Calendar advertising
Also called: Calendar art · Topic: The Age of Industrialisation · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 4 "The Age of Industrialisation"
Meaning
Calendar advertising means selling goods through printed calendars. Manufacturers used it in India from the late 19th century. The calendars showed pictures of gods and goddesses, and sometimes kings and nawabs, next to the product. People hung them in tea shops, poor homes and offices and looked at them every day for a whole year. So the message reached even people who could not read. The calendars helped create a new consumer culture, which means a habit of buying factory-made goods.
Example
A Sunlight soap calendar showed the god Vishnu, and products for babies showed baby Krishna. The holy picture made a foreign product feel familiar and trusted. Later, Indian manufacturers used advertising to spread the swadeshi message (buy goods made in India): if you care for the nation, buy Indian.
Don't confuse with
- Manchester labels: These were printed tags stuck on bundles of British cloth. They said "MADE IN MANCHESTER" and showed gods or rulers such as Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Calendars were separate items that stayed on the wall all year.