Mother & Child Woman weighing a crying baby on a pair of scales, c 1949

Mother & Child Woman weighing a crying baby on a pair of scales, c 1949. A photograph by Photographic Advertising Limited. Images of babies and children are common in the Photographic Advertising archive. Photographs of smiling boys and girls could be used by advertisers to promote a wide range of products. 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. Photographie. ©SSPL/NMeM/Photographic Advertising