Vintage Advertisement of the Week – September 5, 2024

Seventeen Magazine – June 1948

Where to begin? This ad has so many highlights, but just as many low.

Can we start with the blatant message of peer pressure to conform and belong? I am sure this message resonated with each of us at some point in our lives. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting we all abandon good hygiene, and walk around stinking, just to be a nonconformist, but this ad hits a girl straight in the eye. Use Mum and you could be like the smart, fresh girl being escorted into the fun house with not one, but two, clean cut young men. Forgo using Mum or use an inferior product and you will be stuck with a pathetic, partially eaten candied apple on a stick as your partner.

Yet, this illustration is cracker! It’s cute, catchy and carnival. Everyone looks so nicely dressed. Neat as a pin. The girl smiling up at the collegiate something in the tweed sports coat, looking carefree and gay, while the other young gentlemen looks back in his plaid jacket at the girl abandoned at the ticket counter with an amused look on his face. Smiling, all three entering the fun house are nothing but smiles. Could that smile on the plaid jacketed young man be an inviting smile? Use Mum and you could be part of our gang? Or, is it a pitiful joking smile that says, “Girl, get with it – straighten up and fly right. You smell, ya’ dope!” Everyone is so clean, clean, clean! Except for the worrisome looking girl in the hat with the candied apple, of course. Either way, Mum wins.

The tag line at the bottom is too funny. “Be a safety first girl with Mum.” Listen to Mum, she knows what’s good for you. Yes, use Mum so you too can be taken into the dark fun house with two college aged boys, who just want to laugh at the fun house mirrors and do pretend jump scares at the creepy clowns. Sure.

The tone in the ad is all about “clicking” with your peers. You can’t click if you don’t use Mum. A play on the word “clique”, but enough so it gives you pause. I want to be part of the click or clique, whatever they’re talking about, I want in. My inner teenager agrees, my adult self scoffs and says I am just fine with my tried and true Secret anti-perspirant/deodorant, thank you very much.

Nevertheless, I have seen many ads in old magazines for Mum. This particular sales ad says it earned the Guarantee of Good Housekeeping, a warranty seal that still exists today. Not satisfied with a product with the Good Housekeeping seal of approval? No worries, you can get a replacement.¹

You can even get extra special advice on how to earn others’ respect and see you in a better light, if you write away to the address in the lower right hand corner of the advertisement. I found an old copy of an advertising pamphlet called, “As Others See You”, put out by Bristol Myers, Co. I’m guessing it’s the precursor to their “Click with the Crowd”. American ad agencies regularly regurgitated material. I will offer up tidbits of their advice throughout the year. Coming soon to a blog near you.

A short history of Mum:

• 1888 – Touted as the first deodorant.
• 1888 – Brand name taken from the nurse who invented it, whose nickname was “Mum”. Competing stories cite it was also named Mum after the saying “Mum’s the word.”² The truth probably falls under both camps.
• 1888 – Main ingredient was the anti-bacterial powerhouse zinc-oxide.³
• 1942-1957 – Deodorants and anti-perspirants become big business. The market explodes as companies capitalize on America’s body odor obsession. Options flood the shelves. Antiperspirants and deodorants see a 600 time increase in sales to a whopping $70 million dollar market.⁴ That’s $70 billion dollars in 2024 conversion.
• 1952 – The deodorant wars continue as Mum and Ban both claim to have invented the roll-on deodorant applicator.⁵ Both are correct, as both Mum and Band were subsidiaries of Bristol Myers, Co.
• 2004 – Doetsch Gerther AG takes over Mum.⁶

Love this ad from the 1960s. Source unknown.

Just sampling of the products Mum carried over the years:

• Deodorant Creams in Milk Glass Jars
• Powder Talcs
• Roll-ons
• Sprays
• Perfumed Stick Deodorants
• Sheer Mum
• Rollette Deodorant

Mum really is the word.

1. “How the GH Limited Warranty Seal Protects You.” Good Housekeeping, 8 Sept. 2022, http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/about-the-institute/a22148/about-good-housekeeping-seal/. ↩︎
2. Hill. “What Did We Do before Deodorant?” Truefitt & Hill US, 2021, http://www.truefittandhill.com/blogs/journal/what-did-we-do-before-deodorant#:~:text=The%20first%20commercial%20deodorant%20was. Accessed 4 Sept. 2024.
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3. lumedeodorant.com/blog/brief-history-deodorants.
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4. “Petroleum Product of the Week: Deodorant.” Petroleum Service Company, 2024, petroleumservicecompany.com/blog/petroleum-product-of-the-week-deodorant/?srsltid=AfmBOopriyXC6yIzMnQEzgdZD73ZdPqCmg0oQYMyCpmOhXi7MCItg6Wc. Accessed 4 Sept. 2024.
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5. “Story.” Fit GmbH, 2017, http://www.mum-deo.ch/en/story/. Accessed 4 Sept. 2024.
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6. “Story.” Fit GmbH, 2017, http://www.mum-deo.ch/en/story/. Accessed 4 Sept. 2024. ↩︎

Vintage Advertisement of the Week – August 14, 2024

By far not the grossest thing I’ve seen in the world of the frugal 1930’s, but still looks quite unappetizing to me. Gelatin dishes from the 1910’s to the 1970’s were a bizarre island unto themselves. I could spend years discussing American food advertisers’ obsession with pushing these odd cost savings concoctions on the consumer. In my book, these tomato gelatin rings get a 5/10 on the gastronomically noxious scale. Noxious – Knox, get it? 5/10, that high of a rating you say? Oh, it gets far worse.

