Love and fear can be powerful motivators. Today, I am taking a look back at how love and fear were used in advertising by Colgate and other dental products companies to sell toothpaste and mouthwash.
Sources:
“Dental Health Week,” C.J. Hollister, The Journal of the American Dental Association, April 1930
“At Last, a Friend Who Told,” Printers’ Ink, December 29, 1932
“Colgate’s Ribbon Dental Cream-Not Acceptable for A.D.R.,” The Journal of the American Dental Association, November 1938
“Council on Dental Therapeutics,” The Journal of the American Dental Association, November 11, 1943
“Colgate’s Troubles with FTC,” Printers’ Ink, February 11, 1944
“F.T.C. Cracks Down on Big Advertisers,” Mary Dillman, The People’s Voice, March 10, 1944
“Federal Trade Commission Complaint on Colgate Dental Cream and Colgate Dental Powder,” The Journal of the American Dental Association, April 1, 1944
“Colgate Changes Ads,” Printers’ Ink, September 15, 1944
“Reports of Councils and Committees: The Status of Dentifrices,” The Journal of the American Dental Association, June 1, 1945
“More Truth, Less ‘Glamour’ needed in Toothpaste Ads,” York Daily Record, Sep 22, 1945
“Trade Journal Calls Ad for Toothpaste Misleading,” The Journal of the American Dental Association, September 1949
Advertising the American Dream: Making Way for Modernity, 1920-1940, Roland Marchand, 1985
“How Halitosis Became a Medical Condition with a “Cure,” Laura Clark, Smithsonian Magazine, January 29, 2015
The Smile Gap: A History of Oral Health and Social Inequality,” Catherine Carstairs, 2022
Cultures of Oral Health, Barry J. Gibson, Claire L. Jones, 2022