The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 481 - Selling Shame

Episode Date: May 18, 2021

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine women's deodorant and antiperspirant.SourcesTour DatesRedbubble Merch...

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Starting point is 00:00:47 history podcast or each week I man who has a child the place baseball who wants to punch other people have children who play baseball in the face. Eater of sandwiches maker of love Dave Anthony reads a story from American history to my friend. And Gareth Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is going to be about and congratulations on not fighting the other parents Dave I know how tough that is. There's still time there's still I mean look the league just ended tonight but there's still time I can still find this guy in the streets. Okay so compliment rescind it and retract it. And called it quote his jam
Starting point is 00:01:24 pad. Jam pad? I'm the fucking hippo guy. Dave okay. My name's Gary. My name's Gary. Wait. Is it for fun? And this is not going to come to Tickly Podcast. Okay. This is like Adam. I'm a five-part coefficient. Now hit him with the puppy. You both present sick arguments. Don't sleep down hippo. That's like down hippo. Action partner. Hi Gary. No. I sleep down my friend. No. No. Ronda. Ronda in the park. Um alright let's just start this dumb episode. Oh boy there we go that's where we need you. That's a bad night. I don't like I don't like having a grown man make my kid cry. Well how about if a grown man makes you laugh. Come on. Take my hand you little baby girl. 1888 here by Lord Jesus Christ. Sure. An unknown inventor in Philadelphia created a waxy cream that had a small amount of an
Starting point is 00:02:31 antibacterial zinc oxide. Okay. So a man created a weird a weird wax. A poison wax it sounds like. He's created the first deodorant. Oh okay. Interesting. It was trademarked. It was known as mum. Mum? Mum. M-U-M. Mum. As in like. Not like the British version of mum. I call it mum. Hello. Hi Miss Mum. I'm here to keep you from stinking. I've got bad breath. So it as in keeping silent as in mum's the word. Right. So yes it's mumming your B-O. It's like shh. Quiet. Quiet body. It's more it's more mumming in the sense that people did not like to discuss these sorts of things. It wasn't something you would talk about. Isn't it just amazing
Starting point is 00:03:32 though because we've talked about the smells of history and I mean the B-O like through the pandemic I multi you know I wore deodorant probably eight times and there would be times where I would catch a whiff of myself and be like good God and I that was that is someone who bathed regularly and I still and so I can't imagine what the chorus of stink that must have just been coming off people and then the fact that they are like opposed to talking about it like wouldn't you be like hey so I stopped stinking did you know you gotta hear about this shit you know how everyone smells fucking horrible there's
Starting point is 00:04:16 a solution well there is there actually is a solution it's just bathing and washing your underarms so I think that it wasn't as bad okay so okay it was very bad manners to mention a woman's smell sure and you just didn't mention that everyone pretended like women didn't sweat or smell or fart or whatever like they're like that's just not a thing because it's Victorian times they just want to see them as these creatures to be lusted after they are orifice less angels the woman poos through her pores slowly the poo does not come out of her she just dies and then the poo is removed at the end there's a poo angel who
Starting point is 00:05:02 sucks it through her so any talking about women as like human beings who farted and and had body odor and that that harmed the desire of men so it wasn't right I mean and that's there's that standard still exists in some capacity but even in that time the men must have just been like I mean just walking latrines as such you know what I'm like they were probably oh allowed to stink and yeah yeah we're a hundred percent allowed to smell that was just like there's a stinky woman the other night oh shit oh my god look my armpits bleeding that was me I mean man man's odor body odor at that time was like
Starting point is 00:05:48 considered manly like you stunk and you were a manly man yeah so the result of course was that women did not want to be seen sweating in public right just always about to explode from gas that's right Americans and then get home and just be like setting Guinness book records how was your date Ophelia it was fine oh dear it's almost done you're out there a long time two days I've been submitted with him push my tummy so Americans had long been reluctant to bathe but with the germ theory they'd come around that changed and by the late 19th century Americans are now like let's get rid of the filth and the
Starting point is 00:06:50 smells that we've got everywhere and they started taking showers around this time and using toothbrushes sewers and water mains were put in houses were built with bathrooms so it's a it's a whole process is taking place a cleaner sort of situation but there was still the odor that came off the body right that was a different thing and with people starting to work together more and more and crowded conditions odor became a social problem sure the perspiring odor and people had worried people had worried about how they had smelled for centuries perfumes were used by the ancient Egyptians and the Greeks and so
Starting point is 00:07:32 it the people being concerned about how they smelled it's been around for a while okay but the big difference is now that more people are living in closer conditions than they ever have in the history of the world right it's industrialization it's all this is cities are much more dense right and then 1988 like I said mom yeah sorry 1888 mom came and I'm gonna read you some ad copy for mom oh great perfect quote men do talk about girls behind their back although they won't admit it is a girl pretty a good sport a smooth dancer the answer quickly goes the rounds they talk about other things too about the girls
Starting point is 00:08:16 they hate to dance with the girls they simply won't take out for a girl must be more than pretty and smart she'll never make a hit with men unless she is truly sweet nice to be near unpopularity often begins with the first hint of underarm odor hmm so it's so true and and it's it's just I mean again it's it's a threat right I mean it's basically like want to be an unlovable husk walk around town stinky hey you dirt filth woman pig yeah put on something that smells good and for so long societies but basically going like don't let anyone know how much you stink and now they're like everyone's
