> 1. Printed ads, newspapers, billboards, magazines -- You can explain your product and show a picture of what it looks like to demonstrate the value to customers

I implore you to look at the advertisements and propaganda from ~100+ years ago. This was not the case, manipulation happened in the same ways it does today. Hell, go back ~250+ years and you'll see the same thing. Propaganda played a huge part in the founding of the US, for example.

Similarly, look up early Nazi and Third Reich propaganda. There are internet memes today that look like they were copied directly from some pamphlets printed in the 1930s.

Makes sense, yeah I definitely handwaved "old media"!