Woman holding plates of cakes, c 1950

Woman holding plates of cakes, c 1950. A photograph of a woman holding plates of cakes and iced buns, taken by Photographic Advertising Limited. The most common group of images in the archive feature women. Here, the model is advertising cakes, still something of a luxury in Britain in the early post-war period. Photographic Advertising Limited, founded in 1926, created multi-purpose stock images with the potential for selling a range of products. Whilst enjoying its greatest success during the 1930s, it continued in business until 1977. Their trademark, the staged studio photograph resembling a film still, was its selling point and, later, its downfall. Sophisticated, adaptable and generic, this kind of image gradually fell out of favour as clients increasingly demanded targeted advertising campaigns with specific photographs. ©SSPL/NMeM/Photographic Advertising