Starting point is 00:09:06 laughing at your stink yeah that's pretty much right okay that's a good catchy yeah it's very catchy obviously you know that puts all the onus on the woman to fix yourself right yes now like I said before mom armpit odor was usually just dealt with by using perfumes you just put perfume on you and then at some point in the 1800s they started putting cotton pads or rubber pads in their armpits sure a face a face I wish was still here that you a little hole well let me put my rubber pits in there we are tackle the day so they would those would I can't reach above my shoulders for anything I've got a
Starting point is 00:09:50 McCain range well those would protect the clothes from showing that they were sweating which like imagine New York in the fucking summer and you and you have to hide your sweating like what good luck or Florida I believe it to be impossible yeah it's just like are you human yeah so then you're like armpits are just dry while the rest of you soaking like I didn't notice how human it had gotten fucking very normal the way it doesn't do anything here well look obviously I'm a beautiful woman who is no boy that's up the rubber is really it's pulling some of my skin no rubber what rubber there's no rubber I'm a lady who
Starting point is 00:10:29 is just enchanting and then just imagine going home and taking out your cotton pad I feel so rip off my stink disk so mom was a cream and you would rub it into the armpit using your fingers sure but not many people are interested and those that were it left a sticky greasy residue on their clothes so now those are your options right you want to you want to you want to smell better but now you're getting like a greasy stain under your arm and your clothing grease me up others didn't like rubbing it in with their fingers most people thought mom wasn't necessary and not really healthy like there were a
Starting point is 00:11:19 lot of people that thought no sweating is good and why are we getting rid of this right they wash regularly and they throw on perfume so why did they need mom also mom itself had a weird smell oh that's well okay bad okay so bad business model I mean like so we stink a little bit differently than your body it's still an odor hey this smells like pine and dog why don't you put it on your under there you are have some dog log oh you're gonna love this hat air put on that's put on some mom that smell of wet wood is just gonna intoxicate all those around you historian Julian Silvoca quote this was still very much a
Starting point is 00:12:05 Victorian society nobody talked about perspiration or any other bodily functions in public sneezing in public was frowned upon so okay but they had like outhouses yeah I mean I don't really understand I mean I think it's the kind of thing you probably have to live into fully experience like what that I don't feeling was against you know bodily functions but yeah they had outhouses and and this is a time when they're starting to get bathrooms so bathrooms are much more in America there's more bathrooms and more plumbing because that's kind of you're building out in America whereas in England you have to
Starting point is 00:12:42 refit your already house that's been around for 500 years you know right you're redoing everything was in America it's very easy to have bathrooms right in England they were just like such a bother we'll live under the bucket system for another century that's all right in 1903 ever dry was invented it was the first anti-perspirant right okay it was made with aluminum chloride and you would dab it on using a cotton swab okay but it didn't work great it took a long long long time to dry and it caused so you're basically just putting stuff on and then I guess just holding up your arms someone's just blowing giving a pit
Starting point is 00:13:23 blows it would cause a big mess and it also stung well they're really I mean yeah it's I mean it's like cavemen with fire look it took a minute they're on the path you know but then now like we're just like well it hurts and that's a problem it smells better but now it's burning people it would also destroy clothes by eating through them it stopped sweating by clogging pores right with aluminum yeah yeah with aluminum so it's clogging or is it it lasts for probably three days once you get it on there but it's eating through your clothes so you have a non-smelling like a whole you have
Starting point is 00:14:09 like jagged aluminum shards like a can explode you have like canned shrapnel under your arms yeah it's not it's really not good yeah I'm this this I'm out of so in 2008 sorry in 1910 a surgeon in Cincinnati Dr. Abraham Murphy was looking for something to stop hands from sweating during surgery okay Jesus Christ this is as if they didn't have enough uphill battles going on people like you know we're also prone to slippery utensils whoops I dropped another scalpel in this lady oh boy yeah so he created his own liquid antiperspirant an aluminum chloride solution that plug pores okay and he trademarked trademarked it in
Starting point is 00:14:56 1909 so he must have started before 1910 whatever so now Dr. Murphy had he has a teenage daughter in high school named Edna Murphy and she starts using it on her armpits because she finds out what her dad's done and it works okay and it stops sweating and it stops body odor and she starts giving it to her friends and then she's like we should sell this yeah yes agreed so Edna decided she was gonna sell it to the world and she named it Adorno or actually that's the word but the the way she wanted it said was odor oh no Adorno oh no so she's in high school yeah yeah it's like yeah I mean we don't
Starting point is 00:15:46 expect her marketing to be fabulous but no we don't it's a lot it's a lot to Adorno so she borrows a hundred fifty dollars from her grandfather and she starts a company it's about five grand today okay it doesn't go really well at first she rents an office and hired a door-to-door sales team made up of all women okay because she's only focusing on women right focusing on men of course they're they're perfect it is their world they're there to be pleased not to please what is there to change and we're pretty perfect has anyone seen my tweets that's well it's like I said it's because under our martyrs it's
Starting point is 00:16:35 considered to be a manly smell sure women were supposed to be ashamed of I again by men men were like man women when they smell it's horrible when we smell men fucking awesome when I smell us we're bears yeah dudes are like I smell great yeah but apparently anti-perspirant wasn't something people wanted from a door-to-door saleswoman again because of the taboo nature I think it's also because a lot of people thought sweating shouldn't be be prevented it was unnatural to do it she starts promoting it in the papers the ads are pretty typical for the time I've read you ads yeah from from that time
