When Advertising First Came to Life on Screen
A giant cigarette package opens in front of a motion-picture camera. A woman emerges, distributes cigarettes to four men and turns a brief theatrical performance into a commercial message. The scene is strange, theatrical and unmistakably promotional. Yet it was filmed in 1897, long before cinema advertising became a familiar part of the moviegoing experience.
The film was called Admiral Cigarette. Produced by the Edison Manufacturing Company, it is among the earliest surviving examples of moving-image brand advertising. It demonstrates that advertisers recognized the commercial possibilities of motion pictures almost as soon as the technology became available.
The origins of cinema advertising are therefore considerably older than the 1910s, a decade often associated with the development of organized screen advertising and promotional film trailers.
By the late nineteenth century, companies were already experimenting with moving images to promote cigarettes, whisky, soap and other consumer products.
The early history is complicated, however, by the fact that cinema itself had not yet developed into the standardized institution familiar today.
Motion pictures were exhibited in music halls, fairgrounds, temporary venues, entertainment establishments and public spaces. Some commercial films were even projected outdoors.
Consequently, the first advertising film, the first advertisement projected on a screen and the first commercial shown within a permanent movie theatre are not necessarily the same historical event.
Understanding these distinctions reveals a much richer story about the relationship between film technology, consumer culture and modern marketing.
Before Cinema: Advertising Through Projected Images
The commercial use of projected images has roots that predate motion-picture technology.
The magic lantern was one of the most important predecessors of cinema. By projecting illuminated images onto walls and screens, it allowed pictures to be displayed to assembled audiences.
Magic lantern presentations could include painted images, photographic slides and visual effects created through mechanical movement.
These techniques established a culture of public projection before photographic motion pictures became commercially viable.
They also provided a technological foundation for later screen advertising.
An advertiser no longer needed to rely exclusively on printed posters or newspaper advertisements. Projected images could occupy a large, illuminated space and reach groups of spectators.
Peter Domankiewicz (2021), writing for the British Film Institute, emphasizes that cinema developed through a complex interaction of earlier optical entertainment technologies, commercial experimentation and competing inventors.
The transition from lantern projections to motion pictures was therefore gradual rather than instantaneous.
A revealing example is the British film Footpads, dated to 1896. Its urban backdrop includes the appearance of illuminated advertising signs, achieved through techniques adapted from magic lantern projection (British Film Institute, n.d.-a).
Although the film is not itself a commercial advertisement, it illustrates how advertising and projected visual effects were already closely connected to the emerging culture of cinema.
The Kinetoscope and the Commercialization of Moving Images
The earliest commercial motion-picture experiences did not necessarily involve audiences sitting together in a darkened theatre.
Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope allowed individual customers to watch short moving images through a viewing apparatus.
Commercial Kinetoscope exhibitions were established in 1894.
The customer paid to experience motion-picture technology, making moving images a marketable entertainment product before the widespread adoption of screen projection.
The subsequent development of projected cinema involved several inventors and businesses.
The Lumière brothers became central figures in the popular history of cinema, but British and American pioneers also contributed important technologies and commercial exhibitions.
Domankiewicz (2021) argues that cinema’s origins cannot accurately be reduced to a single invention or screening.
For advertising history, the key development was the creation of a medium capable of presenting moving images to audiences.
Once films could attract spectators, commercial organizations began exploring how the same technology might attract attention to products and brands.
Admiral Cigarette: A Surviving Commercial from 1897
Admiral Cigarette provides one of the clearest surviving examples of early motion-picture advertising.
The film was photographed by William Heise for the Edison Manufacturing Company in July 1897.
According to the Library of Congress, production took place at Edison’s Black Maria studio in West Orange, New Jersey.
The film was registered for copyright on 5 August 1897.
It advertised Admiral Cigarettes, a brand associated with the National Cigarette & Tobacco Company.
Its narrative is simple but carefully structured.
Four men representing different social figures sit in front of a backdrop displaying the product name.
Beside them stands an enormous cigarette package.
A woman emerges from the package, approaches the men and distributes cigarettes.
The sequence concludes with the presentation of a banner bearing the words “We all smoke”.
The surviving film lasts approximately half a minute.
Its commercial purpose is unmistakable. The product, brand name and promotional message are central to the action.
