Print and online classified ads are coming to Cuba, the government announced. 

The country's inauguration into the world of advertising will give Cubans access to a wider range of goods and services, and create an "informal marketplace," according to The Associated Press. 

The demand for a wider range of choices is obviously there, as frustrated Cubans have struggled to find high-quality products that are also affordable. These items are sold by businesses run by the state, and people have had to look elsewhere for these products. 

These alternative sources include websites and privately run pamphlets, which are directed by either licensed or black-market entrepreneurs. The products offered, ranging from housing to pirated movies, display Cuba’s current appetite for a wide variety of consumer choices.

Most of the publications have started in the last five years as recent government reforms have permitted the growth of a small private sector.

As reported by the AP, the state-run National Information Agency has announced the start of a website along with a 16-page color magazine classified called “Ofertas” or “Offers.”

The color magazine has an initial run of 60,000 copies and will be available in May.

All this marks a total change for Cuba.

In 2013, Eric Goldman, writing for Forbes, described the lack of ads in Cuba this way: “No billboards. No television ads (as far as I could tell—though cable channels originating outside Cuba did have ads). No Internet ads (few Cubans can even afford Internet access). No leafleting. About the only ‘advertising’ I encountered was store signage and oral pitches.”

Goldman asked his readers to consider what it all meant to the citizens, saying, “This ad-free environment may sound utopian, but consider the principal reason why advertising is so scarce: because there aren’t a lot of things to buy, and not many people can afford to buy them.”

“In effect, the lack of advertising is correlated with the Cuban economy’s consumer activity. With only a thin layer of consumer activity, advertising isn’t needed and rarely could be profitable,” said Goldman.