Rinso: Little Miss Muddlehead
Use Rinso and help defeat Hitler! The soap brand deploys some savvy wartime advertising.
Laundry soap brand Rinso was quick to jump on the 1940s fuel rationing bandwagon and remind housewives that, unlike other soaps, Rinso required very little hot water (it was customary to boil clothes at the time). This ingenious two-pronged marketing approach - bolster the war effort while increasing sales - was in keeping with the soap manufacturer's pioneering approach to advertising.
Along with print campaigns, Rinso and other soap brands started sponsoring daytime radio shows ('soap operas') in America as early as the 1920s and Britain in the 1930s, before moving into screen advertising.
Cinema Advertising Comes of Age
The 1930s saw screen advertising find its voice. That wasn't just down to the arrival of the 'talkies', but to the increasing professionalism of ad agencies and production companies.
Through WWII and the postwar austerity years and into the 'never had it so good' 1950s - when it had to compete with the new commercial television service - cinema advertising offered a bigger bang for your advertising buck.
31 videos in this collection
Music Hath Charms
The Warning (Gibbs S.R. Toothpaste)
Every Man His Own Housewife (Persil Advert)
Let's Ask the Ladies
Murder in the Air
Bee Wise!
Sketchbook of Fashion (Knights Castile Advert)
Aladdin and the Junior Genie
Signs of the Times No.3
Fable of the Fabrics
It all Depends Which Way You Look at It (Solidox Advert)
Signs of the Times No 196
A Thief in the Night
Change for the Better
Little Miss Muddlehead (Rinso Advert)
What's Missing from this Picture?
Signs of the Times
Signs of the Times
Mousewife's Choice
Mrs Mopp's Birthday
The Trawl in Action
Signs of the Times No.2
Molar Mischief (Solidox Advert)
Shippam's Guide to Opera
Put Una Money for There
Signs of the Times No.58
Says Sirdani
Thief in the Night (Persil Advert)
Changing Hues
