How was advertising in Italian newspapers born?

In 1862 with the pharmacist Attilio Manzoni who promoted his own medicines and those of foreign pharmaceutical companies, for which he had secured exclusive representation in Italy.

01 SETTEMBRE 2016 – Draft.it

We often talk about the decline of Draft advertising on newspaper, especially Italians: a market that has personally suffered from the economic crisis – which is still suffering from a very heavy crisis today, and which has seen its way of existing resize under its feet.

But have you ever wondered how newspaper advertising arrived in the Bel Paese? For parochialism let's start by saying that it is thanks to a Brescian (…). In fact, two years after the unification of Italy, the pharmacist from Brescia Attilio Manzoni founds A. Manzoni & C. a wholesale company of pharmaceutical and chemical products.

Thanks to Manzoni's intuition and right at the dawn of advertising, his genius led him to consider this form of communication as very important, capable of amplifying the commercial value of his nascent company. In a market, that of the mid-nineteenth century in which advertising was certainly not the means to make the products known, understands (a term that will often recur in this story) the importance of undermining the way of communicating at the time, of radically changing the way of selling; hence the idea of outsourcing for himself and his friends/colleagues a part of the spaces in the newspapers of the time. Spaces that were used to promote the products of Manzoni and of foreign pharmaceutical companies, of which he had secured exclusive representation in Italy.

From intuition to business, so much so that it is thanks to Manzoni that the “fourth page” of newspapers (today we take it for granted that it serves only for advertising) became an archive of commercial notices, a protagonist to also host the advertising of companies and products; gradually evolved towards markets that had nothing to do with pharmaceuticals.

Over the years, the buying and selling of advertisements will become Attilio Manzoni's real business, a sector that did not exist at the time – it was probably the first European advertising concessionaire.

In 1881, on the occasion of the Milan Exposition, Manzoni began the publication of "Prezzo Corrente", a catalog in alphabetical order and divided by category of mineral waters, medicinal specialties, surgical aids, medication and perfumery items sold by Manzoni. As soon as it was released, Prezzo Corrente was immediately considered a valuable tool by manufacturers, pharmacists and private individuals. Also in this publication, the advertising of pharmaceutical companies was soon added to that of companies from other sectors who wanted to address its "qualified target".

Twenty-five years after the first intuition, in 1888, the now abandoned pharmaceutical company undertook an incredible expansion: offices in Italy, in Paris in London, and for ten years Manzoni even managed the advertising of Corriere della Sera Advertisements on the fourth page cost 30 cents a line of 7 points.

Many years have passed since that first intuition that brought advertising in Italian newspapers, a story that fits fully into our history of Italy, all thanks to a very far-sighted pharmacist from Brescia.

There A. Manzoni & C. is today the exclusive concessionaire of the L'Espresso Group, with a turnover of over 440 million Euros. More than 150 years have passed since that intuition.

Source: From the history of A. Manzoni & C