Posters began to enter the collections in the early twentieth century, and were initially stored in the Library. A poster department was created by Geneviève Picon in 1972, then in 1978 a poster museum was officially founded, which moved to the rue de Paradis and became the Musée de la Publicité in 1981. In 1999, it reopened on the rue de Rivoli in exhibition rooms designed by architect Jean Nouvel.
In addition to posters (some 50,000 dating from the eighteenth century to World War II and about the same number from 1950 to the present day), there are now over 20,000 French or foreign advertising films from the 1930s to the present, over 30,000 press ads, radio commercials, promotional items, etc. The collection is now a department of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, and its works are regularly displayed in temporary exhibitions.