Helen Lansdowne’s Woodbury campaign sold desire rather than the product’s medical history

Evidence

A famous early advertisement for Woodbury soap, crafted by a woman named Helen Lansdowne, typified the new approach. When she was given the account, the product had long been sold by patent medicine principles. Its advertisements had a branding visage, consisting of the mustachioed Dr. John Woodbury, the dermatologist who invented it in 1877. The face, which was also stamped into each bar, was accompanied by the slogan “a pure antiseptic toilet soap—for the skin, scalp, and complexion.” Some versions tried for the softer touch with the tag line “Women should be beautiful.” But the grim Dr. Woodbury still loomed large, producing a rather creepy dissonance. … Lansdowne went in an entirely different direction. In her advertisement, a dashing clean-shaven man in white tie is pictured with his arm wrapped around a beautiful woman, whose hand he holds. His cheek rests against her temple; he appears enthralled, while she stares pointedly at the viewer, her skin aglow. … “A Skin you love to touch,” reads the copy. “You, too, can have the charm of a radiant, velvety skin.” — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 209

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle on how ‘selling the feeling not the product’ was pioneered by a woman in 1911 — the gendered origin of modern desire-based advertising.