Using Canthrox Shampoo in 1920


When my top history adventurer (who prefers to remain anonymous) gave me some new links to historic stuff, my eyes were drawn to the old ads. And my first thought was to wonder if anyone had any interest in seeing old ads, and that it would create a place that people could argue, and justifiably so, that many old products really weren't any good, in spite of the claims made in the ads. And then I thought again, and reminded myself that I've always liked old ads, and maybe there are other people like me out there, and that it would be fun to look at them without a cynical eye. And today I'd like to talk about Canthrox Shampoo.

As you can see, this ad appeared in McCall's Magazine in 1920, and the visual, and verbal message is that your hair is your fortune. Get it? Going to a fortune teller?

Personally, I've never heard of Canthrox Shampoo, and as an old advertising guy I'd recommend a more appealing name, like "Sephora" (I just Googled that, and it sounds good). It's possible that back in 1920 people preferred a name that sounded more medicinal.


The advertising copy for the first paragraph seems to be standard stuff -  "It makes and keeps the hair attractive by developing the life, luster and natural waviness through cleanliness." I've always enjoyed reading advertising copy, and have even written a little bit in my day, and while this sounds a bit stiff to our modern ears, there's nothing unusual there. But what gets my attention is the next paragraph whereby they extol the virtues of their particular shampoo as requiring so little trouble or time to use it. This makes me wonder what were people doing before to shampoo their hair? To me, it's just been "lather, rinse, repeat" and I rarely even repeat. What was the difficulty prior to this? But this is my favorite part:


I've always admired the work of advertising man David Ogilvy, who wrote in full sentences, and I especially like the copy for the Free Trial Offer: " You ought, at least, to try Canthrox, since to prove its merits and to show in all ways that it is the most satisfactory hair cleanser, we send a perfect shampoo to any address upon receipt of two cents for postage."


I'd say your future looks bright! Thanks for time-traveling with me today! No good hair wash costs less!

Images from the Duke University Library Digital Collections.



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