Advertising postcard
An advertising postcard is a postcard used for advertising purposes. Postcards are used in advertising as an alternative to or to complement other print advertising such as catalogs, letters, and flyers. Advertising postcards may be mailed or distributed in other ways.
Definition
An advertising postcard is a privately, commercially produced, rectangular piece of stiff paper printed in a form that is easy to send through the post and is designed to carry promotional messages of products or services.Brief history
From the 18th century, trade cards were used by businesses to promote a wide variety of goods and services. Commercial 18th century publishing houses not only printed cards, but also assisted local business with their distribution. These trade cards were the precursor to the modern advertising postcard. By the late 19th century many well-known companies used trade cards as a form of promotion including: Colgate & Palmolive, Van Houten's cocoa, Clark's spool cotton, Tarrant's seltzer as well as many cigarette companies, sporting clubs and celebrities. These advertising postcards were also used for propaganda.These popularity of trade cards continued until well after the first world war, but began to wane with the introduction of commercial radio broadcasting in the 1920s due to advertisers' preferences for the immediacy of radio as a means of reaching mass audiences in a cost efficient manner. However, in the 1990s, advertising postcards regained some of their former popularity. Advertisers began to resurrect them as part of an overall integrated media strategy designed to reach highly mobile and 'hard-to-reach' youth markets.
'''Trade cards and advertising postcards through the ages'''