Ealing Years

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The Ealing Campaign Books provide us with an insight into pre-war cinema publicity. As the war progressed there was a scarcity of materials. Paper and colour inks being no exception. These rare and original press campaign books survive within Special Collections at the BFI. Campaign books were sent to the renters (cinemas) by the distributor to promote the film in local newspapers. The captions were created by the publicity department and became the main slogans to sell the film.

Advertising blocs were created at various sizes and standardised by the distributor throughout the UK and Northern Ireland. Renters paid for the local press advertising according to their publicity budget and followed a publicity campaign outlined in the campaign book to gain maximum effect during the film's release. The cinema booking rarely exceeded a seven-day run.

Nigel Arthur