History Walk: Historical Direct Mail Pieces
A typical sentiment in World War I. Direct mailers thought they could replace “man power with mail power.”
Over There: Direct Mail in World War I
Early in the afternoon on Oct. 4, 1918, the lobby of Chicago’s Sherman Hotel was crowded with businessmen about to attend a trade convention. The men were the proud members of a one-year-old trade group called the Direct Mail Advertising Association. And they were about to face their first crisis...
Gifts From Foreign Lands: A 1954 Campaign
Return with us now to that ever more remote year of 1954. Eisenhower was president, the Tonight Show was about to start and mailings were going out for the Around the World Shoppers Club...
The Malted Milk Mailing of 1895
It may be hard to believe now, but malted milk was once thought of as a medicinal product. And that's the way it was marketed by Horlick's Food Co. of...
Dear Doctor: A Direct Mail Letter About ‘Unfortunate Girls’
Like any advertising, vintage direct mail pieces shed light on American social mores. And so it is with this letter to doctors from the Irene How Sanitarium, circa maybe 1900. ...
PC Back in B.C.: Politically Incorrect Direct Marketing
Hard as it may be to believe, early day direct marketers were no better than others when it came to slurring minority groups. Often, they used insensitive language even about the people they were targeting...
Now the News Is Happening to Us
You want to talk about direct mail copy? Nothing can beat a series of letters sent by Time magazine during the early years of World War II. Few copywriters...
The Birth of Telemarketing
In 1895, the Metropolitan Telephone and Telegraph Company sent a mailing printed on tinted paper to names taken from the Elite Directory or Blue Book. “HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF HAVING A TELEPHONE IN YOUR HOUSE?” it asked...
Grand Dames: Direct Marketing’s Pioneering Women
At a time when most companies wouldn’t even hire a female secretary, women were running catalogs and other direct marketing enterprises...
Introduction: Myths of Direct Marketing History
It’s easy to find old magazine advertising—just go to your library. But try to find direct mail pieces from, say, 1880. Few exist. And so we welcome you to HistoryWalk, our direct marketing history page...
The Ballad of Bellas Hess
Did you ever wonder what Bellas Hess was besides a name on a Supreme Court decision? It was one of the big-five general merchandise...
