This map was published as part of an advertising campaign by Citibank, one of the largest banks in the United States, in 1956.

In the advertisement, Citibank talks about and boasts of its overseas expansion. To do so, it uses a map with a projection that limits the visible territory solely to the regions of the world where it had representation, minimising Europe and Africa and almost completely eliminating Asia.

Furthermore, in an attempt to overrepresent the number and scope of the 70 overseas offices, the map uses large yellow dots with a small line pointing to the specific location of each office. Thus, with representation only in Puerto Rico and Cuba, the map makes it appear as if the entire Caribbean is dotted with offices. Something similar occurs in cities on the Atlantic coast of South America and on the Pacific coast of Japan and the Philippines.

Sources

• How bankers «on the scene» make the difference overseas