A brief history of gelatin – This particular recipe falls under both gelatin camps; what the average American thinks of when they hear “Jell-O” and aspic. Even though Jell-O should be fully accredited to the brand name as it is a trademarked entity, it was so widely popular that when one hears the name mentioned a person can’t help but conjure up visions of the jiggly, brightly colored, fruity gelatin. Knox gelatin can be made into a fruity dessert, by mixing fruit juice or fruit with it. It can be the base for most anything wiggly, derived from things we would rather not think about. Aspic on the other is a whole different bag of tricks. Aspic has its roots in Europe. Nearly every country in Europe has a version of aspic. Essentially, it is meat broth turned into gelatin. It can be a clear meat broth gelatin or it can have edible objects suspended and confined within its glassy walls. Beef, pork, chicken, seafood or vegetables can be mixed with gelatin reminiscent of a stained glass window. It is served cold. That’s how it keeps its shape. Tommy Tomato’s gelatin ring sounds infinitely better to me than meat and vegetable aspic. And, yes, I’ve tried it. It’s a 0/10 rating for pork and peas aspic from me, I’m afraid I’m just not that evolved culinarily speaking.

Merry Memory – Famous Actress Goes Postal Over Lack of Aspic – During the first half of the 20th century, wealthy families would order special versions of aspic, that could often be molded into statuesque “art” for show. These were often not even deemed edible, but served as more centerpieces. Billie Burke delivers a famous speech from “Dinner at Eight” that mentions aspic.¹. Just try not to conjure up Glinda the Witch of the North if you can. It’s so hard to separate that gay, lilting voice from her iconic role. I do love Billie Burke in “Dinner at Eight”. It’s a great film and has a wonderful all around cast (including both Lionel and John Barrymore).

Now back to America’s obsession with gelatin…

For our argument, the marriage of Tommy the Tomato and Knox Gelatin could fall into either the sweet side of gelatin, or the savory aspic camp. It is really up to how you classify tomatoes. It’s the age old debate, is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Condensed History of Knox Gelatin – One more thing, you can see that the reader of this Good Housekeeping magazine can inquire for more recipes by writing to Mrs. Knox at P.O. Box 140, Johnstown, NY. There really was a Mrs. Knox, her name was Rose Knox. She started the Knox Gelatine Company with her husband Charles back in 1890. When Charles died unexpectedly in 1908, she took the company over. Unlike Mrs. Hannon of the Hannon Chocolate Company, she had a head for business. She made the shrewd business move to target women with their product, as she knew women did the grocery shopping. She was a progressive woman. She insisted all workers were valuable and they come to work and walk through the front door (before then some workers were only permitted to enter and exit through the back door). Furthermore, In 1913, she instituted the five-day work week, gave two weeks of paid vacation for all, as well as offered sick leave. Quite unheard of for that time.²

For you doubter’s about just how gross gelatin combinations of the 20th century evolved, tune in for more strange gems of our great recipe book of Americana in the weeks and months to come.

1. Dinner at Eight. Directed by George Cukor, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1933.
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2. Kelly, Kate. “Rose Knox: Businesswoman ahead of Her Time.” America Comes Alive, americacomesalive.com/rose-knox-foremost-woman-industrialist-of-her-day/.
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Vintage Advertisement of the Week – August 8, 2024

Absolutely adorable advertisement from 1955/1956. Widely circulated in baking and home and garden magazines.

History highlights: Baker’s Cocoa.

Baker’s Cocoa was started back in the 1760’s by two likeminded people named, John Hannon and Dr. James Baker in Dorchester, MA. Hannon was an Irish immigrant and businessman who sourced the cocoa, Baker was a Harvard graduate who used his money to back Hannon and his chocolate aspirations. It was originally called Hannon’s Best Chocolate. Hannon mysteriously disappeared while on a sourcing expedition in the West Indies in 1779. Sounds like the makings of a novel in the works. What really happened to Hannon? Did he die, did he disappear of his own volition? Maybe he was drawn to the West Indies and wanted to go off the 1770’s grid and live his life in the 18th Century tropic wilds. We shall never know. What we do know is his wife had no dreams of continuing the cocoa business. Washing her hands of the entire matter, his widow sold her stake in the company to Baker in 1780. Enter: the Baker Chocolate Company!¹

Baker Chocolate Company is known for more products than the bitter baking chocolate bar you mistakingly took a big bite of out of your mom’s cupboard when you were 8 years old and thought all chocolate tasted like a Hershey’s bar. They carry a full line of chocolates, from semi-sweet, to white to 100 % cocoa to dipping chocolates (milk or dark).

Do you have any neat memories about baking with Baker’s Chocolate with your family? Feel free to share.

That cute ad art makes me want to whip up a cup of hot cocoa today!

1. White, Anna. “Dorchester History Lesson: Baker Chocolate Factory.” Caught In Dot, 11 June 2022, caughtindot.com/dorchester-history-lesson-baker-chocolate-factory/.  ↩︎

Vintage Advertisement of the Week – July 31, 2024

From Senior Prom: the GIRLS’ Fun, Fashion & Fiction Magazine, March 1951 Issue

Oh my stars and garters! The horrors of having to get your back to school clothes from a brand called “Chubbette”?! That’s even worse than having to shop in the husky section at Farm and Fleet. I think I’m still traumatized. Sending loving vibes to all those who may have been coerced into thinking wearing a brand like Chubbette was the “in-thing” and was going to solve all if any of life’s problems. Let me tell you, the husky jeans did nothing for me!