The Library of Congress (1897) identifies the work as an advertising film and preserves a digital version.
The American Film Institute (n.d.) notes that the female figure was already associated with the brand’s printed advertising.
This detail is especially significant because it demonstrates an early connection between print-based brand identity and moving-image promotion.
An Early Example of Cross-Media Branding
The relationship between Admiral Cigarette and earlier print advertising is one of the film’s most interesting historical features.
The filmmakers did not simply record an ordinary event in which cigarettes happened to appear.
They constructed a performance around a recognizable commercial identity.
The oversized package provided an unmistakable visual representation of the product.
The woman emerging from the package created surprise and theatrical interest.
The distribution of cigarettes turned the brand into an object of collective participation.
Finally, the slogan condensed the performance into a memorable statement.
The commercial therefore used motion-picture technology to animate an existing advertising identity.
This was an early example of a practice that would become fundamental to twentieth-century marketing: adapting recognizable brand assets across different communication media.
A printed character could become a film character.
A package design could become part of a theatrical setting.
A slogan could become the climax of a short narrative.
These techniques anticipated later forms of integrated advertising, even though the terminology of modern marketing had not yet developed.
Was Admiral Cigarette the World’s First Advertising Film?
The historical evidence does not justify an absolute claim that Admiral Cigarette was the world’s first advertising film.
The Library of Congress notes that other early Edison productions had commercial connections, including films promoting railway travel.
Some of these productions were supported financially by railway companies.
By 1897, several New York film companies were making promotional films for products and services (Library of Congress, n.d.).
The problem is partly definitional.
A film showing attractive railway scenery might encourage travel without containing a direct advertising slogan.
A commercial film might feature a brand name but also function as entertainment.
Other promotional films may have been exhibited without surviving in an archive.
For these reasons, Admiral Cigarette is best described as one of the earliest surviving and securely documented motion-picture advertisements.
Its importance does not depend on an unprovable claim of absolute priority.
Dewar’s Whisky and the Moving Advertisement of 1897
Another important early commercial was produced for Dewar’s whisky in 1897.
The advertisement was made in the United States by the International Film Company.
It drew upon an existing promotional image in which ancestral figures appeared to leave their portraits to share whisky.
The concept connected the brand with heritage, continuity and family tradition.
This was a sophisticated choice for a company selling a product whose commercial identity could benefit from associations with age and inherited craftsmanship.
Joseph Foxon (2023), examining the advertising holdings of the British Film Institute, identifies the 1897 Dewar’s production as an exceptionally early surviving advertising film.
The British Film Institute (n.d.-b) also documents the American predecessor to the later British version of the same concept.
The Dewar’s example demonstrates that motion-picture advertising was already capable of translating a brand’s established visual mythology into a moving narrative.
The film did not merely display a bottle.
It staged a story intended to communicate what the brand represented.
Moving Advertisements in the Streets of New York
Some early advertising films were exhibited outdoors rather than inside conventional cinemas.
Historical research describes motion pictures projected onto temporary screens in busy urban locations.
Foxon (2023), drawing on the work of early cinema historian Charles Musser, discusses the use of improvised outdoor screens near major intersections.
The Dewar’s advertisement is associated with public projection in New York.
This development complicates the modern distinction between cinema advertising and out-of-home advertising.
A moving-image commercial could function as a public spectacle rather than as part of a scheduled movie programme.
The unusual nature of the technology itself contributed to its promotional value.
Spectators were attracted not only by the product but also by the novelty of photographic movement.
For advertisers, this created a temporary advantage.
A brand could associate itself with a technological experience that many members of the public had rarely encountered.
The commercial message and the attraction of the medium were closely intertwined.
The Spirit of His Forefathers: Advertising Becomes More Narrative
Around 1900, a British version of the Dewar’s concept appeared under the title The Spirit of His Forefathers.
The film depicts ancestral figures leaving their portraits to participate in a whisky-drinking scene.
The British Film Institute preserves the production and identifies it as one of the earliest surviving British screen advertisements (British Film Institute, n.d.-b).
The narrative illustrates a significant development in commercial filmmaking.
Rather than relying entirely on the novelty of movement, the advertisement presents a more recognizable sequence of events.
