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Maps
ID243
TitleAdvertising and foreign residents in the French Concession (1937)
Digitized fileNo
Year Start1937
Description

The data come from an multipurpose survey conducted in 1937 by the French Municipal Council. Drawing on this survey, I was able to calculate the number of foreign residents per district and then mapped the relative proportion of foreign/Chinese-populated districts, in order to reveal possible correlations between advertising and residents’ social status. On this map, the darkest color represents the highest number of foreign residents per district.

The map shows that advertisements tended to concentrate in the districts hosting the highest number of foreign residents (more than 800 on certain sections of Avenue Joffre), whose purchasing power was comparatively higher than the majority of Chinese residents, and who were more likely to buy the foreign-style commodities advertised in the streets, such as branded cigarettes, toilet soaps, alcoholic drinks or automobiles, as exemplified on contemporary photographs. We also observe a major cluster of advertisements in mainly Chinese-populated districts along Edward VII avenue, however, due to its major function as a boundary street.  

The map indeed reveals a strong correlation between the presence of advertisements and the commercial nature of the district. The higher the number of shops, the higher the concentration of ads. Then districts with more than 50 shops may attract up to 25 advertisements within a radius of 400 m, especially along Avenue Joffre. This once more supports professionals’ prescriptions to place advertisements in the immediate proximity of shops in order to ensure that consumers would not postpone their buying decisions or forget the specific brand advertised on the billboard they just saw. (Bacon 1929)

Keywordscensus ; population ; foreign ; resident ; European ; Chinese ; French Concession ; Shanghai
LanguageEnglish
Image

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adCoMap_ID-243_No-01.jpeg

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