Figure 1.-- Here we have an ad for a Proctor and Gambles' laundry soap -- Chipso. It was a chipped, not a powdered product. I do not recall Chipso, but I do recall chipped laundry soap--at least I have a dim menory of it from the 40s. Presumably it disappeared because powdered product disolved better. This ad is undated. We have found another comparable color ad from 1935. Click on the image to see it. The ad here shows a rather large family for the 1930s, seven children--four boys and three girls. Theu look to be about 3-15 years old. They are rather formally dressed. That was fairly common in the 1930s advertising.

Here we have an ad for a Proctor and Gambles' laundry soap -- Chipso. It was a chipped, not a powdered product. I do not recall Chipso, but I do recall chipped laundry soap--at least I have adim menory of it from the 40s. Presumably it disappeared because powdered product disolved better. Note that moms were advised that it could also be used on dishes. This ad is undated. We have found another comparable color ad from 1935. This ad shows a rather large family for the 1930s, seven children--four boys and three girls. Theu look to be about 3-15 years old. They are rather formally dressed. That was fairly common in the 1930s advertising. The girls wear dresses, including bright colors. (Early detergents were death on bright colors.) Notice that the ad makes the point that these are year old clothing to show that Chipso has not faded the colors. And the mother's expertise on the matter is butressed by calling her a 'wonderful housekeeper'. There is no way of course to show the pasage of time. This we think was suggested by using the older boy who appeas to out grown his short pants suit and the boy on the right who has clearly outgrown his suit jacket. Notice how short the sleeves are. The boys all wear wear matching short pants suits. (We can't tell about the boy in the back, but as he looks younger than the older boy in the front, he also presumably is wearing a short pants suit.) Only one boy has a tie--rather strange given the fact that they wear identical outfits. For some reason the other boys wear shirts with sports collars. They were not made to be worn with a tie, but sometimes were. This was a popular style in the 1930s. The boys with sports collars wear blue shirts. The boy with the tie and pointed collar has a white shirt. The one boy's patterned knee socks suggest the 1930s to us. The suits, especially the short pants suits were designed to give a rather prosperous middle-class look. And remember this was during the depression. Look at the contemporary Studabaker ad for a similar example. This seems reasonable because a car was a high priced item. It is interesting that Proctor and Gamnbels would have made a depition of an upper-income family for a low-priced mass production product.

Created: 11:32 PM 9/19/2016
Last updated: 11:32 PM 9/19/2016