About

The Advertising historical network (Reklamhistoriska nätverket) is an interdisciplinary network of researchers, which was initiated in Sweden in the fall of 2016. On April 6-7, 2017 we arranged the First Swedish Advertising Historical Meeting (det Första Reklamhistoriska Mötet) at Stockholm University with financial support from the Ridderstad Foundation (Ridderstads Stiftelse.) The meeting gathered 18 researchers from universities across Sweden.

This meeting was followed by the Second Advertising Historical Meeting at Gothenburg University (in 2019) and the Third Advertising Historical meeting at Stockholm University (in 2021). Due to an increased interest from outside Sweden, the First Nordic Marketing History Workshop was arranged at Uppsala University in February 2025 and we are currently planning for a new meeting in February 2027.

The primary purpose of the network is to regularly organize workshops for scholars who are doing research that can broadly be defined as advertising and marketing history. This includes  advertising history as well as media and consumption history by scholars working in a range of different fields from the historical disciplines (economic and business history and history of ideas), media, communication and film and business studies.

The network was initiated by Klara Arnberg, Elin Åström Rudberg and Petter Tistedt in 2016.

We are thankful to Ridderstads stiftelse that has helped finance all of our conferences and the upcoming one in 2027.

Current contact persons for the network are:

Elin Åström Rudberg, associate professor and researcher at the Department of Economic History and International Relations at Stockholm University: e-mail 

Klara Arnberg, associate professor and senior lecturer at the Department of Economic History and International Relations: e-mail.

The large advertisement with the words “reklamen tjänar samhället” (advertising serves society) was posted in the middle of Stockholm to advertise the Nordic advertising congress in 1937, an example of the optimism that characterized the advertising industry at the time. (Photo: Gunnar Lundh, used under CC BY-NC-ND license).