Advertising FansPortable, collapsible, and
durable. Before air
conditioning, handheld fans
were a necessity. In the hotter
climes neither man nor woman
would be caught without one.
During the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries fans
became the ideal vehicle for
advertisements. The fan had
two sides—perfect for
displaying two messages at
once—one aimed at the holder
and the other, the beholder. It could be argued that the advertising fan
prefigured promotional T-shirts and shopping bags.
Advertising fans were used in many commercial cultures. In the
United States they were common in the South, promoting social events,
local businesses (undertakers were among the most frequent users of
advertising fans), and political parties. Certain job printers specialized in
fans and offered a variety of standard shapes and stock designs, but none
was as widely used as the fattened oval on a wooden stick given out by local
merchants for free on unbearably hot summer days. Like all American
advertising of the time, however, the typical American advertising fan was
essentially utilitarian; devoid of artistic flourish, it conveyed a message
clearly and simply.
Compared to French fans of the same period, the American
specimens were dreary. Compared to French publicity in general, America
appeared to be a backwater rather than a bustling commercial culture and
the world’s most progressive industrial nation. The French were always
ahead of Americans in the marriage of art and commerce, and this was true
of their advertising fans, often designed by famous designers to complement
their poster campaigns for France’s most prestigious industries.
The exact year that advertising was first placed on fans is not
known, but the earliest advertising fan has been traced to 1880 when a
stylish specimen, like those fashion accessories from the time of Louis XIV,
was imprinted with a romantic scene and swash type that announced a402