Category:
Hygiene
Americans hate stinky things, and seek relief from bad odors in the most unlikely products. I've brought
Poo-Pourri to your attention, and Alex has reminded us of
Odo-Ro-No. And now we have
Smelly Washer, which, according to
this article, is selling like beer at Oktoberfest.
You may not have heard of Odo-Ro-No, but you've heard of the word it coined -- "B.O." It began using the term in 1919 in its ads for women's deodorant. Women were warned that if they had "B.O." they might never get a man.
Later Odo-Ro-No introduced the wonderfully off-putting concept of the "Armhole Odor Test" in its ads. This was the test:
When you take off your dress, smell the fabric at the armhole. Its stale "armhole odor" will make it clear to you at last why women of taste and refinement insist on a deodorant that checks perspiration and keeps the underarm dry, as well as sweet.
I've never seen Odo-Ro-No in a store, but apparently Walgreens
still sells it.
Links:
Who invented body odor?
During the nineteenth century Pears Soap managed to brand itself as the quintessentially British product. Part of what this meant, of course, was bringing "civilization" to all non-white people. Thus, these rather bizarre ads that appeared in British papers.
This ad refers to an actual event. The British soldiers who invaded Sudan wrote the phrase "PEARS SOAP IS THE BEST" on a rock to mark the point of their furthest advance into the country. The ad fantasizes about how the "Dervishes of the Desert" must have reacted when they stumbled upon this piece of imperial graffiti.
This ad is captioned, "The Birth of Civilization -- A message from the sea." The message presumably is: the British are about to invade your country!
[From
Life for December 11 1964.]
Those darn males! We've already seen that they need to be spritzed regularly with Poo-Pourri, and now we find out that they make three times as much mucus as women!
A year ago, when I read
this article about a local couple whose house was besieged and befouled by vultures, I just shrugged it off.
But now, encountering
fresh news about a horde of filthy egrets, I realize that everything Alfred Hitchcock tried to warn us about is coming true!
There are no words for
this.
The Goatee Saver promises you a perfect Goatee, every shave:
Tired of the constant struggle every morning trying to get your goatee to look perfect? GoateeSaver revolutionizes the way you shave and trim your goatee. GoateeSaver can be customized to your face in seconds, with three easy adjustments. Just slide it over your mouth and shave to get the perfect look that women will admire and men will respect.
Plus it can also double as a Hannibal Lecter costume for Halloween.
[From
Fortune for December 1936. Two image files, click separately.]
Sniffles = Death.
Not the most subtle or believable of Madison Avenue appeals. Sure, in that pre-antibiotic age, pneumonia was deadly. But I can't imagine that the proportion of cold-sufferers who contracted pneumonia--at least among the affluent audience for
Fortune--was any higher then than it is today. In other words, miniscule.
This fellow has many cuspidors.
This museum actually
wants them.
Two simple facts. Yet what a wealth of weirdness.
[From
Good Housekeeping for October 1939.]
Here's a great example of Madison Avenue trying to a) make a problem that doesn't exist or is minimal into an overwhelming burden that only
their product can alleviate and b) bring the vaunted "miraculous" power of scientists and scientific imagery into the marketing mix.
Did women in 1939--or ever--really ask their friends for a hygienic crotch alert?