Not Till Disposable Diapers, TV Ads.

[AbabeBill]

I always thought it was odd, that before disposable diapers really got their act together, when they got tape fasteners, wing fold, stay dry liner, you never saw TV ads for any cloth diapers, or plastic panties either. I don’t recall any, anyway. Magazine ads yes, lots of every popular maker, plus training pants, and plastic panties. The only time I remember seeing cloth diapers on tv, was for detergent commercials. I understand, that before disposables, cloth was just about, the only game in town, but what about the competition between companies producing cloth diapers, and plastic pants? I don’t know, maybe these guys missed the boat, on tv advertising? Or did they think, women and mothers read magazines, but not watch tv? ? Lol.  Does anyone remember any tv cloth diaper, or plastic pants ads? 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

If you are talking about baby diapers, that is not try. There were ads for Playtex and "Dryper" in the '50's

As for adult diapers, the demographic was not there for it until the late 1970's or so. The TV generation did not really begin until about 1955 even though there had been large-scale  broadcasts as early and 1947. Our grandparents were not really TV hounds though some of them had them. The first generation that could make television marketing wirth the money was our parents, Born between 1910 and 1930 or so. It was we babyboomers that put TV on the map, being the greatest  population increase in world history and having had TV at a very young age. Large-scale broadcasting was around before most of us (1946-65) were born. There is also the question of there being a market in adult incontinence things big enough to support wide range advertising

Then there was also the issue of taboos or some things just not being discussed.  But I am pretty sure that if there was good money in it. there would have been TV marketing

[diaperguy85]

me? no, far too young to remember cloth. born in '85, i think cloth was mostly a story and an old cartoon trope for my batch of babies. i remember tom and jerry, warner brothers and some donald duck/micky mouse cartoons that highlighted cloth diapers, but that was basically it. 

i think perhaps the lack of tv ads was the general attitude of human waste management at the time. if im not mistaken, but i think the first toilet to appear on tv was sometime in the late 70s or even early 80s. the "flush" sound effect was only played for the first time on tv a couple of years prior to that. so for diapers to be confined to printed media (something easily hidden away with the scandalous bra, panty and pantyhose ads) isn't a big stretch for the 40s-70s. i remember in my childhood many commercials for baby disposables, and only within the last few years seeing a commercial for adult disposables for the first time. 

[AbabeBill]

My aim was to discuss cloth baby diapers, and the seeming lack of tv advertising in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, up to when disposables kicked in. And I don’t think big kid, or adult diapers were advertised till about the 80’s 90’s, due to disposable protection being around for babies for some time already. 

[ValentinesStuff]

Kimberly Clark started advertising Depend from the start with June Allyson. That would have been the 80s. 

 

I don't know of any commercials for cloth diapers, or even diaper services.

[beallucanb]

I don't remember seeing any commercials for diapers or services for diapers on TV as a little kid growing up in the 50's.

I remember seeing a detergent called Dreft for washing diapers but that was all I remember seeing that pertained to diapers.

I do remember seeing a movie staring Spencer Tracy,(Father Of the Bride) that had a diaper service in the movie.

I'm sure a service for laundering diapers were only for the well to do, everyone else washed them.

People may have bought flat cloth diapers as well as plastic and rubber pants from stores like Sears, Penneys and Woolworts.

Those without money to burn more than likely bought bolts of diaper cloth, then  made their own diapers, by sewing them around the outside..

I do remember seeing some cloth diapers,  the ends of the fabric were cut with pinking sheers to keep help them from fraying as much.

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

I remember 3 TV adverts from the 50's and '60's ZBT baby powder. Drypers disposale diapers that were \ulsed to line a rubber panty th all ovf which were contour and joined at the sides in use, but how, I could not tell,

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03uhfW3AYbfzv_yS0YQYCLPslWi3w%3A1606109640644&source=hp&ei=yEm7X4_7JKORggetsKewCg&q=1950's+dryper&oq=1950's+dryper&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIFCCEQoAEyBQghEKABOgcIIxDqAhAnOgcILhDqAhAnOg4ILhDHARCvARDJAxCTAjoFCAAQsQM6CwguELEDEMcBEKMCOggILhDHARCjAjoCCAA6AgguOggIABCxAxDJAzoFCC4QsQM6CAguEMcBEK8BOgUIABDJAzoICAAQsQMQgwE6CAguELEDEIMBOgQIABADOgkIABDJAxAWEB46BggAEBYQHlDJIVjvwAFgwPoBaARwAHgAgAGfAYgBgAqSAQQxMi4ymAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdperABCg&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwiP_-TU-JftAhWjiOAKHS3YCaYQ4dUDCAg&uact=5

and an early commerdcial for playtex pants that used a re-write of the song HOW DRY I AM

Did anyone stop to think this through?
1 Who would such commercials be aimed at?
2 When would that audience be predominant?
 Where were we usually during that time of day?
Given the answers to those questions, how would we see them enough to remember them? I would see them during vacations and mostly morning game shows. The Playatex did make it into a few primetime spots

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

Fron the other, similar, thread

 

[DailyDi]

On the other hand... When I was researching Stay-Dry Panties, I saw a ton of magazine ads for cloth diaper brands and various diaper covers

[Alex Bridges]

Cloth diapers and plastic pants are something you’d likely buy in a department store back then.

