Alfa & advertising

Since the early posters for the new spot: discover the evolution of Alfa Romeo's language in advertising.

1910 The first poster

Posters have accompanied the motor car since its earliest days. The new industrial product was immediately featured on many magazine covers including Tribuna Illustrata, Auto Italiana and Domenica del Corriere The first A.L.F.A. advertising poster is shown here.

1939 A new world record for Alfa Romeo

A new type of language began to become apparent with the advent of fascism. The rhetoric of the empire, the autarky and the homeland radically influenced the advertising posters. The advertising conveys the product's added value not so much to the customer as to a citizen of the empire.

1940s Latin people

In an atmosphere of pomp and propaganda, Alfa Romeo emerges as an industry of excellence. Its products are symbols of homeland power but also of its culture, its good looks and its industry.

1942 Aeronautical achievements

The symbols and values of the empire are represented in fascist period posters: fasces lictoriae, the power of industry, soldiers at the front in North African landscapes, aeronautical feats and naval endeavour.

1940s Marine engines

Just as in the aeronautical field, excellent motor boats were also powered by Alfa Romeo engines.

1940s 800 A bus

The Alfa Romeo brand name is almost automatically associated with car production but we cannot overlook the fact that for more than 50 years, Alfa Romeo was also one of the main manufacturers of passenger transport vehicles, buses and trolleybuses.

1948 6C 2500 Freccia d'Oro

At the same time, people forgot the propagandistic tones and rhetoric of the empire and the dictatorship. The first cars assembled were luxurious 6C 2500 cars, whose roots went back to the 1930s.

1947 6c 2500 Freccia d'Oro

World War II came to an end at last and military aircraft, soldiers at the front and cars with camouflage livery disappeared from the posters. It created an exclusive, high-class imagine designed to appeal to customers.

1900-1950 Experience, class and tradition

The post-war period was the age of optimism and reconstruction. For Alfa Romeo it meant rebuilding a plant destroyed by bombing, resuming car production and saturating a production capacity that had grown out of all proportion during the wartime years.

1950-1951 Vehicles and trolleybuses

In the 1950s motor racing was again the means of bringing Alfa to a mass market - and that applied to advertising as well. 158 cars were winning throughout the world and the posters reflected their triumphs.

1958-1962 2000 Spider

The new Alfa Romeo spider 2000 combined the world of motorsport with elegance. Aesthetic value was also important: sketches, water-colours, photographs with special lighting or focus effects, are designed to be eye-catching.

1919 Alfa Romeo automobiles

The first Alfa Romeo poster at the end of World War I bears the slogan: “Automobili Alfa Romeo, le migliori per città e turismo” (Alfa Romeo automobiles, best around town and for touring). Designed by an artist named Elio, the print shows a winged Mercury, symbol of science and progress, lifting a car.

1963-1965 Giulia sprint GT

Moving onto the Giulia, 'designed by the wind': the posters depicted a sophisticated saloon, an ultra-sporty Sprint and a Spider representing joie de vivre.

1965 Alfa Romeo Mille

The Alfa Romeo truck chronology strikingly reveals that, after Fiat, Alfa was the most long-lived Italian manufacturer of industrial vehicles.

1965 Giulia, designed by the wind

The topic of safety - both active and passive - began to be an issue from the early 1960s. It was raised in the poster for the Giulia, the car "designed by the wind".

1966-1979 Alfa 6 Cylinders

A poster designed to amaze, to amuse, to arouse curiosity, not from a purely design viewpoint but rather from the viewpoint of content. Slogans that are witty and sometimes ironic, witticisms and sometimes even stories, played out in episodes over a series of posters. These range from subtle humour to more evident comic appeal.

1966-1979 Victory within reach

The adverts no longer followed a single aesthetic style. Instead each advert or series of posters pursued its own path and appealed to a different audience. Somewhat conventional images were associated with various degrees of humour with a descriptive text.

1967 Montreal international universal exhibition

In 1967, the magnificent Alfa Romeo Coupè Montrèal was presented in the Italian pavilion at the universal exhibition in Montreal. The theme of the pavilion: "Human conquests ". The final version was then presented at the 1970 Geneva motor show.

1970 Alfa Virus

This was the time of a very fine set of posters for the French market on the "Alfa Virus”, describing all stages of the 'disease' that strikes down Alfa enthusiasts.

1970 Alfa Virus (France)

“Alfa Virus”: a full blend of what it means to be an Alfista. A disease that strikes at the heart and has no mercy. The poster was the hymn of Alfisti throughout the world. Maybe somebody did not realise its symbolic value but in the end does it really matter?

1971-1972 Spider is Alfa Romeo

"Spider is Alfa Romeo". Spider is moving through nature” or “Giulietta. It turns dads into heroes”: this was the fresh and amusing style of posters during the late 1970s.

1973 Alfasud

Another set of adverts for the newly-introduced Alfasud, with cartoon-like graphics and language: “Alfasud, it looks just like its aunt Giulia”, “Find out about its family before you fall in love”, reveal a carefree and naive approach.

1924 Renè Magritte

Clearly influenced by Cubist art, the poster created in 1924 by Renè Magritte, depicts the car in a surreal urban context. Two elegantly-clad female figures are shown to indicate the class of the motor car.

1975 Alfa wins

The 33TT12 victory announcement in 1975 went beyond celebrating a brand that excels on the track. Instead it recounts a way of being: winning.

1979 Alfa 6

The Alfa 6, a saloon car produced by Alfa Romeo in the Arese plant went on sale with the difficult task of competing with the large German saloons BMW and Mercedes-Benz. “Alfa 6 the Italian alternative” was the claim.

1981 Les chevaux de feu

An Alfa Romeo that takes on a more sporty image that is at the same time more seductive and sensual. The Alfa perfectly illustrates the idea of the “chevaux de feu”, the excellent advertising slogan taken from a Russian film produced in 1962 by the Armenian film director Serge Paradjanov.

1986 Alfa Romeo Spider (Spain)

In the 1980s, we find advertising posters that enhance the cars shape and models giving rise to advertising with a double meaning: an Alfa Romeo Spider seduces and conquers.

I AM GIULIETTA

A range of powerful turbo engines. An exclusive selection of first-class trim levels. The safest compact hatch ever tested by Euro NCAP.

Alfa Romeo 159 "Only Some Roads Deserve an Alfa Romeo."

With two engine options - the new 1750 TBi and the classic 3.2 V6 - and both available in the Ti Sport grade, the Alfa 159 was never designed to keep suburban back-routes happy. Now with an optional brand new automatic transmission and four-wheel drive on the 3.2 V6 Q4, the meeting between road and the Alfa 159 will be smooth and fulfilling. This powerful beauty was clearly made for grander things. So give it the very best. Every single drive.

1924-1925 La voiture italienne de grand luxe

With the exception of specific posters, references to motorsports activities were very low key during the 1920s. The object of desire was extolled only by confirming its technical virtues.

1925-1930 Top-class imagery

From the 1920s, information began to give way to communication. The advertising attempted to evoke situations and settings typical of the jet set. It created an exclusive, high-class image designed to appeal to customers.

1930s A car of classic perfection

This style also persisted into the 1930s and during World War II but a different language began to make itself felt with the advent of fascism. The rhetoric of the empire, the autarky and the homeland radically influenced the advertising posters. Despite a much more imposing and propagandistic style, cleverly imbued with a futurist ethos, a pronounced sense of aesthetic and artistic value is also present.