The Osborne sherry company (founded by Thomas Osborne Mann in 1772) erected large images of bulls starting in 1956 to advertise their Brandy de Jerez. The images were black (with the brand "Veterano" in red on it) advertising boards located near major roads throughout Spain. The original image was smaller and slightly different in design. The current larger image was created to comply with a law that prohibited advertising within 150 meters of a road.
In 1994 the EU passed a law that prohibited all roadside advertising of alcoholic beverages, and the bulls were therefore to be removed. By this time the signs were nationally renowned and public response resulted in the signs being retained, but completely blacked out to remove all reference to the original advertisers. The Court eventually allowed these signs to remain on the grounds that they have become a part of the landscape and have "aesthetic or cultural significance", thus turning the bulls into public domain images. (Source: Wikipedia)There are about 90 examples of the Osborne bull. See map for distribution in the various Spanish provinces.
This postcard came from Marc of Detmold in Germany (7 June 2017) who bothered to locate this great postcard for me.
Personal Note:
We toured Spain in 2013 and from the coach, I noticed this iconic bull. I had always wanted a postcard of this image as I was unable to photograph it.
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