19TH CENTURY

The 19th Century brought forth national advertising of branded goods in response to the vast changes in the business industry. At the start, most advertising was by local merchants who were selling in their own communities. As the country’ population began to increase, with a booming economy and western expansion, there became a demand for news about business, entertainment and the availably of goods and services. Along with manufacturers, businesses began advertising their products especially in newspapers, which became a vital source of revenue. Large department stores like Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia, Macy’s in New York, and Marshall Field’s in Chicago turned to new advertising styles. Rather than pestering the rich, manufacturers began to woo a mass market. The advertisements that emerged in this period had one purpose: to sell.

Wanamaker's Advertisement

advertising as a profession was in existence. Advertisers found that the placing of print advertisements involved detailed, time-consuming tasks. In response, newspapers began paying agents to sell spaces for advertisements, which eventually gave rise to advertising agencies. By the late 1860s, sewing machines and typewriters were the most heavily advertised machine of their time, and were the first products to be printed in large newspaper advertisements. The Industrial Revolution brought faster steam-powered presses, new methods of making paper and color-production techniques that made mass printing cost-effective by mi-century. The combination of a more educated society and a lower printing cost expanded the reading audience. Unlike newspapers, the introduction of magazines carried little if any advertising until the 1870s. Magazines made most of their money from subscriptions.

By the 1880s, industries began mass-producing every day products and pursued new ways to find and motivate buyers to take interest in their products. Businesses shaped characters that were built around their products that created a brand image. Advertising made certain products so appealing to customers that they would accept no substitutions. They urged stores to stock these products regardless of the manufacturing price. In this period, slogan making also developed to capture a key idea.

Macy's Advertisement

By the mid-19th century,