Harper's Weekly, September 26, 1868

In 1880 businessmen employed the best creator of advertising texts – D. E. Powers. Powers started to develop advertisements using brand-new information. This strategy had become very popular in American trade circles and by the 20th century advertising had become a form of science.

“In the 1880s a new era of advertising began: New methods of manufacturing led to greatly increased output and decreased the costs for the producers of consumer goods. The products now could be packaged at the plant. Moreover the telegraph network was in place and the continent has been crisscrossed by a network of railroads….” All these were assumptions that now allowed nation-wide distribution and nation-wide advertising. This state supported the growth of advertising agencies and dictated their activities.

The most widely advertised consumer products at this time had been patent medicines.

In 1893 more than half of over a hundred firms spending more than fifty thousand dollars annually on advertising were patent medicine manufacturers. But only 20 years later, most of these firms were no patent medicine manufacturers anymore but manufacturers of food, soap, cosmetics and automobiles. These firms began to market their packaged goods under brand names. Some of the first brands were firms like Ivory, Colgate, Wrigley and Coca Cola.