There is a situation, an unexpected development and a conclusion.
The product becomes part of a short story.
Foxon (2023) observes that the later British production communicates its narrative and brand identity more clearly than the earlier American version.
This suggests that filmmakers were already learning how to adapt commercial messages to the specific possibilities of the moving image.
The earliest advertisers were not simply purchasing screen time.
They were experimenting with the language of film.
Vinolia Soap and the Advertising of Everyday Goods
The British Film Institute’s historical collections also include an early advertisement for Vinolia Soap.
The film is generally dated to approximately 1897 or 1898, although its exact production date is uncertain.
Foxon (2023) discusses the film as one of the oldest surviving advertisements in the BFI National Archive.
Its existence is important because it broadens the history beyond highly theatrical advertisements for tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
Soap was an everyday consumer product.
Its promotion through moving images suggests that filmmakers and advertisers already recognized the potential of the medium for ordinary household purchases.
The emerging advertising film was not confined to spectacular products.
It could also be used to make familiar commodities more noticeable in increasingly competitive consumer markets.
Rudge-Whitworth and the Product Demonstration
The 1902 British advertisement Britain’s Best Bicycle for Rudge-Whitworth offers another approach to early screen advertising.
Rather than relying primarily on symbolic imagery, the film presents a demonstration involving a woman and a male cyclist.
Foxon (2023) records that the film was originally shot using a 68-millimetre format.
The example is significant because it highlights the ability of motion pictures to demonstrate products in use.
A printed advertisement could describe a bicycle’s performance.
A photograph could show its appearance.
A film could present movement and interaction.
This distinction gave the new medium particular advantages for products whose features were best understood through action.
The demonstration became an important advertising technique in later decades, especially for mechanical devices, household equipment and consumer technologies.
The Rise of Permanent Cinemas
During the first years of the twentieth century, motion pictures increasingly moved from temporary attractions into regular exhibition venues.
The growth of permanent cinemas changed the commercial possibilities of screen advertising.
A cinema could assemble audiences repeatedly at a known location.
Film programmes could be scheduled, and promotional material could be placed within the exhibition sequence.
This made the advertising environment more predictable.
Businesses no longer needed to organize an independent outdoor projection to reach viewers.
They could potentially purchase access to an audience already attending for entertainment.
The cinema screen gradually became a commercial communication space as well as an entertainment medium.
This distinction was important for the development of advertising economics.
The value of a screen advertisement depended not only on its creative content but also on the ability to distribute it across venues and reach audiences.
Advertising Films Versus Film Trailers
Advertising for forthcoming motion pictures developed alongside the broader commercialization of cinema.
Film exhibitors needed to persuade audiences to return for future programmes.
Posters, newspaper advertisements, printed announcements and lobby displays initially played important roles in promoting upcoming films.
During the 1910s, moving-image previews became increasingly important to the film industry’s promotional practices.
These previews eventually developed into the standardized theatrical trailer.
However, trailers should not be confused with the entire history of cinema advertising.
A trailer promotes another film.
A commercial for soap, whisky or cigarettes promotes a consumer product.
Both may be shown on the same screen, but their immediate objectives differ.
The surviving advertisements of the 1890s demonstrate that commercial screen advertising existed before the widespread standardization of film trailers.
It is therefore historically inaccurate to suggest that cinema advertising began exclusively as previews of upcoming movies.
Julius Pinschewer and the German Advertising Film Industry
The development of commercial cinema advertising in Germany is closely associated with Julius Pinschewer.
Born in 1883 in Hohensalza, Pinschewer became interested in film and advertising around 1909.
In 1910, he applied for a patent in Berlin for what he called “living posters”.
The phrase captured the relationship between established print advertising and the emerging possibilities of film.
Pinschewer sought to combine the promotional purpose of the poster with movement and cinematic effects.
According to filmportal.de (n.d.), he produced experimental advertising films in 1910 before securing commercial clients.
In 1911, he presented his work to the Berlin association of manufacturers of branded goods.
The presentation helped establish his advertising-film activities.
Pinschewer subsequently developed a specialized production business.
His work illustrates an important transition from experimental advertising films to a more organized professional industry.