Starting point is 00:17:14 and medical ads and newspapers are pretty crazy back then so here's an example quote adorno is or odor oh no no is necessary to every dainty and economical woman indispensable to women whose clothes are quickly ruined by perspiration stains and this is something some women do want because they're using pads under their arms for sweating so some women do want it right a lot don't so it's not it's making some money it's not bringing in enough money so Edna has to give up the office and move the business into her parents basement but she is I mean the name is horrible it's a terrible name yeah it's
Starting point is 00:18:03 a horrendous name and and then so she tries to get drugstores to carry it she's like would you like to try oh odor oh no I mean I don't know I don't know about odor no no odor oh no I don't know yeah and it's just um I don't know a lot of a lot of so so say we odor oh no I'm reading the package yeah yeah so you don't know I don't know take a pause after the oh take a pause I don't know if you're allowed to give line readings on how to it's I'm just looking at the label I don't know I'm just saying for your customers when they want to buy it you say odor oh no and then they'll I just don't think they're gonna want to hear
Starting point is 00:18:51 me say that I just think that that's not what it is you made it read odor no odor oh no that was it where wonderful where you said it the second to last one you said it perfectly out there I know yeah oh no no no odor no what I don't know no it's good now we've got back the other way it's not that's good again I just hate the name I hate the name yeah it's really why not call it stink nope that's not that's not I don't know if ladies would enjoy that I'm a lady I don't know if I would enjoy how about nice pit glue something like that like maybe a odor oh no buying it oh no okay my way of
Starting point is 00:19:45 passing it's a cute way of passing and I'm passing okay come back when you've got a regular name you know like no more shit pit okay I don't want to be in here anymore yeah monster that area is just a weird little gross cavern you know gross that's a good name how about no this isn't a pitch session on the just we're having a little fun you like a milk you want a milk no I don't want milk I don't think we're having fun I'm having a blast I've never had more fun with a person so I think it could be something maybe just like it it's it no more no oh hey here's what it is fuck Tom you smell like shit take it pretty
Starting point is 00:20:39 good we have over three times are coming here for so sure enough the guys who own the drug stores didn't want to have it in their store or or they put it in their store and no one bought it in the end it's the upset because people are like oh dare I don't know yeah it really if you look at the package you don't know what the fuck it's saying right so it's it's it's ODORONO so it's not no like she didn't put an eight if you wanted you should put an H in a dash but she whatever okay yeah yeah like for she's like 14 yeah again she's 14 so let's just remember that so it's looking like a mad product like much like ever dry was
Starting point is 00:21:21 or mom I mean mom's still around but it's just not selling great it's just sputtering along so Edna's bummed and quote over for over three years I hardly moved out of the house and I cannot recall accepting a single social invitation yet at every stage of development there was an increased inspiration from users and along with it increased discouragement it costs so much to make a new user it took so long to convince anyone that checking perspiration would not affect their health man so there's just all these people that say it's yeah it's just the same I mean it just it is the same I
Starting point is 00:22:03 mean I don't I don't I think that plucking up your pores is bad like I always do a top cruise did have all the glands removed good lord let's be sensible about this oh my god that's fine to do it's fine to do it didn't help the doctors were against antiperspirants they thought the body should naturally a lot of people are acting crazy but what they don't understand is that these things will murder you in 1912 Edna went to an exposition in Atlantic City okay it's during the summer and the people attending are hot and sweaty because it's the Atlantic City at first not much interest she had a booth
Starting point is 00:22:48 no one really seemed to care odor oh no company history I mean oh no in your title is just not good no it's bad this is from the company history quote the exhibition demonstrator could not sell any odor oh no at first and wired back to Edna to send some cold cream to cover expenses okay the exhibition was for the entire summer in the booth stayed there and the heat got worse and then people started sweating through their clothes and suddenly people started asking about odor oh no and telling each other about it when they used it and buying it okay smart and then it starts to take off and people from all over the country are
Starting point is 00:23:37 interested and she rings up 30,000 in sales wow which it today is 1.5 billion dollars I mean I didn't look it up today but it's probably over a million I would imagine Jesus Christ yeah I mean like once it I guess these expositions are almost like a trade show yeah but it's almost more than that because it's like it's like what like a Twitter sort of like what happened at the it's like a shark tank convention yes you like Twitter better how you how you were unpacking it yes it is also very much that but let's go to the other one that works better okay so it's 843,000 dollars so it's a good chunk of money so it
Starting point is 00:24:30 still needs a boost it's still it's still not out to take it really big it definitely has problems odor oh no is not without its issues sure it stops what it stops wet for three days wow which is longer longer than antiperspirants do today yeah because it plugged the sweat gland pores okay plugged them up right for a lunatic for aluminum chloride to work like this it had to be suspended in acid Jesus so it's an acid concoction and acid obviously not great for armpits right yeah and that meant odor oh no is really irritating armpit skin which is like one of the least like if you fucking you ever had to use crutches I've gotten
Starting point is 00:25:14 the crutches down there you ever use crutches you're just like I need us what can we put on my armpits to get them through this too yeah cast under there they just like just shoot me instead of hurt leg the rash so oh it also really damages clothes it just like ever dry so again remind me of the upside it just doesn't make you smell as bad that's what this one is now achieving yeah it's getting rid of the armpit odor you're right but just by like painting you essentially and then on top of those other things it's also red colored so it stains clothes so everyone's just walking around with pit
