Early Tobacco Advertising: The Signs of the Times

Advertising is the significate instrument set between product manufacturing and sales that creates and amplifies demand. The daily newspaper and the ubiquitous trade cards encompassed the main sources of consumer product advertising in the 1880s. A more direct influence used to motivate buyers was to hang eye-catching advertising signs in retail stores. Advertising at the sales counter. This article favors advertising signs of tobacco companies that sponsored sports cards. The earliest 19th century point-of-sale signs were made of heavy paper with a thin brass strip attached to the top and bottom. The top strip had an integral eyelet at its…