Maggi and The Soup: Early Special Effects in Advertising
One of Pinschewer’s early productions was Die Suppe (The Soup), made for Maggi in 1911.
The film is notable for its use of cinematic trick techniques.
According to filmportal.de (n.d.), Pinschewer employed film effects in the production to create an attention-grabbing commercial presentation.
This was an important development in advertising aesthetics.
The product no longer had to be shown only in a realistic setting.
Film technology allowed advertisers to construct visual transformations and imaginative scenarios.
The commercial could become a miniature spectacle.
Such experimentation anticipated the later importance of animation, visual effects and fantasy in advertising.
It also demonstrated that cinema advertising could develop its own creative language rather than merely reproducing printed advertisements.
A Network of Approximately 500 Cinemas
Pinschewer’s importance was not limited to filmmaking.
His commercial organization of advertising distribution was equally significant.
According to filmportal.de (n.d.), by 1912 he had contractual arrangements with approximately 500 cinemas in Germany and Switzerland that exclusively exhibited his advertising films.
This figure illustrates the rapid professionalization of the medium.
An advertiser could commission a film and potentially reach audiences across a network of exhibition venues.
The advertising service therefore combined creative production with media distribution.
Its commercial value depended on both.
A visually impressive film had limited reach without suitable exhibition arrangements.
A large cinema network, meanwhile, required a continuing supply of commercial content.
Pinschewer’s model anticipated important features of later cinema advertising businesses: the coordination of advertisers, production companies and cinema operators.
Cinema Advertising and the Development of Brand Storytelling
The surviving early advertisements reveal several distinct approaches to commercial storytelling.
Admiral Cigarette used a theatrical surprise and a slogan.
Dewar’s used historical imagery and a narrative associated with family heritage.
Rudge-Whitworth demonstrated a product in action.
Pinschewer explored visual effects and the transformation of printed advertising into animated spectacle.
These approaches were not identical.
They reflected different product characteristics and different commercial objectives.
Yet they shared an important principle: moving images could communicate a brand through a sequence of events rather than through a single static image.
This expanded the possibilities of advertising.
A product could become the centre of a story.
A familiar character could move.
A brand identity could be expressed through action, humour, surprise or demonstration.
These possibilities became central to later audiovisual marketing.
Historical Advertising Films as Business History Sources
Early cinema advertisements are valuable not only as examples of filmmaking but also as historical records of business and consumer culture.
They show how companies wanted their products to be understood.
They reveal the visual conventions, social symbols and commercial arguments considered persuasive at a particular moment.
The figures in Admiral Cigarette reflect the symbolic conventions of late nineteenth-century American advertising.
The Dewar’s films illustrate how a company could connect its product with ancestry and continuity.
The Rudge-Whitworth advertisement shows the commercial use of product demonstration.
Pinschewer’s productions reveal the increasing professionalization of branded entertainment and promotional filmmaking.
For business historians, these films provide evidence of historical brand positioning and communication strategies.
They can also illuminate changes in social values and representations.
A commercial film is therefore more than an advertisement. It is a document of the culture and commercial environment in which it was produced.
Sound, Music and the Expansion of Screen Advertising
Early cinema advertising was largely visual.
Commercial messages depended on gestures, product presentation, written titles and recognizable situations.
The development of sound cinema expanded the range of available techniques.
Advertisers could incorporate speech, music and synchronized sound effects.
A product could be associated with a particular voice or melody.
A commercial character could speak directly to the audience.
Nevertheless, the arrival of sound did not make earlier methods obsolete.
Visual exaggeration, animation and product demonstrations continued to be important.
The development of screen advertising was cumulative.
New techniques expanded the medium without eliminating the fundamental importance of clear visual communication.
Pearl & Dean and the Professional Cinema Advertising Industry
By the middle of the twentieth century, cinema advertising had developed into a specialized commercial industry.
One important British example was Pearl & Dean, established in 1953.
The company became closely associated with cinema advertising and developed its own animation activities.
The British Film Institute preserves Air to Wear, a 1957 advertisement for Aertex that uses animated drawings to communicate the product’s qualities (British Film Institute, n.d.-c).
The production demonstrates how sophisticated visual storytelling had become.
By this stage, cinema advertising was no longer a technological curiosity.
It was a recognized medium with professional production processes, distribution arrangements and creative specialists.
