Limit search to available items
Book Cover
Book
Author Vinikas, Vincent.

Title Soft soap, hard sell : American hygiene in an age of advertisement / Vincent Vinikas
Edition First edition
Published Ames : Iowa State University Press, 1992

Copies

Location Call no. Vol. Availability
 WATERFT BUSINESS  659.1966855 Vin/Sss  AVAILABLE
Description xix, 168 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Contents An Introduction to Advertising as a Social Institution -- 1. The Development of Promotional Magazines: National Vehicles of the Early Twentieth Century -- 2. Socialization and Demand Creation: Disinfectant as Deodorant -- 3. Cosmetics and the Crisis of Gender Identity in the Early Twentieth Century: Escape from Androgyny -- 4. Temples of the Cult of Beauty: Magazine, Market, and Law -- 5. The Cleanliness Crusade -- 6. American Hygiene in an Age of Advertisement
Summary He does this by exploring: how advertisers like Lambert Pharmacal created new consumer needs, convincing the public overnight to gargle with a product that previously had been used only to disinfect homes and hospitals; how a barrage of advertising for cosmetics led to a new look for women as Americans grappled with the emancipation of the New Woman of the 1920s; how managing consumer demand through public relations resulted in the birth of the modern beauty parlor; how soap manufacturers united to form the Cleanliness Institute to teach Americans the importance of using soap lavishly; and how popular magazines became the vehicle of both national advertising and national culture in the early twentieth century. Soft Soap, Hard Sell is for the reader interested in the history of social trends and American popular culture. It is a valuable supplementary study for courses in American social and business history, women's studies, and modern mass culture
Advertising was the mechanism responsible for Americans' sudden embrace of new standards of hygiene and grooming. By tracking the influence of advertising on changing habits of everyday life, Vincent Vinikas also traces the emergence of advertising as an agency of socialization in modern America. In Soft Soap, Hard Sell, Vinikas shows how advertising functions as a social institution, telling people who they are and how they fit in
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Advertising -- Cosmetics -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Advertising -- Soap -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Advertising -- Toilet preparations -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Advertising -- Women's health services -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
Women's periodicals, American -- History -- 20th century.
LC no. 90048686
ISBN 0813817889 (acid-free paper)