Jules Verne, agent publicitaire (France, 1987-1988)
Le Superbe Orénoque was published in 1898. The same year was founded in France the « Compagnie Générale d’Électricité » (CGE), with the goal to develop the usage and the applications of electricity, a topic of great interest for Jules Verne. After several modifications of the structure of the company, especially its nationalisation in 1982, the CGE was privatised again in 1987. The advertisement campaign and the television spots used to promote and sell the privatisation of the company made an explicit reference to the Voyages extraordinaires. It is somewhat amazing to that another, totally different, advertisement campaign, also using Jules Verne’s novels, was run at the same time in France: for Toshiba, a Japanese society established in 1875 (when L’Île mystérieuse was published). We discuss here the intertextuality between the works of Jules Verne and the corresponding advertisements used by CGE and Toshiba, independently of each other. Click on images to view in full size.
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