Flyer (pamphlet)

Leaflets being handed out in New York City (1973)

Thousands of flyers litter the streets in South Beach, Miami. Scenes like these are not uncommon in cities known for their nightlife

Distribution of leaflets over Afghanistan by the U.S. military in 2010

Flyers pasted to a wall in Haikou, Hainan Province, China

A flyer or flier, also called a circular, handbill or leaflet, is a form of paper advertisement intended for wide distribution and typically posted or distributed in a public place or through the mail.

Flyers may be used by individuals, businesses, or organizations to:

• Promote a good or service, such as a restaurant or nightclub.
• Persuade or send a social, religious, or political message, as in evangelism or political campaign activities on behalf of a political party or candidate. Flyers have been used in armed conflict: for example, airborne leaflet propaganda has been a tactic of psychological warfare.
• Recruit members
• Advertise an event such as a music concert, nightclub appearance, festival, or political rally

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 are:

• A4 (roughly letterhead size)
• A5 (roughly half letterhead size)
• DL (compliments slip size)
• A6 (postcard size)

Flyers are inexpensive to produce. Their widespread use intensified with the spread of desktop publishing systems. In recent years, the production of flyers through traditional printing services has been supplanted by Internet services; customers may send designs and receive final products by mail.

But flyers are not a new medium: prior to the War of American Independence some colonists were outraged with the Stamp Act and gathered together in anti-stamp act congresses. In these congresses they had to win support, and issued handbills and leaflets, pamphlets, along with other paraphernalia, to do so.

Today, some jurisdictions have laws or ordinances banning or restricting leafleting or flyering, and owners of private property may put up signs saying "Post No Bills"; this occurs particularly on wooden fences surrounding building sites or vacant lots.

Distribution and use

Flyers are handed out on the street (a practice known as flyering or leafleting), posted on bulletin boards, or given away at events. Bulletin boards are found on college campuses, in cafés, community meeting houses, laundromats and small markets.

Cheap to produce, contemporary flyers are frequently produced in 300 g/m² glossy card – whereas a leaflet might be produced on a 130 g/m²–170 g/m² weight paper – and can be a very effective form of direct marketing.

San Francisco has a long history of flyering. The first flyer company was The Thumbtack Bugle which has been around for over twenty-five years. Haight Street is very popular for postering on telephone poles. Flyers have become an integral aspect to the Edinburgh Fringe, where flyers are handed to people on the Royal Mile.

See also

• Canvassing
• Folded leaflet
• Pamphlet
• Street marketing

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Fly: The Art of the Club Flyer (Watson-Guptill Publications, 1997), by Nicola Ackland-Snow (Author), Nathan Brett (Author), Steven Williams (Author), ISBN 0-8230-1854-7, ISBN 978-0-8230-1854-3
• 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, ISBN 978-0-8230-4751-2
• 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, ISBN 978-84-89698-25-3
• 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 (Förlag: 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
• Flyermania: European Flyers (Art Books Intl Ltd, August 1998), by Robert Klanten (Author), Andreas Peyerl (Author), Markus Hollmann-Loges (Author), ISBN 3-931126-15-3
• Highflyers: clubravepartyart (Booth Clibborn Editions, London, UK, 1995), by 3 Beat Music, ISBN 1-873968-78-7
• Nocturnal : Global Highflyers (Booth-Clibborn, hardcover/paperback, 2000), by Phil Beddard, ISBN 1-86154-169-4
• Searching for the Perfect Beat: Flyer Designs of the American Rave Scene (Watson-Guptill Pubns, US, 2000), by Joel T. Jordan (Author), Summer Forest Hoeckel (Author), Jason A.Forest Jordan (Author) & Neil Strauss (Intro), ISBN 0-8230-4751-2

External links

• Media related to Hand bills at Wikimedia Commons

• Montreal flyer