How Advertisers Convinced Americans They Smelled Bad (2012)

not to undermine the message, but as a fervent "no soap" washer these last 3 decades, I can attest that I smell. So do all the others who like me, don't use soap. And my clothes smell. I know this, and my workmates know this.

What we're trading on, is we smell no worse than anyone else.

What matters here is the "bad" part. Man, there is smells, and there is smells bad. I can tell the difference.

Some body bacteria is just too far down the path.

Had there not been confounding problems with illness from casual contact, which Soap is surprisingly effective at stopping (soap breaks bacterial membranes down because of the lipid-water thing) I think the sell might have been harder: cleanliness is next to godliness actually has it wrong: you meet your maker later, if you wash frequently.

I may be "no soap" but I'm not an animal. I wash my hands and face a LOT. I just don't use soap in the shower.

Pears soap adverts did very well. They paid a LOT of money to get "bubbles" [1] out there. John Millais was a major artist of his day in the UK: he co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Not surprisingly, the Unilever foundation which owns "sunlight" soap, and had Port Sunlight as a model town, has some of the biggest pre-raphelite works in their art collection [2]

in some ways selling soap is the birth of selling at scale.

Not to put too fine a point on it, Britain did it first.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubbles_(painting) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Lever_Art_Gallery