Role model (in) advertising?

Abstract

The article concentrates on analysing the growing interest of academics in studying advertisements. While arguing why this perspective of reading literature may bring interesting critical results, the article focuses mainly on the character of Anna Csillag and its evolution through the twentieth century. Originally Anna Csillag was created as an advertising strategy to be used in selling hairgrowth cream. Boasting beautiful hair, the character grew in popularity across Europe, turning into a public icon of the first half of the twentieth century. Anna Csillag appears as a fictional character in Bruno Schultz’s story Księga (The Book). The article also traces other references to this figure in the twentieth and twenty-first century literary and artistic works.