McConnell Germ-Proof Filters ad (crop)
One example of the type of water filter advertisement consumers might run across in their daily newspapers in the latter years of the 19th century, as cholera and other water-borne diseases continued to sicken and kill too many of their fellow citizens.
While Philadelphia delayed building filter plants and people were sickened each year by water-borne diseases, companies selling small water filters for home and business use moved into the void. This advertisement from the McConnell Germ-Proof Filter Company played on people's fears of disease, even if its illustrations of the various germs are wildly inaccurate and literally cartoonish.