http://collectingegypt.blogspot.nl/
Collecting Egypt...and other musings!
Friday, 2 October 2015
Selling Ancient Egypt
This
week I have been doing some research into early twentieth century
adverts which featured ancient Egypt as a selling ploy. Unsurprisingly,
quite a few originated from the period of Tutankhamen's tomb discovery
which sparked a great love affair with not only the Tut himself, but
also anything ancient Egyptian.
It has been interesting to explore how the products that were advertised were linked to commonly perceived
virtues associated with ancient Egypt during that period, for example,
themes of beauty, glamour and quality are consistently explored in the
adverts.
Beauty products tapped into the idea of ancient Egyptian women as being "mysterious' and 'youthful' and adverts
played on the idea that the civilisation were privy to deeply hidden
secrets which allowed them to maintain this youthfulness. Through the
depiction of radiant, young Egyptian women alongside images of the
product being marketed, there was a implied suggestion that by buying
the brand, the purchaser could also become privy to the secrets of the
ancients.
Palmolive frequently used ancient Egypt
in their adverts for a variety of products which included soap, cream,
powder,vanishing cream, shampoo and talcum powder. One advert depicts
Cleopatra reclining on a bed; in the background are two servants
apparently concocting a mysterious potion. Out of the vapours appear
the image of Palmolive soap. "The great queen who reigned centuries ago" states the advert, "was
one famous user of Palm and Olive oils - perhaps she pictured the day
when modern science would combine them for universal toilet use".
Ancient Egypt was also linked to the concept of purity as evidenced in an advert for Sunlight Soap. "Sunlight Soap is always pure" declared the advert alongside the image of Egyptian women washing their clothes with the pyramids in the background.
Tobacco
companies also took to ancient Egypt to extol the pleasures of smoking
their particular brand of cigarettes. The inclusion of a beautiful
young 'royal' ancient Egyptian woman in the Egyptian Deities advert
opposite suggests a certain elegance and glamour to the product. The
wording also declares the brand are for "People of culture and
refinement." Another advert shown below for the same company portrays a
statue on a throne-like seat and alongside it is a contemporary
photograph of a young lady seated royally on a draped chair. The
concept couldn't be clearer - smoke Egyptian Dieties and you too can
feel not only like a King or Queen, but an ancient Egyptian King or
Queen at that!!!
The
idea of high quality can also be seen portrayed in advertising for
other brands. For example, Miltiades Cigarettes uses the sphinx in its
royal headress as its logo, whilst Melachrino goes one further by using
the goddess Maat alongside the tag-line "Melachrinos set the standard of
cigarette quality".
Interestingly,
companies would even use the concept of ancient Egypt even when the
brand blatantly conflicted with what it was selling. Take this early
advert for Murad cigarettes. Ancient Egyptian statues of Anubis,
Egyptian furniture and architecture, and an Egyptian headress are all
used to advertise Turkish cigarettes!
The
use of ancient Egypt as a marketing tool continues to this day and the
same concepts of quality and beauty are still important themes for
advertisers. Take for example the Panasonic Lumix advert with its cleverly animated Anubis statue (click advert).
My
personal favourite is the 1989 advert for Vaseline Intensive Care
lotion where a mummy unwraps itself in a museum to reveal a beautiful
young woman beneath the linen (click advert). The Bangles "Walk Like An Egyptian" gives the advert an added thumbs up!!!
***Watch this space as I go off in search of ancient Egyptian inspired products and feature personal reviews on them***
No comments:
Post a Comment