A yellow dressing gown in an armchair with a white handkerchief surrounding the head of a portrait man as he goes out because “thanks to the aspirin tablets he was able to say goodbye to colds and pains”. It is the advertising-portrait of one of the most widespread painkillers created in the past by the forerunners of modern pharmaceutical advertising and which is part of the exhibition 1850-1950 History of pharmaceutical advertising for the therapy of pain and rheumatological diseases, a cultural initiative promoted by Italian Society of Rheumatology (SIR) to be held in Perugia from 7 to 17 July at the splendid Cloister of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.
A century of advertising posters
The exhibition, whose organization was curated by the Institute of the History of Rheumatology born at the end of 2020 from an idea of Sir, traces the birth and evolution of this particular form of advertising, underlining the influence it had on the type of approach to increasingly widespread diseases, such as rheumatological ones. A century of advertisements and advertising posters to testify how analgesic and anti-inflammatory treatments used in rheumatology have changed. “We are proud to promote a prestigious initiative that can have different interpretations”, says Leonardo Punzi, director of the Institute of the History of Rheumatology. “Advertising was born in the mid-19th century following the second industrial revolution and the placing on the market of numerous products. The population mainly needed painkilling drugs and companies tried to promote their consumption through posters or advertisements in newspapers ”.
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When they advertised cocaine and heroin
In 1860/70 the main analgesics were opium derivatives including morphine, heroin and cocaine, whose consumption was encouraged even among children. “Obviously – explains Punzi – everything must be traced back to the historical context of the time, in which scientists ignored the devastating effects on the organism induced by these drugs. The turning point came in 1897 when aspirin was invented, and here we witnessed a real revolution. The boom in interest created by the new drug, both analgesic and anti-inflammatory, has affected pharmaceutical companies, scientific research and even advertising ”.
How the perception of the disease has changed
The various works on display are thus also the historical testimony of the desire for greater well-being on the part of patients who, yesterday as today, are grappling with the most evident and difficult manifestation of rheumatological pathologies: pain. “Advertising also testifies to the evolution of the perception of rheumatological diseases which in the mid-19th century were still little known – adds Roberto Gerli, national president of SIR. “The only known, diagnosed and studied sufficiently was gout, which was considered a disease by the rich and aristocrats, because it was closely linked to the abundant consumption of red meat and game. In the mid-1900s, knowledge in terms of pathogenesis, diagnosis and epidemiology had already grown enormously compared to a hundred years earlier. This is also true with regard to therapies, so much so that in 1948 we arrive at the first use of cortisone, another drug that has revolutionized rheumatology and more generally medicine ”.
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Rheumatological diseases
Today we know that there are over 150 rheumatological diseases and that in Italy alone they affect more than five and a half million people. “Obviously – continues Punzi – compared to the second half of the nineteenth century, science has made great strides and, over the years, there has been the introduction of extremely more effective therapies for both the management of pain and inflammation”. This exhibition also represents an opportunity to bring attention to rheumatology: “As a scientific society we have long been engaged in the promotion of campaigns and initiatives dedicated to the lay public – underlines Gerli. The goal we set ourselves, also with the Perugia exhibition, is to increase knowledge on pathologies to which the right attention is not always paid “.
The exhibition
In the cloister of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, over 100 works of art created between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries will be exhibited. “At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, companies turned to the great artists of the time who were able to represent the ferment of the great transformations that were taking place in society”, adds Elisabetta Pasqualin, director of the National Museum of Salce Collection in Treviso. “A new form of art was born that became more and more important during the twentieth century. In the exhibition we present posters of the highest artistic value and which at the same time have an important social and cultural value. Advertising, including pharmaceutical advertising, has allowed a democratization of art, making it accessible to all, without any distinction, in the streets or in the stations of the cities “.
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To express the pride of hosting this initiative is also Leonardo Varasano, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Perugia: “We are pleased to host this exhibition, both for its scientific content and for the captivating choice of key, which allows you to observe the change pain therapy over time. On the one hand, in fact, the history of pharmacological development is proposed to us through the observation of advertising posters, but on the other – he concludes – this macro-theme also allows us to observe the historical-artistic evolution, of style and customs that took place. in 100 years “.