Signs
Buses and coaches
Wells Fargo began to take people around the New World in stagecoaches in 1852 and carried mail for the Pony Express since they could handle rough and rocky roads with Wells Fargo ads on the carriages. Buses eventually became known as coaches where passengers are captive audiences whether on the curvy joint between the wall and the ceiling (called “bus cards”) or at bus stops. (See bus signs or cards below the window to the Chef’s Office.)
Newspaper and magazine advertisements
Benjamin Franklin was the first person in America to publish ads in magazines in his General Magazine in 1742. Proctor & Gamble first advertised Ivory soap with an astonishing $11,000 budget, and a year later Cyrus H.K. Curtis and his wife, editor Louisa Knapp Curtis, started Ladies Home Journal. Soon after, Asa Briggs Chandler registered Coca-Cola as a trademark in 1893 and National Biscuit Co. launched its first packaged biscuit under the name “Uneeda Biscuit” in 1898. In 1906 W.K. Kellogg spent $1 million to advertise Corn Flakes, and General Foods followed soon after.
Metal and Cardboard signs
Once upon a time there were no radio, television, or Internet commercials. Grocery stores and food growers and producers first made signs out of cardboard, and then metal, to try to get customers to buy their products or at least strike up a conversation at the cash register. Metal signs followed for dairy products, Morton salt, Calumet Backing Powder, Campbell’s soup, Wonder bread, Nehi, Sunkist, Orange Crush and Planters nuts. And then there were those luring you to collect and cash in Blue Chip, green stamps, and Merchants Gold stamps.