ABSTRACT
The relationship between new forms of advertising and consumption was formed in the great European capitals. The growth of the urban, regional and national markets in the middle of the nineteenth century was linked both to the expansion of the bourgeois realm and to the ‘communications revolution’ of the nineteenth century. At the turn of the twentieth century advertising suddenly became prominent in European cities. Despite a distinct hostility to cities in Germany, those opponents of advertising who were also cultural critics were to be found throughout Europe. The philosophical critics of advertising attracted the interest of and swayed public opinion with the message until the mid-1970s. The surprisingly sudden fall from prominence of the intellectual criticism of advertising was brought about mainly by the efforts of communication theorists and behavioural scientists to reformulate their refutation of the theory of manipulation, which had until then been dominant.
