Exploring the History of Subliminal Racism in Ivory Soap Commercials
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2018
Type of Work
Department
Program
Bachelor's Degree
Citation of Original Publication
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Collection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.
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Abstract
I got the idea for the paper after exploring the archives for a previous research paper and finding a children’s magazine from 1926. I discovered that P&G would buy a page every month in the magazine to create an ongoing storyline for young children to follow and to advertise Ivory Soap. The story was called “The Ivory Heroes” which featured a group of mythical creatures and young white children who traveled around the world cleaning places with Ivory soap. The issue I discovered featured the Ivory Heroes going to Africa and cleaning an African village.
After doing a in-depth study of the ad’s explicit racism and how the company got to that point, I became curious about how the company continued their history of explicit and subliminal racism in their advertisements. I wanted to write this paper because after my semester of research into the history of soap advertising while I was hearing about racism scandals happening at Dove, I felt that more attention needed to be drawn to the advertising world and how it continues to affect us daily.