Spam goes back to the 70s.
On the web side I remember back to at least 95 pretty well and there were banner ads everywhere. I had a homepage with like 3-4 web ring banners on it + the ads from Geocities themselves.
A quick look says the first banner ads appeared in 1994 and the first paid ads in 1993.
I think you're probably looking back with rose tinted glasses.
The first couple of years were a glorious outburst of creative kookiness and cultural insanity.
Then the spammers, scammers, and MBAs moved in. And here we are.