Compare that to now: how often do you see a TV ad for a department store advertising individual products? At most, when it’s on sale, but more likely it’s an example within an ad about a store-wide sale (“Shop sweaters during our weekend sale!”)

Most department store advertising at the product level is still print mailers and sometimes email or social ads.

I work sort of but not exactly in marketing. I can’t say for sure, but my guess is the reason department stores utilize print for product advertising is:

1) A historic reliance on catalogues/mail order.

2) Store events and merchandising being somewhat/sometimes localized. 

3) Better able to target advertising in print than TV (i.e., I can buy a list of addresses I think are home to women ages 25-40 and send a baby ad to just those addresses. You can’t target TV ads that finely with that degree of effiency).

4) The print medium works better for either the audience, product, or both. Decisions like these get made for a reason. It’s usually a good reason.

Conversely:

1) Disposable diapers are a different product category. Cloth diapers would fall under clothing, but disposables are under consumer packaged goods (CPG, where toothpaste, shaving cream, snack crackers, etc. exist. CPG products are usually either consumable like packaged food or disposable like razor blades).

2) Notice how CPG products get advertised by the manufacturer more often than the retailer, whereas clothing stores advertise more often than clothing brands. Potentially also a historic artifact, but likely because CPG goods get sold at stores that sell a ton of different products (e.g., Target). If you’re a manufacturer and want your product advertised separately from a retailer sale, you have to do it yourself. 
3) I think CPG has a better mix of ad media - I see a lot of mail ads for these as well as TV and other media - but they definitely have more of a TV presence than the same products have via retailer-driven ads. Why? Because the manufacturer’s ad can focus on one product for 30 seconds, while the retailer’s ad has to include multiple products in the same time.

4) So why don’t clothing manufacturers advertise more on their own? The ones that are major brands in themselves do, like Levi’s, but brands that are less differentiated don’t. If you make a generic sweater, what would fill a 30-second ad? I suspect the same with cloth diapers back in the day. What really makes one brand different from another?

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

They were also sold in pharmacies along with the Bayer asperin, Colgate toothpaste, Gilette razor blades, Titalis hair dressing and Vicks cough syrup which were advertised on TV

[rusty pins]

Cloth diapers were about the only thing available before Pampers and disposables caught on in the late 1960's, early 1970's.  Cloth diapers have been used for over 100 years prior to disposable baby diapers coming out.

Look at it this way - If the only food available to eat in the world were corn and beans, would the people who sold you the corn and beans have to advertise them to get you to buy them?  No, because you have no other choice if you want to eat.  Why, therefore should any company advertise their cloth diapers when you don't have a choice but to buy cloth diapers if you have a baby?

Pampers started to advertise because everyone was using cloth diapers!  P&G had to entice everyone away from the standard to the new, and advertising was the only way to get the word out!  Then you had other brands, Kimbies, later Huggies and LUVS cashing in on the disposable diaper market Pampers made popular.  That's why you see Pampers, LUVS and Huggies commercials today - because of competition between diaper companies, not between cloth and disposable companies.  Marketing and competition is so fierce you see it with any product.  Once something becomes popular, other companies produce a similar product to cash in, but usually it's the original first one that wins out overall.  Case in point.  Goodnites and Underjams.  Goodnites came out first, P&G tried to get in on it with Underjams, yet which remains the better seller?

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

There was a thriving advertising business in rubber panties before TV was a thing. It was well established in print media. To see the full-size ad click on the tiny one http://other.sandralyn.net/panties.html

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

People are just finding this? It has been an integral part of RUBBER PANTIES'R'US from the get-go; along with a few other things they might like

[AbabeBill]

I have collected many of those old magazine adds. 

[Little BabyDoll Christine]

7 hours ago, AbabeBill said:

I have collected many of those old magazine adds. 

If you could scan them, there might be a use to which they could be put DD used to have a "Diaper Musiem" that includied rubber panties. In about 2014, DailyDi said he was going to update and expand it. So I got thes inages and animage of a layette from Sears. However, nothing appears to have comeof it. I would like to know if that project is to be completed or dropped

8 hours ago, Little Christine said:

People are just finding this? It has been an integral part of RUBBER PANTIES'R'US from the get-go; along with a few other things they might like...

...like a rubber panty screensaver, a rubber panty collage withmusic and a javascript rubber panty slideshow with music. When I named the page RUBBER PANTIES'R'US, who thought I was joking? Go see for yourself, the link is in my siggy