Starting point is 00:25:55 periods so people like oh my god your armpit is bleeding has begun I knew it would come one day so people are having their clothes ruined by the acid it's just burning right through clothes so you've just got these armpit holes and then it's just red underneath that and it's red from those sore armpit like so and there were there's just giant red stains under the pit so customers are complaining of burning and inflamed armpits sure some women stopped using it but others said they knew was working because it does burn well we are just such a complicated species it's amazing that everyone will take a position like
Starting point is 00:26:47 there's every position will be taken I know I mean pain it's terrible that's why I know this is good I've always wanted to convince people I'm bleeding from where I'm not a lot of fancy outfits are destroyed by odor oh no including a bride's wedding dress on her wedding day but some some women said they would rather just buy new clothes than have armpit wow they're like this is better than just smelling okay so odorano suggested that customers shave before putting it on and so men were like take the moustache off now I'm ready shot oh you meant the ball the ball I don't understand the correlation
Starting point is 00:27:32 between shaving my balls and having better pits but hell I'm up for anything there we go they also said to put it on before you went to bed which would give it adequate time to dry completely yeah it's like a fresh coat of paint so yeah so there's some issues it's not the perfect product right right it's not like a speed stick by men and which is sure what you use sure excuse me lime lime flavored I would think what are you you're saying that's what I use or you're just saying I'm saying that's what you use that I use limed flavored speed stick yeah that's what I think it feels like ax ax body spray did I use lime ax yeah I
Starting point is 00:28:15 think you use lime ax body spray yeah that's for sure I'm very I mean I am a limey yep so these are all issues she obviously PR could help right sure so she she hires a New York ad agency the J. Walter Thompson company and they end up booking her I love that they're a marketing company and their name is so bland isn't it the worst like they couldn't change it anything they're not like Excalibur marketing like where this guy's name marketing the ad geniuses no what about J. Walter Thompson company yeah well wow boom they hooked her up with a fresh young copywriter named James young he had recently opened the
Starting point is 00:29:00 company Cincinnati office a new hot shot sort of new hot shot he had no advertising experience before he was hired to be an ad man he had been a door-to-door Bible salesman so in a lot of ways your product is very similar to the book of God both speak of you know red red red fluid you know I also find that it's a miracle and that's a big part of the Bible so there's a lot of miracles um plus you know um you know I would say there's a correlation between us or you know leprosy to some extent and then having your arm be you know basically you useless from rash so uh to me it is it is a Bible for your armpit
Starting point is 00:29:48 as what I think we should call it okay yeah call it that yeah no I'm just saying Jesus cream it's probably good you know something like that like um that doesn't seem that seems like it might offend people you're putting it on your armpit yeah no no but it is it's you know okay how about the body of Christ no pit gods uh Satan stink out ye bastard oh yeah um Abraham and no and behold it was Abraham so so he like I said he's a Bible salesman he got the ad job because he knew a guy he had an old childhood friend who was dating a manager at jay walker Thompson and through that connection he got the job
Starting point is 00:30:48 hey I have my friend he sells Bibles it's such a crazy way I mean he must have he they must have been like write up some ad copy for a product because he wouldn't get hired but I mean he's the head guy that he's the he's opening the new break break for this guy yeah he's like I know Frank like that's his whole well what are we gonna do we're not gonna find a bunch of people to know Frank this guy's good so first his ads took on the crazy crazy idea that blocking sweating wasn't healthy that's like the main thing that keeps coming up people like you shouldn't be blocking sweating and his copy first tried to make it
Starting point is 00:31:25 seem like odor oh no wasn't bad for your health I love that he's keeping the name this just hired he's like well the name isn't the problem no we're keeping the name because it's perfect we haven't had any backlash except for all the drug store owners and then a bunch of women the only issues that people don't get what it is which that's an easy hurdle to get over so he writes up these this ad copy it says it was created by a doctor and that excessive sweating was an embarrassing medical condition that needed a cure and that cure was odor oh no okay interesting it worked okay sales shot up to 65,000 a year and it wasn't
Starting point is 00:32:10 now just being sold in America people in England are buying it people in Cuba were buying it the two islands so it's taken off on the island world yeah of course this one on for a while English we're probably putting it on potatoes like oh love a bit of cream love a bit of cream hey put on the Irish fellow love a bit of cream oh that's nice in 1919 sales start dropping again or flatlining or just you know they're not picking up so James Young had to come up with a new ad focus or he was gonna lose the odor oh no contract okay now the ad company conducted a door-to-door survey survey and from this they learned that
Starting point is 00:32:51 just about every woman had heard of odor oh no hmm of the women though only a third had used it two-thirds feel like they didn't need it and it's the vaccine it's the back it is the back seat I'll be fine without it yeah so these insane women think they're okay the way they are that's they're like I'm I'm fine the way I am which is just a crazy idea and you don't want people to start having that expectation oh god it gives me the willies you're flawed by your way out of this so James had to turn those two-thirds of women into customers right that means he has to convince 66% of women that sweating was a seriously wrong
Starting point is 00:33:39 through thing a real fucking embarrassment okay he concluded he had to present sweating as a social indiscretion one that you were committing but that people would not tell you was the reason you weren't popular so again the silent judgment of others is the marketing angle yes 100% at the same time he wanted to push that these people were happy to talk about you behind your back about your swell your smell situation but just not to you because that wouldn't be polite odor oh no everyone's mocking you for women normally body bodily functions must be hidden as we said so James would find
