Advertising has long been a significant business tool, and U.S. postal administrators have used it to alert the public to new services, rates, or regulations. But there is another aspect of the postal service-advertising relationship—the use of postal images, objects, and themes in non-postal advertisements.
In the twentieth century, businesses looked to postal images as a form of shorthand for qualities they hoped the public would associate with their products and services. Businesses that wanted to emphasize their product’s reliability, importance, or speed could use postal imagery in their advertisements to help the public see those connections.
