Advertising in the Latvian press: From early editions to modern times

The publication of Latviešu Avīzes, the first Latvian newspaper, on January 5, 1822, marked the birth of Latvian print advertising. In the early days of Latviešu Avīzes, advertising emerged from news articles that incorporated promotional elements and from classified advertisements. Since its formative years in the early 19th century, Latvian advertising has undergone several notable transformations. The contrast with modern-day advertising in popular magazines is showcased in various examples of changing values, foreign language influence in translations, brands, terminology and multimodality. The analysed examples show that advertising, in particular translated ads, has influenced and continues to influence the development of the Latvian language.