“In the 1830ís, inventors discovered chlorine. Chlorine could be used to bleach materials to make newspaper, so more newsprint became available. Since more and more white space could now be utilized in the papers, advertisers began to take advantage, especially patent medicine advertisers. In addition, ads for tools such as reapers and sewing machines began to appear. “

Please note that the chorine process and environmental impact in paper production is dramatically different from the hypochlorite bleach used in laundry and home cleaning use.

I hope this is helpful.
Regards,

Roy Rosenthal
Marketing Support
Textile Industry Affairs
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A Brief History of Advertising 1

Shop signs, billboards, and other forms of advertising existed in America even as far back as the seventeenth century. During these rudiments of American advertising, certain items were advertised more than anything else– land, slaves and indentured servants, and transportation such as carriage schedules and ship departures, as well as what types of cargo could be transported with and without passengers. During the seventeenth century, the market economy of America was just beginning, and there wasn’t enough money at first for items of luxury.

During the beginnings of advertising, the amount of paper present in American society depicted the amount of advertising. When the British were still in America, paper was common. People such as Ben Franklin were among the first to intertwine text with pictures to make newspapers more vibrant and interesting. Fonts, which are styles of type that affect the reader in different ways, were as large as 36 point, though 12 was the standard. One popular font was ìcaslon. î

Through the early 1800ís, paper for newspapers was scarce. Most newspapers were composed of rag, which was difficult to find. The average point size of fonts had to be reduced to half their size. By doing this, newspapers could increase the number of words per page. Rag for newspaper came from clothing such as shirts and dresses. When clothes became too worn out to wear, people made them into quilts and blankets, and finally, the potential rag would be worn out enough to make rag paper. This process took a long time, so not much rag was available. Most large cities produced 300 to 400 sheets a day. As that happened, newspapers also used less and less white space, and crowded small text advertisements into columns. The lack of ad space resulted in abbreviated advertisements. It also resulted in creative advertising moving elsewhere– to displays, handbills and trade cards.

During the beginning of the U.S., between 1780-1830, families did not have much spending money. As a result, the market advertisers realized consumers only had a demand for basic necessities such as tools, food not grown on family farms, and clothing– not that there wasn’t a demand for just about anything, there just wasn’t money to pay for it. In the late 1700ís and early 1800ís, most advertisers were selling goods to their community. The communities spread out a little bit as wealth increased, but usually most ads were targeted to places within a day or sotravel. Because railroad tracks only went as far as Mississippi by the early 1850ís, it was difficult to ship things any further.

The first products to be advertised nationally were patent medicines. Patent medicines were not patented in the way things are patented today. Basically, medicines throughout British history received royal approval in England. Hence, these new medicines in America retained the name ìpatent.î These medicines were usually comprised of alcohol and/or opium or morphine. Merchants began advertising specific medicines, and in essence began what we today call ìtrademarking.î

In the 1830ís, inventors discovered chlorine. Chlorine could be used to bleach materials to make newspaper, so more newsprint became available. Since more and more white space could now be utilized in the papers, advertisers began to take advantage, especially patent medicine advertisers. In addition, ads for tools such as reapers and sewing machines began to appear.

Economists once believed that advertising began to grow into such a huge industry leading up to the Civil War because more and more goods were produced. Transportation was greater, and so was the wealth of the expanded markets. The economists believed that since advertisers began advertising beyond local communities, the industry began to boom. Today, however, economists believe that what was more important to the growth of advertising was the need to fix a market price. Manufacturers, as they produced more goods, depended on the buyer to come up with a price. If manufacturers could develop a reputation for their product through advertising, then they could set a fixed price to their product. For example, buyers would eventually be able to buy almost any cola at a good price, but Coca Cola could charge more due to the reputation its product got from advertising. In addition, advertising made consumers aware of various products. As a result, consumers demanded stores carry specific brand names
Roy: Your answer was brilliant. I didn’t realize how much knowledge you had on these subjects. I’m glad that we reached out to you to help our readers at Fabrics.Net. Thanks again. Your answer was very enlightening to all. Best Regards, and Good Luck, Andy