Starting point is 00:34:26 he would find women these women and make them feel bad about their normal bodily function nice undesirable their sweat is offensive blobby blah so y'all James shame an ad comes out that he's written in 1919 in the ladies home journal hey you sticky pieces of shit listen up why do you keep ignoring God's way he's got a fix for you quit denying your destiny everyone thinks you suck they just won't tell you god you're a sticky asshole ain't nobody gonna want to fuck you Gladys come on clean it up clean that shit up woman your armpits is nasty like someone someone dragged a wet dog under there and you're all like I'm
Starting point is 00:35:06 pretty you like you like dog you got three butt cracks and two are under your arms you nasty so the the ad it look and then again this how a lot of a lot of ads were back there it just it looks like if you're reading an old newspaper you you start reading something like oh wait this is an ad it's just mixed in we're getting back there I mean that's like that's always amazing like in the paper it's just like can you believe all these amazing shoes what happens a lot in newsreaders where you flip something you be like oh wait this is yeah yeah but it's presented I can't believe this guy invented a pill out of chia wait a
Starting point is 00:35:44 minute the fuck is this why am I buying it yeah so this this ad like it looks like you turn a page and it's a full page and it looks like it looks like an article with a headline okay and the pictures of a man and a woman clearly about to get involved in a little romance maybe and the top headline reads quote within the curve of a woman's arm a frank discussion of a subject too often avoided oh my god and like I said it looks exactly like an article James then goes hard it into why women needed to realize they absolutely fucking stink the opening quote a woman's arm exclamation point poets have sung of
Starting point is 00:36:34 a grace artists have painted its beauty it should be the daintiest sweetest thing in the world and yet unfortunately it isn't always there's an old offender in this quest for perfect daintiness an offender of which we ourselves may be ever so unconscious but is truly present so it's it's reading like a public service announcement articles sort of and the basic idea that he gives up and it's a it's long the basic idea is women might be giving off a horrible offensive order but have no fucking idea that so it's like it's like you don't even know you fucking smell you're a gas leak yeah yeah I I mean look it's like sex sells
Starting point is 00:37:30 but so does fear 100% and these were and these were called scare copy I mean that from the from the things I said in the newspaper stuff it's called this is kind of both it's like well he's amending a new type of copy actually this is actually gonna be called the whisper copy whisper copy so it's like you're confident you're it's a it's a confidential whisper that you're doing to someone I want to pull you aside I'm an article in the paper so so they're basically saying that you have an offensive order no idea and that's because there didn't have to be any sweat quote it is the chemicals of the
Starting point is 00:38:12 body not uncleanliness that cause odor and even though there is no active perspiration no apparent moisture there may be under her arms an odor unnoticed by ourselves but distinctly noticeable to others for it is a physiological fact that persons troubled with perspiration odor sell them can detect it themselves that's right yep so what this feeds into is every woman who is like white why doesn't Roger like me or every woman that's like right aren't why aren't that group of girls inviting me out every person that has any sort of insecurity now they're all thinking we know the answer it's cuz you're a stinky piece
Starting point is 00:38:55 of shit I'm a stinky piece what are you sticky pieces and what are all your friends doing and why wouldn't George fornicate with you that one night is stinky piece of shit and you are a stinky piece of shit god damn I wish there was an answer there is it's called odor I know so basically if you want a man you better not have body odor right and you probably so we're like this is what all the French men left America does you know it's actually it's a thing indeed so they're actually you know you have a perfect system and said in me you know well so so they're saying you can't have
Starting point is 00:39:42 a man if you have body odor but you have body odor so they're saying you have to fucking fix it right American women you smell terrible people are they're saying people are leaving rooms to get away from and there's all these ads are happening like people they're leaving rooms to get away from you and refer madness for B.O. yeah no one's telling you because everyone's polite in society and then James coins it he calls it B.O. he calls it body odor wow so he's the guy who came up with B.O. it's effective now because discussing body fluids was just not something was done in 1919 the ad causes a stir right around 200 women
Starting point is 00:40:19 when this ad comes out around 200 women subscribers to the lady ladies home journal are so offended that they immediately cancel their subscription okay and it doesn't matter because odor ono is selling right James was using what will be what we know is scare copy and turning it into whisper copy and women that James knew in his social circle stop talking to him wow because he declared war on like the gender essentially well he essentially yeah he declared war on like your yeah he's saying you the way you are as a person is psychological B.O. warfare it's all these women are offended but enough women are
Starting point is 00:41:00 like that that must be what's going on right yeah and so a woman copywriter who worked at J Walker Thompson told James he had insulted every woman in America I'm sorry I can't see past your stink lines and it doesn't matter because it's an extremely effective ad right sale shoot up 112% in 1920 Wow so odor ono is now bringing $417,000 a year wow and in today's money that is 13 trillion much more more more than that it's a higher amount exactly $13 trillion so as soon as the ad campaign is successful odor ono's competitors jump on the make women feel insecure to sell products bandwagon and the idea is to just scare
Starting point is 00:41:59 people at the buying products that stopped underarm sweating right mom which is still around had campaigns with headlines like quote no matter no matter how attractive you are and even the most attractive women's personal daintiness and charm are easily marred by perspiration odor James Young is continually cranking out new ads he wrote one ad that looked like it was advice coming from a matron of a finishing school oh my lord every whatever young girl should know it literally is a picture of a woman is guiding another woman along yeah it's just the craziest thing to read and it's all like hey
