CAIRO: Gulf Tech News
The American University in Cairo Press has published “Trading in Dreams: A Century of Print Advertising in Egypt,” a study by Bahia Shehab tracing the development of Egypt’s advertising industry from 1880 to 1980.
The book draws on more than 350 advertisements published in Egyptian newspapers and magazines, and is described by the publisher as the first book on the history of advertising in Egypt.
Shehab is a professor of practice at AUC and founder of the university’s graphic design program. The research was supported by university grants and based on thousands of advertisements held in AUC’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library, some dating to 1880.
Five periods
The book divides the century into five phases. The first, before 1920, covers the emergence of an advertising market built around newspapers and other print publications, and the growing presence of Western goods alongside local products.
The second examines the publishing boom of the 1920s and 1930s, including shifts in the depiction of women, the rise of advertising aimed at female consumers, the emergence of celebrity endorsement, and the adoption of Western marketing strategies by local manufacturers competing with imported goods.
The third addresses the Egyptianization drive of the 1940s and changes in how advertisements presented leisure, entertainment, health and hygiene.
The fourth covers the 1952 revolution and the subsequent nationalization and expansion of state-owned industry. The fifth deals with Egypt’s shift toward an open-market economy in the 1970s, when television became the dominant advertising medium and print advertising declined.
Advertising and public perception
Shehab said the research showed how advertising shaped Egyptian perceptions of beauty, gender, modernity and national identity, and how those ideas tracked social, political and technological change.
“We see the large advertisements in Cairo every day, yet we know very little about the history of advertising in Egypt,” she said. “The idea came from wanting our students to better understand the reality they live in, which is not possible without understanding the past.”
She said she hoped the book would serve as a reference for future researchers.
Launch and exhibition
AUC will hold a public launch on Sunday, Sept. 6, at 7 p.m. at Ewart Memorial Hall on its Tahrir Square campus, including a presentation by the author and a question-and-answer session.
An accompanying exhibition curated by Shehab and Amgad Naguib opens the same evening and runs through the end of September. It features original advertisements, vintage products and timelines built around five fictional characters, each offering a different perspective on advertising’s role in shaping aspirations, identity and daily life in Egypt.
About the author and publisher
Shehab is an artist, designer and art historian. Her awards include a TED Senior Fellowship, the Prince Claus Award and the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture. She is the author of “A Thousand Times NO: The Visual History of Lam-Alif” and co-author of “A History of Arab Graphic Design,” published by AUC Press in 2020.
AUC Press was founded in 1960 and is the leading English-language publisher in the Middle East. Its list covers Egyptology, history, politics, anthropology, sociology, art, architecture and biography, alongside Arabic language instruction and fiction published under its Hoopoe imprint.
