[milemi]

People used to buy consumer electronic magazines for product reviews, and those magazines had pages of flashy ads at the beginning. I guess that was mafia stuff too. Or just one of million examples of an advertising-based business model.

[harry8]

when you rang the shop to buy, did the phone company make them pay to direct the call the way you wanted?

You want your traffic? Pay /us/ for the privilege.

[milemi]

Did the phone company provide the service for free or did you have to pay the phone bill?

Congratulations on discovering how advertising works.