Starting point is 00:42:38 here's the deal don't smell yeah man and his company is so well is doing so well she moves out of her parent's basement into a small factory that she has built just for the company and an office it's all hopefully those workers are working too hard stinking up you know yeah no there's I'm sure there's a rule you have to you all have to wear odor oh no yeah right and it just keeps increasing in 1927 the company is making a million per year in 1929 Edna sells odor oh no to Northam warn for 3.5 million okay and now they're not gonna they're not about to cut James loose after all his success right now yeah he's a propagandist after
Starting point is 00:43:22 all at first the campaigns were a bit subtle that whisper copies a little subtle subtler than it could bend sure right but by the 1930s these this shit has just hit you over the fucking head just stupid attack stuff okay one example quote beautiful but dumb she has never learned the first rule of long lasting charm then there was an illustration of a good-looking but seriously bond out woman quote the world and any eligible eligible bachelor in it could be hers but they're not and all because it is never a piece of shit it has never done out her that she needs a long lasting perspiration check to stay
Starting point is 00:44:08 appealing and dainty every girl needs a long lasting deodorant ah I mean it's yeah it's not like a jar of olives like you know what I mean like you're not it's not it's just yeah I mean I get why it's effective yeah it is good marketing yeah look if you're insecure about yourself pretty why won't men talk to her she's a stinky piece of shit she doesn't know it but she's a big stinky piece of shit look at this pretty pretty pretty she has smelly gross little piggy what's wrong with this woman who has a hog smell so by the thirties there were now three types of odor oh no regular and instant so that
Starting point is 00:44:55 must have gone on and dried quick I guess and then it also came in ice form also we have the ice version so well that's gone it's just water now but get it home fast that's for your cocktails seeps in what is ice version it's just a nice menthol I think it's you buy it yeah you buy it frozen you keep in your freezer frozen yeah I think it's just it's a girl you can use it it's really great mommy I'm gonna eat more of these Jesus Christ don't eat those I can't taste anything oh god you've got aluminum in your tongue those are for mommy listen let's say now the worst part is mommy's going out tonight and
Starting point is 00:45:47 she's gonna be a stinky piece of shit look God your mouth is so nice smelling whoa if only your mouth with a person it would be married what's weirdest I just ain't ass and you can't even smell it wait a second nine that's not well dog ass oh my god so there's obviously parenting's taken a sidestep to my own personal hygiene which in retrospect has not served you well okay so this is a 1937 mum ad talking to a woman who doesn't use deodorant quote you're a pretty girl Mary and you're smart about most things but you're just a bit stupid about yourself you look wait now we we've literally come like you were
Starting point is 00:46:37 joking about it yeah now they are now they're just saying exactly what you're joke was we need you to come over here here at stinky pieces of shit we protect women who smell so bad hey can I talk to you a minute you fucking idiot hey you stupid asshole you've done pretty good playing the limbo of society but you done fucked up when it comes to pit health that's why you're lonely alright so to continue on you love a good time but you seldom have one evening after evening you sit at home oh my god you've met several grand men who seem interested at first they took you out once and that was that there are so
Starting point is 00:47:20 many pretty Marys in the world who never seem to sense the real reason for their aloneness in this smart modern age it's against the code for a girl or man either to carry the repellent odor of underarm perspiration on clothing and person it's a fault which never fails to carry its own punishment unpopularity right all right but it's a jingle so let's go let's get it right so if you noticed in there there was a little or a man either right so it's it's the late 30s and they've realized they're leaving having been so effective yeah having been so effective on women oh my god we're
Starting point is 00:48:08 leaving half of the buying public out so now they're starting to target men hey men by the way you're not not stinky pieces of shit who's a little piggy too yeah huh this whole time women were getting better smelling they started talking behind your backs they what that's right that's what we used to do to them well now they're doing it to you you know why cuz they smell good and I smell like but take your piece of shit I guess I'll you what fuck pigs ah I guess I use some other known so the companies rise men should also understand they stink and they it started snarky and focused on it focused on women but
Starting point is 00:49:00 they would throw in shit like I just read in the last ad right and like ads that read quote women it's time to stop lead letting your man be smelly when you buy buy two so they're like they're just like pitting the genders against each other and and they're going and you know this is now a woman's product so it's it's like oh it's like trying to talk men into one lipstick in a way well I always remember the secret commercial where it was strong enough for a man but pH balance for a woman where I was even as a child always weird always was strange to me always super strange to me but that came directly out of this right
Starting point is 00:49:42 yeah right yeah right but a hundred percent when I was a kid I was just like what are you talking like why never made sense to yeah I was like so it's for a man no but it's strong enough for a man right so should I use it well you good no could you if you were to use it it would work out for you but it's not for you it's pH balance for a woman strong enough for a man so Jay Walker Thompson was focused on men starting in 1928 they realized that they should go after him in 1928 and they took a survey of the male employees that worked at the entire company not a biased group no to discover what they thought about
Starting point is 00:50:25 deodorants and add an antiperspirants these are some of the answers quote I consider a body deodorant for masculine used to be sysified it was sorry one more time I consider a body deodorant for masculine use to be sysified okay this guy is guys like I ain't no girl last time another quote I'd like to rub my body in pure grain alcohol after a bath but do not do so regularly sir can we actually can we sort of stay a little more on topic so what that does have in common is that is something you're doing your body what it's not helping with is sort of just you know we're not interested about you rolling around in
