Happy And Comfortable Homes Thanks To Gas: Direct and Subliminal Publicity By Gas Companies In Women’s Journals. Analysis Of The Gazette Du Foyer.

Abstract

The coming of electricity to the energy market since the 1870s, during the Second Technological Revolution, made gas companies redefine their strategy to compete with it. Publicity and advertising were a key tool, and its typology has called the attention of scholars and experts on the matter. Yet, it is required that we emphasize the relevance of journals: apart from including advertising by gas companies, who were promoting alternative uses of gas, especially in cooking and heating, such journals were in themselves a propagandistic tool, via subliminal publicity. The chief executive officers and employees of gas companies acknowledged this use of common journals for that purpose, in order to get more clients.

In the present chapter, we focus on the Gazette du Foyer, a women’s journal appeared in France during the Great Depression and the interwar years (1929-ca.1939). It was edited by the Société pour le Developpement de l’Industrie du Gaz en France. In the introduction, we describe the historical framework of the period that we have studied. After that, we analyze the people promoting the Société, and their intention to use the Gazette as a subliminal propaganda tool for gas companies. Thirdly, we study the types of adverts that the journal’s editors included for the use of gas, underlining the message they spread about women, families, and homes. Finally, we sum up our conclusions.