Friday, March 23, 2007

1940'S SPIC AND SPAN BOX

Flea Market Fridays #5

I found this old box of Spic and Span just in time for spring cleaning! This Flea Market Find is really a fun find because last year I acquired a large collection of newspaper ads and comic strips. Lo and behold, in the collection were three Spic and Span ads!

Before we look at the Flea Market Find, lets check out one of the ads first and remember to click on the photos for a closer look!

This ad is dated December 16, 1945 and Procter & Gamble is introducing their new product Spic and Span. (Oh boy! Just in time for Christmas, too!)

You probably noticed the cute little cleaning girls aptly named Spic and Span that are hard at work using this new revolutionary product. Here's a close up view of the gals!

Now we move onto the box and since this is the new and improved formula and because now the cute little cleaning girl mascots have a slightly new look this box must have been on grocery store shelves sometime between 1946 and 1947.



Well, how do we know that? Not to fear Spic and Span fans because thanks to the next ad we find the answer.

The ad is dated October 5, 1947 and the cute little cleaning girls have now turned into cute little hard working elves. (Or maybe they're fairies since they have wings.) I guess the cute little cleaning girls didn’t do a good job and were fired. Since Kellogg’s Rice Krispies wasn’t hiring, these elves (or fairies) were hired and were also given the names Spic and Span.
Apparently these two elves (or fairies) were lazy slackers and P&G gave them the axe too and decided to go mascotless from then on, as this ad shows from May 2, 1948.
You never know what you’re going to learn about on Flea Market Fridays!

3 comments:

Humuhumu said...

Love it! It's interesting to see how the marketing advanced so much in such a short time. Thanks for sharing this.

Todd Franklin said...

Thanks for looking and your comment!

Paul Duca said...

I understood Spic 'N Span was on the market as early as 1930