The historical connection with earlier pioneers remained clear.
The same fundamental challenge persisted: how could a short moving-image sequence make a product memorable?
The Problem of Identifying the First Cinema Advertisement
The search for the world’s first cinema advertisement faces several historical difficulties.
Many early films have been lost.
Some were produced in very small numbers or shown only briefly.
Commercial records may not have survived.
Furthermore, the meaning of advertising was not always clearly defined.
A film commissioned by a railway company might promote travel without resembling a conventional advertisement.
A branded entertainment film might combine commercial and artistic purposes.
A moving-image advertisement projected onto a building might be considered outdoor advertising rather than cinema advertising.
These distinctions make absolute claims difficult.
Foxon (2023) discusses the problems of dating and identifying the earliest surviving advertising films in the BFI National Archive.
The evidence supports the existence of commercial moving-image advertising by 1897.
It does not establish a single, universally accepted first cinema advertisement.
Why Early Cinema Advertising Changed Marketing
The emergence of cinema advertising was a major development in the history of commercial communication.
Moving images allowed advertisers to demonstrate products, animate familiar brand characters and construct short narratives.
They could combine the recognition of printed trademarks with the novelty of cinematic action.
The medium also created opportunities for more systematic advertising distribution.
As cinema networks expanded, commercial films could reach audiences across multiple locations.
The advertising film gradually became both a creative format and a purchasable media product.
Its significance extended beyond cinema.
The techniques developed in early screen advertising contributed to the wider history of audiovisual brand communication.
Product demonstration, visual storytelling, animation and the adaptation of established brand identities all became important features of later advertising media.
Cinema advertising was therefore not merely a preliminary stage before television commercials.
It was an innovative advertising medium in its own right.
Conclusion: Cinema Advertising Began Before the 1910s
The earliest surviving commercial films demonstrate that moving-image advertising existed during the 1890s.
Admiral Cigarette, produced in 1897, remains one of the clearest and most accessible examples.
Dewar’s also commissioned an advertising film in 1897, while British productions around 1900 expanded the possibilities of narrative brand promotion.
Advertisements for soap and bicycles show that the medium quickly attracted different product categories.
In Germany, Julius Pinschewer helped transform advertising films into an organized professional business from 1910 onward.
Film trailers subsequently became another important form of cinema promotion, but they did not mark the beginning of all screen advertising.
The available evidence does not identify an uncontested first cinema commercial.
What it reveals is more historically significant: within a few years of the emergence of motion-picture technology, advertisers were already using moving images to build brands, demonstrate products and attract customers.
The cinema screen had become a new commercial medium.
References
American Film Institute (n.d.) Admiral Cigarette (1897). AFI Catalog. Available at: https://catalog.afi.com/Film/28420-ADMIRAL-CIGARETTE (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
British Film Institute (n.d.-a) Footpads. BFI Replay. Available at: https://replay.bfi.org.uk/video/255/c9206d09-087d-5175-99fb-1a86a8a7e6ff (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
British Film Institute (n.d.-b) The Spirit of His Forefathers. BFI Replay. Available at: https://replay.bfi.org.uk/video/79020188-2dbd-56fd-8d0b-dd612d3b3491 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
British Film Institute (n.d.-c) Air to Wear (1957). BFI Player. Available at: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-air-to-wear-1957-online (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
Domankiewicz, P. (2021) ‘In the beginning: cinema’s murky origin story’, Sight and Sound, 27 February. Available at: https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/origins-cinema-early-inventors-pioneers (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
filmportal.de (n.d.) Julius Pinschewer. Available at: https://www.filmportal.de/person/julius-pinschewer_ebe71798dc274c11853cda5d047799f3 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
Foxon, J. (2023) ‘Commercial Break: British Advertising on Screen’, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 25. Available at: https://alphavillejournal.com/Issue25/HTML/DossierFoxon.html (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
Library of Congress (1897) Admiral Cigarette. Edison Manufacturing Company. Motion picture. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/item/00694141/ (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
Library of Congress (n.d.) Overview of the Edison Motion Pictures by Genre. Available at: https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/articles-and-essays/history-of-edison-motion-pictures/overview-of-the-edison-motion-pictures-by-genre/ (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
