The Eisteddfod’s Official Programme: A window on Wales in the early 1900s
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Reaching the target audience
With product placement laws about to change, the rules on what can and cannot be advertised are very stringent in the UK today. There is a total ban on tobacco and alcohol, and it would be absurd to consider such a thing nowadays.
But it was a very different story years ago, and when studying the National Eisteddfod’s old Official Programmes and Lists of Competitions as part of our 150th anniversary celebrations, it’s clear to see how advertising has changed over the past hundred years. So let’s take a look at advertising during the first few decades of the twentieth century, to see how trends and styles have changed over the years.
Our journey begins in 1912, with the Wrexham National Eisteddfod – and Wrexham, of course is home to this year’s festival. With a sumptuous Programme costing sixpence to buy, advertisers of all kinds were keen to be seen in this publication, which would be available for a number of weeks prior to the festival itself. This was how Eisteddfod goers organised their visit in the pre TV, radio and internet world, and it’s obvious that many businesses and companies saw the Programme as an ideal way to reach their target audience.
English Adverts
The advertisements of the period were almost wholly in English. Very few companies or businesses chose to use Welsh, although advertising in the Programme was the perfect way to reach a Welsh speaking audience. A wide range of products were advertised in 1912, from plates and china to bricks and coal – all available from local businesses in Wrexham itself.
Among the advertisers were a number of clothes shops, with one company stating, ‘No visit to the Eisteddfod can be a success unless you carry away with you one of our Noted Gents’ Suits or one of our Special Costumes…Our suits and costumes are sent to all parts of the Empire’ With a picture of a woman in what was deemed to be a traditional Welsh costume, and the message ‘Cymry am Byth’ on the top of the advert, it’s obvious that R & T Sauvage of 1 Hope Street, Wrexham had carefully considered how best to reach their target audience.
Fur was also advertised widely during the first few years of the twentieth century. C.D. Jones, Ladies’ Outfitter, 3&4 Hope Street, Wrexham, advertised the fact that they had ‘An early display of fashionable furs for the coming season’, and ‘We have bought carefully in the best Market of the FUR TRADE & for Variety, Good Taste & Moderate Prices the present range is the best we have ever exhibited.’ Advertisements of this kind were included in the Programme for a number of years. In 1929, one company, R Neill & Son Ltd of Liverpool, used a cartoon of a rabbit weeping into its handkerchief outside a fur shop, with the message ‘Alas- my poor brother’ – something which would be deemed quite tasteless and unacceptable today.
One of the coveted advertising slots in any publication is the back page, and in the 1912 Programme this was an advert for Wrexham Lager Beers – a local company supporting the national festival in their own area, you may think? Maybe, but at the time, and for almost another century, there was no bar on the Maes and no way of buying a pint of lager or any other alcoholic beverage. It seems strange therefore that the Programme editors were happy enough to accept advertising revenue from such companies during this teetotal period.
The Wrexham Taxi-Cab Co. with their headquarters in Union Road, states that ‘Cars will be available near Entrance to the Eisteddfod Pavilion’, and that there are plenty of trips to a wide range of locations available for visitors. The telephone number for anyone wishing to contact was Wrexham 93, and this shows how uncommon the concept of having a telephone was in 1912.
One of the big events of the year was the Titanic disaster, when hundreds of travellers died on their way to the United States. The White Star Line, makers of the ill-fated ship, were regular advertisers in the Programme during this period, and their page in 1912 advertised the HMS Olympic, the Titanic’s sister ship, and mentioned its ‘wireless telegraphy, orchestra and unsurpassed comforts’ Had the advertisement been placed before the Titanic’s maiden voyage? There is no way of knowing, but there is no mention of the Titanic itself in the advertisement.
The effect of the War on adverts
It’s clear that there was a strong market for advertisements a century ago, with businesses of all sorts advertising in the Programme, from large brands like Fry’s Chocolate and Jacob’s Cream Crackers to organisations like University College of North Wales, Bangor, which offered courses for a fee of £13 1s per year, with laboratory costs additional to this total. The names of some of the college lecturers are well known, especially to former students at the University, with John Morris Jones, H.R. Reichel and J.E. Lloyd, teaching there at the time.
Eight years later, the Eisteddfod was held in Barry – and once again we will be returning to the area in 1912, when the festival will be held in Llandow. Although only eight years had passed since the Wrexham Eisteddfod, Wales was a totally different place by 1920.
Like so many other parts of the world, Wales had been hit by the atrocities of the First World War, and even the Eisteddfod itself had been affected, not only with the 1914 Bangor Eisteddfod being postponed, but also the famous Black Chair of Birkenhead in 1917, with the winner of the Chair, Ellis Evans, Hedd Wyn, being killed in France a few weeks before the ceremony.
