The article aims to reveal communicative goals of authors of advertising texts from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century by analyzing this period’s characteristic text tropes and their pragmatical effects. The research was carried out on the basis of advertisements published in the Ural newspapers “The Ural Life” (“Уральская жизнь”) and “The Irbit Fair Leafl et” (“Ирбитский ярмaрочный листок”) at the turn of the 20th century. Three types of infl uence over the potential buyer are characteristic for the advertising texts of this time: “neutral”, “directed” and “undirected”. Neutral communication style, impartial presentation of information and rational arguments prevail in neutral texts. Texts with “undirected” infl uence step aside from unbiased informing and intensify subjectivity and emotionality. Texts with “directed” influence use suggestive patterns, which create the effect of the author’s interaction with each particular reader. The character of this infl uence can differ: it is defi ned, first of all, by the modality of the expression and the author’s categoricity degree. These three types of advertising texts explicitly show the dynamic process of forming print advertisement speech genre in the period in question: from unbiased informing, rational arguments and respect for the reader through  expressive and emotional influence to veiled pressure and manipulation.