ADVERTISING

It's estimated that the average person in today's fast-paced world is exposed in one form or another to between 4,000 and 7,000 advertising messages every single day. This week Tidbits takes a sweeping look at this aspect of mass communication and presents some general facts about the world's oldest profession. ...What’s that? Not so, you say? Ah, but consider this: Before she could offer her services for sale, she first had to advertise!

MARKETING METHODS

• German immigrant Gerhard Mennen introduced his first product, Mennen’s Sure Corn Killer, in 1878. His first method of advertising consisted of a horse and wagon and a banjo player that travelled from one town to the next. The banjo player provided entertainment, which was periodically interrupted by Mennen plugging his product, Mennen’s Borated Talcum Infant Powder. Mennen believed so strongly in publicizing his name and products that he poured 50 cents of every dollar earned back into advertising.

• The 1930s were host to a barrage of “sandwich signs” -- walking billboards worn on the fronts and backs of hired pedestrians paid to walk busy city streets promoting the Blue Plate Specials at Joe’s Diner, or touting the medicinal wonders of Dr. Merlin's Miracle Mustard Plasters.

Men wearing sandwich board advertising signs on a busy city street; a popular advertising technique during the 1930s.

• The term “brand name” originated with whiskey producers who “branded” their company name on the wooden barrels with hot irons.

• A Los Angeles real estate firm was advertising a new property development in the L.A. area in 1922 and chose to name it after the colorful holly bushes that grew there. They prominently erected giant 45-foot-tall letters on a hill above the city, spelling HOLLYWOODLAND. The word “Land” was later dropped, transforming it into the now-famous tinsel-town landmark.

45 foot tall letters spelling HOLLYWOODLAND were erected as an advertising strategy to build awareness for a Los Angeles property development, in 1922.

SLOGANS AND SUCH

• Although we think of Maxwell House Coffee when we hear the slogan “good to the last drop,” this phrase was originally used by Coca-Cola.

• The initials S.O.S., used for the popular steel wool scouring pads, have nothing to do with a call for help. As an abbreviation for “Save Our Saucepans,” S.O.S. pads were first given away in 1917 as a free gift by door-to-door salesmen selling aluminum cookware. But owner Edwin Cox received so many more requests for the scouring pads than he did for the pans, he decided to focus solely on that product alone. It was Mrs. Cox who came up with the catchy name for this now-common kitchen commodity.

• “You press the button -- we do the rest” was the company slogan for the Eastman Kodak camera, first introduced in 1888. Inventor George Eastman also came up with the name Kodak, believing products should have their own identity, free from association with anything else, and be easy to pronounce and remember. When Kodak introduced its Brownie camera in 1900, the price was $1.

A Christmas print ad for Eastman Kodak's "Brownie" camera.

• Kodak’s first instamatic camera hit the market in 1968, touting its easy-to-use, drop-in film cartridge and two exposure settings, sunny and cloudy. They offered several models varying in price from $10.95 to $19.95, depending on the number of add-on options.

• Introducing …Blibber-Blubber! What in the world is that? In 1906, it was a candy product marketed by the Fleer Corporation -- bubble gum! However, it was a little too gooey and sticky for the general public, so the formula was modified to keep their customers happy. During the mid-1920s they also changed the name…to Dubble Bubble.

• The Kellogg cereal company introduced Rice Krispies in 1929 with the “Snap, Crackle, and Pop” slogan. In 1952, the company jazzed up its popular Corn Flakes cereal for the first time by offering Sugar Frosted Flakes to its line. The word "sugar" was dropped in 1983, when they began using Tony the Tiger as the product's advertising “spokesman.”

• Alka-Seltzer started using the little spokesman “Speedy” in 1931 to advertise its fizzy antidote for hangovers and queasy stomachs. Speedy, with his Alka-Seltzer tablet body, was originally set to be named “Sparky,” but the company made a last-minute change. He appeared in 212 television commercials, beginning in 1952. In Spanish–speaking countries, Speedy was known as “Prontito.”

Alka-Seltzer's little spokesman, "Speedy."

• That husky bald guy dressed in all white, known as Mr. Clean, made his first grime-fighting commercial appearance in 1958.

• The Maybelline Company was founded in Chicago by Thomas Lyle Williams in 1915. Williams noticed his older sister Mabel applying a mixture of Vaseline and coal dust to her eyelashes to give them a darker, fuller look. Williams renamed his eye beautifier product Maybelline in her honor The Maybelline Company introduced its cake mascara in 1917 with newspaper and magazine advertisements. This cosmetic was available only through mail order until 1932, when it was finally offered for sale in variety stores.

• Touted as an “Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual Beverage,” Coca-Cola hit the world of advertising in 1886. When pharmacist Asa Candler bought the rights for the beverage formula from pharmacist John Pemberton in 1887, he paid $2,300. He promoted and marketed his new cola drink into a hugely successful family business. When Candler’s sons sold out 29 years later in 1915, they were paid $25 million for that same formula.

• Any fisherman could purchase a quality, ash fishing rod, 10 feet long with three joints and brass mountings from the 1900 Sears and Roebuck catalog, for a mere 18¢. The top-of-the-line bamboo rod, 15 feet long with fourjoints, cost $1.50.

• Ladies perusing the 1900 Sears catalog could find 69¢ flannel nightgowns, 98¢ corsets, and a pheasant feather-trimmed bonnet for $3.95.

ADVERTISING FIRSTS

• England’s first printer, William Caxton, created the world’s first printed advertisement in 1478. The ad promoted religious books that Caxton printed in his own print shop.

• The first neon sign was put in place in Paris, France, in 1912, advertising Cinzano.

• The first electric billboard was seen in 1891 over New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Advertising a local amusement park, this 50-by-80-foot sign boasted 1,457 twinkling lights.

Remember to support businesses that advertise in Tidbits. • You wouldn't have Tidbits without them!

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

• Although General Mills introduced Wheaties in 1924, this product did not become the “Breakfast of Champions” until 1933 when the company sponsored the radio broadcast of a baseball game in Minneapolis, coupled with a prominent billboard in the ball park.

• Lou Gehrig was the first athlete to appear on a Wheaties box in 1934.

• Babe Ruth was one of the first athletes to endorse Wheaties, yet his picture did not appear on the box until 1992 when a commemorative package was unveiled.

• Mary Lou Retton was the first female athlete to appear on the box in 1984 after winning an Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles.

• Michael Jordan’s face has appeared on the Wheaties box 18 times. □