Starting point is 00:51:15 grain alcohol I pour wine on my dick so just listen to me when I let's tell let's just stick to kind of what we were sort of saying about the general odor from the armpit and not worry too much about what what other stuff you go into or put on yourself so really it's just about the armpit and you know we can improve that that area is odor you know yeah yeah okay so so I'll uh and I do this with some of the fellas okay already I'm just want to make sure we're sticking to what I just talked about southern comfort is a particular type of whiskey and I'll I'll take I'll take up like a little bowl of it yes sorry no
Starting point is 00:51:57 no no no stop right now oh no no no no no no no no no I'll go and crouch over that just dip my balls in it God stop talking now stop talking things there should be no things on your list hundred percent no things on your list burns like a motherfucker don't do that to your testicles I were talking about armpit don't somehow stop telling me the list somehow I get shit face out of my fucking mind like you're wrong are you drinking the ball bowl after yes okay don't look this isn't added for arms so that's what we are eliminating the odor from the body okay you're adding an odor to your body don't ask any more questions about the liquor you're putting on
Starting point is 00:52:42 your body this is a weird survey but it's a very straightforward survey you've made it crazy on your own now tequila is a special please go away I see friend of mine who's next let me interview that dog okay we're still here I just told me zoom ended but I see you I see you baby you've got nowhere you've got nowhere you've got nowhere well it's not it's getting away now okay took a weird turn you're nobody so basically doing the survey of the men at the company it's like there was a lot of money to be made if men could be convinced to use deodorant but that was a gonna be a long
Starting point is 00:53:37 long haul right quote I feel there is a market for deodorants among men that is practically unscratched the copy approach is always directed at women why not an intelligent campaign in a leading men's magazine and quote if someone like menons got out a man would buy it I mean it's got men in the title yeah it's percent preparations have a feminine association men only shy at I don't know exactly what that means so they get the handicaps but they're like look we need to you know let's get let's get let's get the ball rolling yeah let's get the balls rolling a deodorant for men was put out in 1935 it was in a manly black
Starting point is 00:54:25 bottle and named top flight top flight makes you fly so I don't know if you notice this I can't I can't remember what it's fucking called but they recently came out with a men's wet wipe for oh yeah asses yeah it's called like yeah yeah it's it's called like dootels or it's something like that yeah and it's black it's the same yeah exact same idea it's got a man name and it's and it's black and it's the like we're it's almost a hundred years later it's still the same dumb man shit yeah happening yeah but you're like and will it still clog all the sewers like all the other wipes oh absolutely it equally clogs it's
Starting point is 00:55:09 terrible for everything yeah the environment don't worry it's a total total nightmare so do you understand depressments for men also went after mail-in securities during the Great Depression a lot of men worried that they would lose their jobs so the company focused on what it would mean we talked to a CEO who told us I ain't hiring no more stinkers hey yeah well if you were the body odor guy in the office fuck someone just stole my zoom account yeah they changed in the middle in the middle of recording the top they changed the email of my zoom account and stole it so that's cool I gotta deal
Starting point is 00:55:50 with that now so they put out this black bottle of top flight deodorant yeah they go after mail-in securities so the campaigns focus on men it's a great depression they focus on men being worried that they're gonna smell bad in an office lose their job fired and right and now being not being groomed well can hurt your career right so they're going after that history professor Kerry Castile quote men who had been farmers or laborers had lost their masculinity by losing their jobs top flight offered a way to become masculine instantly or so the advertisement said get hired sent so all
Starting point is 00:56:35 these guys out there you know you're a farmer you lost your farm you just feel a masculinity you can't take care of your family it just goes into all these things and then this thing comes along it's like be a man again but not smelling bottle of man yeah it's so crazy it's nice that the flat it's nice that they're making the men feel like pieces of shit for a minute now got you know they've had a good run that's right so to sell it to men they also have to separate what they've been doing with the other antiperspirant for women right can't be putting on something that's made for women so they've told us this new
Starting point is 00:57:12 product then you become girl seaforth was a deodorant that was sold in ceramic whiskey jugs smell like the ocean could you just imagine buying deodorant that is in a whiskey man didn't smell like whiskey already that's the odor we're trying to escape it's not what we need to like lack or moron the owner of the company said he quote couldn't think of anything more manly than whiskey what does a man want to smell like more than whiskey exactly have you been drinking the deodorant I've had a simple bars so soon all across America anti-person every woman's gonna be
Starting point is 00:57:56 licking your armpits and just lighten up a little bit so right all across the US anti-perspirant and deodorant products are targeting both men and women tons of products hit stores shun hush veto long-spy dainty dry slick first stop zip so it's just now we're just getting tons of deodorant feeding frenzy right yeah of women everyone's laughing at you behind your back man you're gonna lose your goddamn job and then there's new ways to apply anti-perspirants that starts exploding there's sticks and there's sprays and there's roll-ons and there's aerosols they keep coming up with new ways and new
Starting point is 00:58:41 formulas maybe people would have found deodorants and anti-perspirants without the brutal advertising and push for you know the stuff that James Young did and others but still it's all pretty bananas I mean maybe people would have come to this organically who knows sure the harsh and predatory ads weren't just deodorant ads however James Young had revolutionized advertising and by the 30s 40s so shameful 30s 40s is almost like a regular assault just a relentless assault on insecurities right and and it and let's just be very men had it nowhere near as bad as women had it was really fucking brutal for
