{{Short description|Form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution}} [[File:Without breaking stride, homeward bound commuter as the Staten Island Ferry Terminal reaches for leaflet from street... - NARA - 549907.jpg|thumb|upright|Leaflets being handed out in New York City (1973)]]
A '''flyer''' (or '''flier''') is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in a public place, handed out to individuals or sent through the mail. Today, flyers range from inexpensively photocopied leaflets to expensive, glossy, full-color circulars. Flyers in a digital format can be shared on the internet.
==Terminology== A flyer is also called a "palm card",<ref name="history.house.gov/palmcard">{{cite web |author1=Art |title=Palm Reading |url=https://history.house.gov/Blog/2020/October/10-20-palmcard/ |website=history.house.gov |publisher=US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |access-date=22 April 2023 |language=en |date=October 20, 2020}}</ref> "circular", "handbill", "pamphlet", "catalogue" or "leaflet".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-11-08 |title=Thesaurus results for FLYER |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/flyer |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=www.merriam-webster.com |language=en}}</ref>
==Usage== [[File:Flyers sobe 2.jpg|thumb|upright|Hundreds of flyers litter the streets in South Beach, Miami. Scenes like these are not uncommon in cities known for their nightlife]] Flyers may be used by individuals, businesses, not-for-profit organizations or governments to: * Advertise an event such as a music concert, nightclub appearance, festival, or political rally<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-13 |title=6 Creative Ways to Use Event Flyers for Event Promotion |url=https://www.eventbrite.com/blog/how-to-reach-more-people-with-your-event-flyers-ds00/ |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=www.eventbrite.com |language=en-US}}</ref> * Promote a retail business selling goods such as a used car dealership, discount store, or a service business such as a restaurant or massage parlour. * Persuade people about a social, religious, or political message, as in evangelism or political campaign activities on behalf of a political party or candidate during an election.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How do individuals, parties and the media participate in elections and campaigning? |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z884xg8 |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=BBC Bitesize |language=en-GB}}</ref> Flyers have been used in armed conflict, for example airborne leaflet propaganda<ref>{{Cite web |title=Propaganda leaflets {{!}} Collections {{!}} Research |url=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/default/archive-collection/propaganda-leaflets/ |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=RAF Museum |language=en-GB}}</ref> has been a tactic of psychological warfare. * Recruit members for organizations or companies.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Make an Eye-Catching Now Hiring Flyer |url=https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/now-hiring-flyer |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=www.indeed.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
Like postcards, pamphlets and small posters, flyers are a low-cost form of mass marketing or communication. There are many different flyer formats. Some examples include:<ref>{{Cite web |title=Flyer sizes: dimensions and design tips {{!}} Adobe Express |url=https://www.adobe.com/uk/express/discover/sizes/flyer |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=www.adobe.com}}</ref> * A4 (roughly letter size) * A5 (roughly half-letter size) * DL (compliments slip size) * A6 (postcard size)
Flyers are inexpensive to produce and historically required only a basic printing press from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Their widespread use intensified in the 1990s with the spread of less expensive desktop publishing systems.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chagnon |first=Bevi |date=2002-08-01 |title=The Publishing Business: Desktop Publishing Software |url=https://doi.org/10.3998/3336451.0008.107 |journal=Journal of Electronic Publishing |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |doi=10.3998/3336451.0008.107 |issn=1080-2711|doi-access=free }}</ref> Ordering flyers through traditional printing services has been supplanted by Internet services. Customers send designs, review proofs online or via e-mail and receive the final products by mail.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The online avalanche is sweeping over print – Print Business – for Forward Thinking Printing |url=https://printbusiness.co.uk/the-online-avalanche-is-sweeping-over-print/ |access-date=2025-11-23 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Flyers are not a new medium. Prior to the War of American Independence some colonists were outraged with the Stamp Act (1765) and gathered together in anti-stamp act congresses and meetings. In these congresses they had to win support and issued handbills and leaflets and pamphlets along with other written paraphernalia to do so.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Anger and Opposition to the Stamp Act (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/anger-and-opposition-to-the-stamp-act.htm |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref>
Some jurisdictions have laws or ordinances banning or restricting leafleting or flyering in certain locations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Permission to distribute leaflets (England and Wales) - GOV.UK |url=https://www.gov.uk/find-licences/permission-to-distribute-leaflets |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=www.gov.uk |language=en}}</ref>
==Distribution methods== Flyers are disseminated through several channels. Common approaches include hand to hand leafleting, posting or static placement on permitted surfaces, delivery by post or door to door, and digital distribution.
