"See your dentist twice a year": Products That Changed Our Habits

[scotrace]

Some products, and the advertising of them, managed to make changes in the way consumers behaved.
A good example is Pepsodent toothpaste. In the excellent book by Lizziemaine on the Amos & Andy programs, she points out that prior to the Pepsodent radio spots, people didn't think of regular dental visits. The slogan "see your dentist at least twice a year," made that the normal standard. Ironically, the Dentists of America were somewhat surprised and pleased by this, as even they hadn't recommended it (Lizzie: please correct me at will).

Another example is Pear's Soap in the UK. The first widely-advertized consumer product, ads for Pear's were everywhere in the latter 19th century. All had the same copy: "Good Morning. Have you used Pear's Soap today?" Suddenly, daily bathing was the proper thing to do. Brilliant.

What other products or advertising changed daily habits of consumers?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Quite correct on the Pepsodent commercials -- beginning in 1929 and continuing until 1937, "Amos 'n' Andy" announcer Bill Hay would conclude each of his soft-sell commercials with that slogan, and the idea of appointments every six months was embraced by the dental profession as a standard from then on.

Another example of thirties health-marketing was the conversion of yeast from a baking staple to a health food. Beginning in the mid-twenties and continuing well into the thirties, Fleischmann's Yeast was marketed as a vitamin supplement in ads featuring pointy-bearded European doctors declaring that it was a good thing to "Eat Yeast For Health." This was the first time Americans really became vitamin conscious, and you could say it was the start of the nutritional-supplement business that's still with us today.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

To illustrate Lizzie's point..here is an ad from Dec 1925 Modern Priscilla

Apologies for the -huge-...but otherwise you couldn't read the informative text

 

[Elizabeth.F]

I remember reading in "The Dirt on Clean" that in 1914 Listerine's advertising first brought attention to society the bane of bad breath. Up until that point nobody really cared!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I remember reading in "The Dirt on Clean" that in 1914 Listerine's advertising first brought attention to society the bane of bad breath. Up until that point nobody really cared!

Exactly so -- in fact, the word "halitosis" was dug out of an obscure medical dictionary by a Listerine copywriter in 1921 and became one of the most widely-recognized maladies of the 20th century. The Forhan's Toothpaste people did the same thing with "Pyorrhea" a few years later.

 

[cecil]

The Great Underarm Campaign!!

http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/05/24/anxiety-about-objectionable-hair-money-in-someones-pocket/

Though I suppose by the time the 20s rolled around, I guess underarm hair was more visible so if a lady was embarassed by it I suppose it would make sense.

That and the DeBeers campaign about diamonds being forever. I'm pretty sure that engagement rings haven't always been diamond rings by default.

 

[MikeBravo]

Apparently the word "restaurant" was the brand name of a type of broth or soup way back when.

Must have been a great advertising campaign to make it an everyday word in several languages.



My vote for the most effective advertising campaign? Simply, the words "rinse and repeat". Sales of shampoo doubled almost overnight.

 

[Cigarband]

The Brilliant Cut Diamond Engagement Ring we know today wasn't perfected until 1919 by Antwerp-born Marcel Tolkowsky –a mathematician born into a family
of diamond cutters and dealers. Published in his book Diamond Design, Tolkowsky outlined and
gave specifications for a way to cut diamonds to maximise brilliance and scintillation. And while he wasn’t the first to suggest diamond proportions in these ranges, he was the first to publish a mathematical foundation that supported them. Prior to this time Engagement rings were most often made of the Bride's Birth Stone, or family heirloom
jewels passed down from Mother to Daughter. Using the Tolkowsky Cut, DeBeers & Co. began advertising heavily
in the British Empire Markets, and in a short time made the Diamond the Premier jewel worldwide.

 

[Tango Yankee]

My vote for the most effective advertising campaign? Simply, the words "rinse and repeat". Sales of shampoo doubled almost overnight.

The instructions for use on a shampoo bottle are a great example of an endless loop! :eusa_doh:

Cheers,
Tom

 

[scotrace]

Seeing your dentist twice a year is still good advice. Modern dental hygiene has made for fewer prosperous dentists, however.

 

[LizzieMaine]

But orthodontists are doing a thriving business -- in the Era, getting braces was unheard of unless you were very rich, very image conscious, and highly-resistant to pain and inconvenience.

 

[rjb1]

All of us early Baby-Boomers sang along with the Peanut Gallery on Howdy Doody:
"Brush your teeth with Colgate's
Colgate Dental Cream...
It cleans your breath.
(What a toothepaste!)
While it guards your teeth."
Colgate had "Gardol" in it and that would allow your teeth to beat up "Mr. Tooth Decay".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhwTGyfHaK0

I think us kids brushed our teeth more willingly after having been indoctrinated by the show/commercial.

 

[Nobert]

I haven't been to a dentist in over 20 years. So far, all teeth present and accounted for.

 

[MikeKardec]

I suspect that seeing a dentist twice a year also led to more need for silver mercury fillings (for smaller cavities) rather than gold "inlay." Older people I have known had mouths full of gold whereas dentists now tend to say, "that's not big enough for a gold inlay, I hate to take so much of a good tooth."

On diamonds -- proportion is very important in a modern diamond's value. Budget diamond sales places will sell all sorts of "out of proportion" stones, it's one of the ways they offer lower prices. A good jeweler will explain the size shape and ratio of top stone to a prospective customer. On the other hand, and with the exception of industrial diamonds, the whole diamond thing seems totally made up. Nice stones, very hard, rarity created by the cartel. Industrials are useful in a practical way, of course. I went to a gem shop, one of those southwest roadside attractions in Cortez Colorado, looking for crystals that would sound like diamonds for sound effects work. The owner dragged out coffee can full of diamonds ... all flawed an off ratio and we sat there listening to them fall on a wood table and finding cheaper pieces of quartz that sounded the same. Some of them were quite large but, truly, all diamonds are not created the same!

 

[scotrace]

Then there were those red tablets we had to chew at school after brushing, that left red spots where we missed. I think I brushed my teeth bloody after that....