The Rise of Advertising in the United States by Edd Applegate

Author:Edd Applegate
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Published: 2012-04-22T20:00:00+00:00

The Rise of Procter & Gamble and the Advertising of Ivory Soap

Cleanliness in the United States became somewhat of a concern in the late eighteenth century, and baths, which allowed total immersion, were installed in various cities. Prior to this time, men bathed in creeks, rivers, lakes, and oceans. For the most part, women, primarily because it was a social taboo, were denied this privilege. They bathed sporadically in private, usually with a piece of cloth and water. However, when bathhouses opened, most admitted women. These bathhouses emphasized cleanliness, not cold or mineral or spring water, which had been emphasized by so-called mineral spring spas that had been established by the 1770s.[1]

Interest in cleanliness dates to antiquity, but tradition was not necessarily the reason for cleanliness to become a major concern in the late eighteenth century. Although various religions had survived hundreds, if not thousands, of years and had perpetuated, to a certain extent, cleanliness of the body as well as the mind or spirit, most people had been hindered from practicing what their ministers occasionally had preached. Only the wealthy, for instance, could afford in-house bathrooms, and this was in the late eighteenth century, when tubs and elements of modern plumbing became available in specific cities of the country. However, the primary reason for cleanliness to grow in importance was the genteel code of behavior, which people adopted and/or taught to others. Manuals concerning gentility were published for the betterment of mankind. Some of these manuals actually appeared in the American colonies during the early eighteenth century; apparently, certain Americans desired to change their values and, subsequently, their culture. Certain American groups such as the American gentry patterned themselves after their European counterparts. The revolutionary innovations that appeared in England, for instance, eventually were brought to America. Even certain sanitary habits made their way across the Atlantic. According to Bushman and Bushman,

This wave of fashion reached the American shore in the 1790s intermingled with all the currents of influences that flowed so freely from England to America. Tubs in a variety of designs were on the market in London, and American tinsmiths made them available in Philadelphia at the same time. Regular, year-round bathing was certainly not routine even in the most elite households in either England or America by 1800.[2]

Cleanliness grew in popularity throughout the nineteenth century, and cold baths were claimed to benefit those with certain medical ailments, such as consequent indigestion, while warm or hot baths were claimed to benefit those with specific medical problems, such as anxiety. As the medical community learned more about the human anatomy, some physicians encouraged their patients and others to take warm or hot baths so that dirt and germs would be removed from the skin. However, most Americans did not take baths on a regular basis until around 1850 or later. Even though cleanliness “ranked as a mark of moral superiority and dirtiness as a sign of degradation,”[3] most Americans refused to take the time or did not believe that bathing was that important or even beneficial.

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