to 1984 period saw the introduction of spot-colour and full-colour.
A pop-culture fuelled decade from 1985 to 1994 brought with it highly innovative ads including some that were printed on scented and luminous ink. The SPIN detergent ad, for example, let readers smell the scent of the detergent as they read the newspaper. This period also saw the rise of creative buys, which are ads that do not fit the standard newspaper page format, such as special newspaper wrappers.
The 1995 to 2004 period features ads with a storytelling approach, while those in the last decade sport eye-catching styles enhanced with new-age technologies such as augmented reality.
"For The Love of Newspaper Advertisements - 50 Years of Newsprint Creativity" is held at the Paragon until 30 September from 10am to 10pm daily. Admission is free.
