In Europe during the 1700’s, when the government realized that ads weren’t going anywhere, they realized that there was a hugely profitable opportunity. By forcing taxes on the ads, they could not only make money off of them, but it also helped them to regulate goods and services.
Surprisingly, this did not deter any businesses from making ads, and instead, the industry kept growing. In fact, by the early 1700's between 25-75% of newspapers were made up of advertisements. This is really when the advertising industry exploded. The increase in need for ads caused an increase in ad agencies, and they started popping up left and right. This of course led to agencies lowering their prices to be competitive, which allowed even more shop owners to be able to afford these previously expensive ad spaces. When the 1800’s arrived, ads began to spread to other mediums, not just newspapers and into more creative methods. During the Victorian Era, one of the most popular of these mediums were ads on trading cards. These trading cards were similar to modern day flyers, only smaller. These ads were given by merchants to pedestrians, who often collected and kept them in scrapbooks (due to the fascination of newly printed color ads.) The cards typically had a visual on the front along with the details of the service or good on the back.
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