The 1920 Programme includes two or three advertisements which would not have been seen prior to the Great War - ‘A boon to the lame’ claims one company selling artificial limbs. The company, J.J. Stubbs & Son of Cardiff, states, ‘The motions and actions are as near like a natural foot as possible, no springs, bolts, etc., to get out of order. The yielding and elastic qualities of rubber supply requisite motion; avoid all jars to the stump when walking; absolutely noiseless.’
Allen Pearce, another Cardiff based company, ’Artificial Limbs and Surgical Appliance Makers’ offered ‘Artificial legs: light weight and durable; crutches with non-slipping ends; trusses with or without steel bands’, and ‘Artificial eyes: Patent mobile, snellen and shell patterns’. Seeing advertisements like these in the National Eisteddfod’s Progamme shows the profound effect the War had on a whole generation of young men, who were either killed in action or who returned home needing the services of companies like Allen Pearce a J.J. Stubbs & Son.
Adverts during the depression
Almost a decade later, the results of the War were still to be seen on the pages of the Programme, with an advertisement by Samuel Welsby, Allerton Monumental Works, Liverpool, promoting their war memorials, with a photograph of the memorial in Mold used as an example of their craftsmanship.
But the Programme remained full of a wide range of advertisements, even during a bleak period like this. In 1920, Robert Bevan of Castle Street, Cardiff, encouraged the reader to ‘Invest in a motor-cycle & side-car. The pleasures of the Country and the Seaside are within the reach of the proud possessor of one of these grand Machines… When in trouble give me a trial. I will see you through.’
This was the heyday of tobacco advertising, with Thomas Nicholls & Co. Chester, regularly placing an advertisement in Programme, promoting Nicholls Union Jack Shag, stating that ‘Critical Smokers say: “Should be in everyone’s mouth”’. An advert like this would never have seen the light of day in modern times.
We may believe that our modern marketing and advertising tools – the viral, online and social marketing campaigns – are far superior to the way things were done years ago, but the Eisteddfod itself was very sophisticated in its dealings with potential advertisers, with its own agent responsible for the placing of such advertisements.
Hugh Evans & Sons, Liverpool, publishers of Welsh language newspaper, Y Brython, were responsible for this work, and their advertisement in the 1920 Programme notes that ‘An exceptionally effective medium to advertise in and one in which you make your appeal to a thoughtful class of people and one from which satisfactory results are assured is The Official Programme of the National Eisteddfod of Wales’, encouraging businesses to promote themselves in the following year’s Programme. These advertisements appeared for a number of years, and with so many businesses choosing to sell their services and produce through the pages of the Official Programme, it’s obvious that Hugh Evans & Sons took their role very seriously.
Welsh Adverts
By the Bangor Eisteddfod of 1931, the work of organising advertisements was being done by a Wrexham based company, Hughes and Sons. It is difficult to find out when this change in personnel happened, but the 1929 Programme included a few subtle changes in the advertisements. The 1929 Eisteddfod was held in Liverpool, and by this time, we see more companies and organisations using Welsh in their advertisements, with a number of businesses taking two pages in the Programme so that their advert can appear in both Welsh and English.
Was this a general attitude shift towards the language or were the recently appointed advertising agents encouraging more use of Welsh? Whatever the reason, we see the old University College of North Wales now promoting itself as Coleg y Gogledd, Bangor (College of the North, Bangor), and companies like the Liverpool Gas Company also using Welsh, stating:
‘Mae nwy yn foddion i dwymno eich Cartref yn gysurus, i’w oleuo hefyd, i sicrhau coginio’r bwyd mewn modd y gellir llwyr ddibynnu arno, ac i ddarpar digonedd o ddŵr poeth, a’r cwbl yn hwylus ac heb afradedd.’
(Gas is a way to warm your Home comfortably, to light it too, to ensure that food is cooked in a totally dependable way, and to provide plenty of hot water, all done conveniently and cost effectively.)
Many large companies were still advertising in the Programme, and still saw it as a way of reaching an important audience. In 1929, oil company BP, jam-maker Hartleys, Jacob’s Cream Crackers and all the banks placed an advertisement, as did the Daily Post, a paper which still has a close link with the Eisteddfod, and which stated ’Eisteddfod – you will find detailed reports every day in the Liverpool Daily Post’, and almost three quarters of a century later, this still remains true.
Finally, it is worth mentioning a half page advert in the 1931 Programme when the Eisteddfod was held in Bangor. This advertisement was placed by the BBC. However, this was not an early attempt to reach a Welsh audience by the broadcasting corporation, but rather an advert placed by the Bangor, Bethesda & District Co-operative Society Limited!
The first decades of the last century was a period of monumental change in the world, and in a way, we can use the National Eisteddfod Programme and the advertisements placed as a window on these changes. There were more changes to come, another world war, the rapid development of technology, and changes in the needs and aspirations of Eisteddfod visitors. We will look at some of these changes through Eisteddfod Programme advertisements in the next article, which concentrates on 1935 – 1960.
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