1890s-1900s

The 1890s and 1900s were a time when newspaper ads were prone to "Puffery", or making wild claims. Often these claims promoted a patent medicine. These medicines could contain anything from herbs and water to alcohol, cocaine, and opium and were usually associated with a character who supposedly invented the product.

This ad for Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound appeared in the Mattoon Journal-Gazette May 6, 1908. The compound contained a mixture of roots and alcohol and was sold by Lydia Pinkham, a Quaker housewife, across the country. Her ads are some of the first known to use testimonial statements to persuade readers that the product works.

A second new development in this era was to trademark characters so that consumers would associate the picture with the product.

This ad for Walter Baker Co. Breakfast Cocoa, which appeared in the Mattoon Journal-Gazette on September 23, 1898, shows its trademark maid bringing cocoa and assures consumers that the trademark is on every package.

Look in the representative ads for the 1890s and 1900s. Do you see any other examples of patent medicine or puffery? What about trademarked names or characters?