Starting point is 00:59:18 women Lysol was sold as a douche in the 30s oh my god oh my god something for garbage cans it's a what there are some things on the dog I wish I had never learned and this is 100% horrible oh and of course Lysol jumps on the there's something wrong with women train right oh there the the Lysol ads are so fucking shocking there's one ad and there's a man walking out of the house you see the back of me these guys bag-packed it smells like bad cooter juice wife and young daughter are like facing toward right facing toward the the front of the ad and she's holding her young daughter is probably like four
Starting point is 01:00:12 and they're being left behind clearly being left behind and and the line is quote another love match shipwrecked on the dangerous reef of half truths about feminine hygiene oh my god the poetry for that I want to I need to read that again another love match shipwrecked on the dangerous reef reef of half truths about feminine hygiene oh my god oh my god Lysol you like being a single mother oh cuz your coochie smell girl Lysol Lysol has prevented many such tragedy that's better damn it oh another Lysol ad had a man looking he looks disturbed and the wife is looking confused and they're just standing next
Starting point is 01:01:14 to each other yeah and it starts by saying he is no longer interested in sex quote yeah what has she done is it really all her fault a oh so then it goes into a question and answer answer question and this is a this is an answer a it is not so much what she has done as what she has neglected and that is proper feminine hygiene oh boy question can neglect of proper feminine hygiene really spoil a happy marriage answer yes and the pity of it is every way that can't be right oh and a yes and the pity of it is every wife can hold her lovable charm by simply using Lysol disinfected as an effective douche have
Starting point is 01:02:09 you ever seen the movie crazy people Dudley Moore a long long time ago like it's like the slogans are on that level it's like look we understand that your husband is confused by you and no longer wants to be around you Lysol just like what that this to me the Lysol ones are the most heinous and there are so fucking many of them you can find them online oh oh just fucking repulsive their vaginas lie solved um there was a you are in a beauty contest every half hour of every day for Kame Kame soups what what a what a what a prison ad did you know you're in a fashion gulag every half hour on the hour you must
Starting point is 01:02:57 present and Femison for cramps in which the ad says thanks for Femison she now acts like the woman I married every day of the month so God it's it's focused me a potpourri painless person it is focused on dudes to get to talk their wife into taking it when she's menstruating so they can be like say let's fucking get you over this shit honey look well I understand you have cramps but this is really a loveless marriage all of a sudden how about a narcotic and this is every this is like all products Kellogg's all brand had an ad titled she was a one date girl why because she was constipated which made
Starting point is 01:03:49 her uncomfortable which made her lose her personality which killed her dating life she's alone now now she's eating Brandon boy the the fellas love being around when she's shitting so I can't I mean we can just go through these for hours but it's just it was I would I would think of this then that time that a man would prefer a constipated woman you know what I mean to be like how it hurts he'd be like well I'm laughing all the way to the bank Cynthia now why don't you come over here and never poop again how I love a woman who never ever ever his shit that's there we go now you go home and figure it out treat
Starting point is 01:04:29 yourself like a clogged bottle of ketchup hit the 57 on your belly so look that you know this went on for a for a long time it's still you know you still see it today it's not as blunt and obvious and brutal as it clearly was in like the 30s and 40s Jimmy Young ended up being inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame well you know what let's have another one of those ceremonies and just blow torch it down he wrote a couple of very important ad world books for the Adworld people the diary of humans the diet of an ad man and how to become an advertising man now today we still apparently have this it's not directed at
Starting point is 01:05:14 me or you the main focus of deodorant ads and smelling good ads are focused on teenage boys specifically non-white teenage boys that's who and then you could also think of remember the axe body spray ads yeah so you have the you know a dude smells good and now hundreds of thousands where they're coming down cliffs I mean I'll forget the cliff one the cliff one still makes me laugh it's just like it's a because it's a nightmare it's just absolutely incredible that anybody thought like it's just a dude just puts on axe body spray and then it just should good pictures thousands of women running down a cliff wants that
Starting point is 01:05:52 you'd be like I'm going to murder me I'm going to be murdered so that's where all that ad stuff came from that's where it's it really is disgusting I mean it really is like you know because you can make an argument that is totally valid for why people shouldn't stink it just you shouldn't take the shame path you should not take the shame path it's really it's really fucking crazy yeah I mean is that yeah yeah I think I it would just keep repeating itself after while and the Lysol one like how many more how many more of those can you read I do think that you know it when you really boil it down to you know we have
Starting point is 01:06:40 such an incestuous list of problems like one hand washes the other washes the other and so you know you have your media that doesn't do shit and you have your government that's complicit in the you know the corporate coup and then by the way we're getting into the patreon part of the show thought company history of deodorants mental floss body odor through ages brief history of deodorant the weak brief history of body odor Smithsonian magazine how advertisers convinced Americans they smelled bad medium.com lessons from history stinky women in the first deodorant stinky women and then the it's the sequel the
Starting point is 01:07:29 little women the podcast distillation distillations the smell of shame how deodorant became omnipresent in America. Yeah so yeah goodbye everybody.

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