Kilmer House

One of the affiliate companies in the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies is known for its tradition of using famous actresses in its advertising.  As it turns out, actresses like Jennifer Garner in the U.S. and Deepika Padukone in India are not the first celebrities to endorse our products.  Some very well-known actresses (and some actors and athletes) were also singing the praises of one of our products almost 100 years ago, in the Nineteen Teens…  The product was Synol Soap, an antiseptic soap, and famous Broadway and vaudeville actresses of the day were writing to Johnson & Johnson to tell the Company about how much they liked the product and how they used it as part of their theater routines.

The most famous of those actresses was Louise Dresser, who appeared in 49 films and was one of the three nominees for the first-ever Academy Award for best actress for 1928.  In 1914, she was in a Broadway play called “Potash and Perlmutter” and wrote to the Company:

“ ‘Upon the recommendation of my physician, I have been using Synol Soap for the past year and have gotten so that I cannot do without it.  It is a most excellent preparation for the complexion and a wonderful mouth wash.  I have recommended it to all of my friends as an absolute necessity.’ “  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. VII, No. 1, June, 1914, p. 14]

In the more than slightly melodramatic style of the day, Dresser continued:

“ ‘For the sake of humanity, I would suggest that you make known to the world the benefits that can be derived from this wonderful preparation.’ ” [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. VII, No. 1, June, 1914, p. 14]

An endorsement like that was of course way too good to pass up, so scientific director and chief publicity officer Fred Kilmer printed it in THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, the Company publication for retail pharmacists, along with the line drawing of Louise Dresser seen above.

Trixie Friganza

Trixie Friganza, a leading musical comedy actress known for her many roles and her social activism, wrote: “ ‘To me Synol Soap has proved itself indispensable for its many uses.  I have used it for several years and have found that none can compare with it as a toilet necessity, and I am never without it.  Wishing you continued success in your needful venture.’ ” [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol VII, No. 2, July, 1914,  p. 38] Besides being an actress, vaudeville headliner, and dedicated fan of Synol Soap, Trixie Friganza was also known for championing the struggle for women’s right to vote.

Public Domain photo of Trixie Friganza campaigning for women’s suffrage, courtesy of Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons

Illustration of Florence Reed from THE RED CROSS MESSENGER

Florence Reed, another well-known actress, also sent a letter to Johnson & Johnson.  She was in a very popular play during the 1914 theater season, and she, too, made the Company’s antiseptic soap a part of her backstage ritual.  She wrote:    “ ‘I have used thousands of toilet preparations in my career, but have found Synol Soap to be incomparable for the complexion, hair, scalp, and as a mouth wash.’ ”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. VII, No. 1, June, 1914, p. 14]

Ms. Reed was clearly someone who believed in products that could multitask.  Synol, which had a pleasant, slightly camphory smell, was antibacterial but mild enough for people to wash their hair and faces with it, and many of the actors and actresses used it to remove their heavy theatrical makeup.  (That heavy makeup, worn daily, could wreak havoc on the complexion.)  Stella Mayhew, an actress who appeared in many musicals and vaudeville reviews, wrote to tell Johnson & Johnson the following:

“ ‘Just a line to let you know that I have used your Synol Soap for the past few months and know of no other preparation that has any of the qualities that Synol has.  It is excellent in removing makeup.’ ” [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. VII, No. 1, June, 1914, p. 14]

Naturally, Fred Kilmer printed that excerpt from her letter in THE RED CROSS MESSENGER.

Sam Bernard used Synol Soap backstage on Broadway

It wasn’t just the women who were using Synol.  Sam Bernard, appearing in a play at the Schubert Theater, wrote to tell the Company that “ ‘Your Synol Soap has proven a splendid addition to my toilet articles.  I use it steadily and prefer it to all other such products.’ ” [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. VII, No. 1, June, 1914, p. 14]

Public domain photo of Valli Valli, courtesy of Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons

A popular European silent film actress with the unlikely name of Valli Valli also was a fan of Synol.  She wrote in a letter to Johnson & Johnson:  “ ‘It is absolutely one of the best preparations I have ever used in my career for keeping the skin in perfect condition.’ ”   [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. VII, No. 1, June, 1914, p. 14]

So what exactly was this product that actors and actresses of the silent film and vaudeville era couldn’t do without?  It’s another example of a product developed for doctors, surgeons and nurses that found wider use in society.  Synol Soap had been developed by Johnson & Johnson around 1900 in response to a request from physicians for an antiseptic, germ killing soap that they could use to wash their hands, disinfect instruments and clean their patients.  It came in cake form and liquid form (as shown above) in a glass bottle with a shaker top.  In the days before antibiotics, Synol was widely promoted for a variety of uses to help keep people and their families healthier.  Like all of the Company’s products, it worked well and, since Synol Soap was mild enough to be used like a regular soap, people were advised to do all kinds of things with it, from washing their hands and faces, to diluting it for use as a mouthwash, to shampooing their hair, to disinfecting their houses during spring cleaning.  It’s not surprising that actors and actresses, looking for an all-purpose reliable product to help wash their makeup off, keep their complexions clear and keep themselves healthy so they wouldn’t miss a performance, would write rave reviews about Synol Soap.

