This article uses the prize book catalogues of six major British religious and secular publishers of the Edwardian era to explore the advertisement and marketing of gender in the early twentieth century. In particular, it is concerned with how boys and girls were framed by advertisements and whether differences existed according to the beliefs of each publishing house. It also investigates attitudes towards books and their context of use, as well as their strategy of appeal and the values invoked by phrasing. It demonstrates that through their linguistic choices, stereotyping and ideologies, both secular and religious publishers played a key role in the development of a distinct boys’ culture and girls’ culture in Edwardian Britain. While girls were cast into submissive roles based on righteousness and respectability, boys were marketed as the superior sex who had a moral responsibility to advocate Britishness, imperialism and heroism. The analysis shows how mail-order catalogues acted as a precursor to modern mass media, suggesting continuity rather than change in the world of advertising.