===Hand to hand leafleting=== Flyers are often given directly to passersby in public places and outside venues. In the United States this activity is protected by the First Amendment and is subject to content neutral time place and manner rules.<ref>{{cite web |title=Schneider v. State of New Jersey |website=Oyez |url=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/308us147 |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Schneider v. State, 308 U.S. 147 |website=Justia US Supreme Court |url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/308/147/ |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref> In 1939 the Supreme Court held that city bans on hand to hand distribution adopted to prevent litter were unconstitutional.<ref>{{cite web |title=Schneider v. New Jersey |website=Library of Congress |url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep308/usrep308147/usrep308147.pdf |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref>
===Posting and static placement=== Flyers may be posted on community bulletin boards and other notice areas in libraries, universities and shops where permission has been granted. Many institutions require approval before posting and remove items that do not meet policy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pro tips: Rules for posting on campus - @theU |url=https://attheu.utah.edu/feature/pro-tips-the-rules-for-posting-on-campus/ |access-date=2025-11-23 |website=attheu.utah.edu |language=en-US}}</ref> Posting on public fixtures and private property is regulated in many jurisdictions. In England and Wales local authorities can designate areas where the distribution of free printed matter requires consent under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title=Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 |website=legislation.gov.uk |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/16/contents |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Explanatory Notes, Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005, Schedule 3A |website=legislation.gov.uk |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/16/notes/division/5/1/3/3 |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Post-legislative assessment of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 |publisher=UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c1642e5274a25a91405eb/8394.pdf |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref>
===Door to door and mail=== Flyers are delivered door to door or sent through postal services as addressed or unaddressed advertising. In the United States the United States Postal Service offers Every Door Direct Mail, which allows saturation delivery on selected carrier routes without named addresses.<ref>{{cite web |title=Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) |website=United States Postal Service |url=https://www.usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Every Door Direct Mail overview |website=USPS PostalPro |url=https://postalpro.usps.com/mailing/every-door-direct-mail |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref> Federal law prohibits placing unstamped circulars or similar materials in residential letterboxes.<ref>{{cite web |title=18 U.S.C. § 1725. Postage unpaid on deposited mail matter |website=Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1725 |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=United States Postal Service v. Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations, 453 U.S. 114 |website=Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/453/114 |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref>
===Digital distribution=== Digital flyers mirror the printed format and are shared by email and on social media and websites. Retailers and community organizations also distribute digital versions of store or event flyers to reach audiences online.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Prediger |first=Mariana Maciel |title=Store flyer design and the intentions to visit the store and buy |journal=Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services |year=2019 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969698918307690 |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |last=Prediger |first=Mariana Maciel |title=How does the store flyer design and content features influence purchase decision and store visit |publisher=University of Barcelona |year=2019 |url=https://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/145049/1/MACIEL%20PREDIGER_PhD_THESIS.pdf |access-date=19 November 2025}}</ref>
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px"> Helmand leaflets350.jpg|Distribution of leaflets over Afghanistan by the U.S. military in 2010 Flyers in China 02.jpg|Flyers pasted to a wall in Haikou, Hainan Province, China Löpsedel.jpg|Newspaper leaflets in Sweden, 31 July 2007. The middle one reads "Ingmar Bergman is dead". Commonsense.jpg|''Common Sense'' was a pamphlet that was distributed preceding the American Revolution </gallery>
==See also== * Canvassing * Folded leaflet * Street marketing
==References== {{Reflist}} * Ackland-Snow, Nicola & Brett, Nathan & Williams, Steven. ''Fly: The Art of the Club Flyer.'' Watson-Guptill Publications, 1997. {{ISBN|0-8230-1854-7}} * ''Searching for the Perfect Beat: Flyer Designs of the American Rave Scene.'' Watson-Guptill, 2000. by The Earth Program (Author), Neil Strauss (Introduction). {{ISBN|0-8230-4751-2}} * Barcelona Club Flyers (Actar Publishing, 1999), by Tite Barbuzza (Contributor), Joan Manel Jubany (Contributor), Albert Masferrer (Contributor), Yolanda Muelas (Contributor), {{ISBN|84-89698-25-2}} * Büru Destruct (Consortium Book Sales & Dist, 1999), By Büru Destruct, {{ISBN|3-931126-24-2}} * Clubspotting (Happy Books, 2000), by Paolo Davoli & Gabriele Fantuzzi, {{ISBN|88-86416-24-5}} * Design After Dark: The Story of Dancefloor Style (Thames and Hudson, London, 1991), by Cynthia Rose, {{ISBN|0-500-27648-X}} * ''Design Agent 007: License to Design DGV.'' Die gestaften Verlag, Berlin 2002. {{ISBN|3-931126-14-5}} * ''Event Flyer Graphics.'' Nippan/Biblios, 2001. {{ISBN|3-910052-75-4}} * ''Flyer Soziotope: Topography of a Media Phenomenon.'' (Archiv der Jugendkulturen (G)/Actar (ES), 2005), German-English and English-German. {{ISBN|3-86546-032-1}}, {{ISBN|84-96540-03-0}} * Klanten, Robert & Peyerl, Andreas & Hollmann-Loges, Markus: ''Flyermania: European Flyers.'' Art Books Intl Ltd, 1998. {{ISBN|3-931126-15-3}} * ''Highflyers: Clubravepartyart.'' By 3 Beat Music. Booth Clibborn Editions, London, UK, 1995. {{ISBN|1-873968-78-7}} * Beddard, Phil: ''Nocturnal: Global Highflyers.'' Booth-Clibborn, 2000. {{ISBN|1-86154-169-4}} * Jordan, Joel T. et alii: ''Searching for the Perfect Beat: Flyer Designs of the American Rave Scene.'' Watson-Guptill Pubns, US, 2000. {{ISBN|0-8230-4751-2}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Hand bills}}
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Category:Advertising publications by format Category:Direct marketing Category:Political communication Category:Propaganda Category:Pamphlets