“‘A Mobile Display Window at Home’: Television, Advertising, and the Quest for Consumers’ Attention in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile”

Pablo Pryluka, Princeton University

This workshop will be held at Rutgers University (301 Van Dyck Hall) in hybrid (in-person and Zoom). 

Zoom Link

The pre-circulated paper is available to the Princeton University community via SharePoint. All others should request a copy of the paper by emailing Santiago Conti at [email protected].

How advertising and television interacted depended on several factors, such as state regulations on advertising, the model for television broadcasting, or income levels. On the other hand, this interaction between advertising and television conditioned the consumer culture that emerged over the 1950s and consolidated in the 1960s. In this chapter, I will explore how this interaction between television and advertising took place in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. The chapter is divided into four sections. First, I will reconstruct the origins of television broadcasting and the first attempts to promote the sales of TV receivers in the three countries. In the second part, I will explore the emergence of a commercial television system in Argentina and Brazil. Third, I delve into the university television system that worked in Chile over the 1960s and the making of a national state TV station by the end of the decade. Finally, I show how the different paths followed in each country gave birth to a different consumer market model over time.