Kilmer made these celebrity Synol testimonials a feature of two editions of THE RED CROSS MESSENGER in 1914.  In other MESSENGERS, he printed Synol Soap testimonials from professional and amateur athletes.  With the outbreak of World War I in Europe in August of that year, the articles in THE RED CROSS MESSENGER took a more serious turn.  But it’s certain that retail druggists told their starstruck Synol Soap customers that some very famous faces were using Synol Soap too…just like they were.

It’s January, 1910: exactly 100 years ago.  It’s the start of a new year and a new decade, and Johnson & Johnson is marking that beginning by launching a major new advertising campaign for one of its consumer products:  JOHNSON’S® Shaving Cream Soap. 

The product had been introduced in the early 1900s, and was developed out of the Company’s medicated soaps that were manufactured for use by doctors, surgeons and patients.   It was it considered to be an excellent product by the consumers who used it, and it came in innovative packaging – a collapsible tube! – but it hadn’t achieved the popularity or critical mass enjoyed by some of the Company’s other products, like belladonna and kidney plasters.

Ad for Belladonna Plasters with its well-known slogan

The Famous Feels Good on the Back ad for Kidney Plasters

Those products each had a famous advertising slogan that made its way into popular culture.  The Company was looking for similar ways to attract some attention to JOHNSON’S® Shaving Cream Soap.  So in 1909, they tried this:

Calling All Retail Pharmacists – we need a catch phrase.  Someone?  Anyone?

When that didn’t achieve the desired result, Company management decided to apply the latest developments in the growing field of advertising to the product, and conduct a “modern” advertising campaign.

In 1910, before radio and television, that would of course be a print campaign.  Fred Kilmer, our scientific director and editor of THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, announced that the target audience would be (no surprise) men who shaved their faces.  Ironically enough, that subset of the population did not include Kilmer, who wrote so extensively about and helped market the product. 

Fred Kilmer, who probably did not use JOHNSON’S® Shaving Cream Soap on a regular basis.

Kilmer, as editor of THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, our publication for retail pharmacists, provided regular updates about the development of the advertising campaign before it launched.  THE MESSENGER printed articles talking about plans for the campaign, how it would roll out, and how retail pharmacists could participate.

Here’s what Fred Kilmer reported:

“The advertising will run continuously and the space used will be full pages and half pages and prominent locations; in certain instances the advertisements will appear in colors.”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. II, No. 7, December, 1909,  p. 314]

The ambitious advertising campaign was set to appear in the hugely popular Scribner’s Magazine, to take advantage of former President Theodore Roosevelt’s series of articles appearing in the publication.  System, a magazine targeted to businessmen, was also going to run the ads, as would the Sunday magazine sections of some of the major U.S. newspapers, the Literary Digest, Harper’s Weekly, The Saturday Evening Post and Collier’s, a popular magazine of the era.  Not to miss an opportunity to reach men who needed to shave, the ad campaign also included magazines for military officers, a magazine called Everybody’s Magazine (despite the title, it was chosen because of its large male audience, and it focused on investigative journalism) and The American Review of Reviews.   The ads offered a free trial tube of JOHNSON’S® Shaving Cream Soap to anyone who wanted to try it.  Interested customers would then be directed to the retail pharmacy nearest to them that carried the product.   Kilmer estimated that the campaign would bring an estimated two million new customers into retail pharmacies.  Needless to say, pharmacists were eager to participate.   Kilmer urged them to cut out the full-page magazine ads and exhibit them in their store windows, in order to draw people in. 

One of the Saturday Evening Post ads

The modern ad campaign was created by the J. Walter Thompson Company of New York, continuing the relationship that started when James Walter Thompson himself started working with founder Robert Wood Johnson on the Company’s advertising.  The ads were designed to be informative and convincing, and used techniques that Thompson pioneered, such as the more sophisticated use of product testimonials. 

An ad from 1919 using the more modern techniques

According to Fred Kilmer, the J. Walter Thompson agency’s mission was nothing less than the following:

“They will undertake and expect to succeed in placing the merits of Johnson’s Shaving Cream Soap before every man in the United States who has need for it.  It will be their work to send customers to the drug store, and to keep them going.”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. II, No. 7, December, 1909,  p. 314]

Besides the magazine ads, there would also be a large number of displays, product booklets and other materials for the drugstores selling the product. 

Example of an in-store drugstore advertisement

So why would retail druggists care about the plans for the ad campaign?  Because as Kilmer explained, it wasn’t just designed to sell more JOHNSON’S® Shaving Cream Soap (although that was its primary goal).  It was also designed to get more people into the retail drug stores who sold the Shaving Cream Soap, thus increasing the druggists’ overall business.  So if druggists sold or decided to start carrying the product, they were able to participate in a campaign that had as its secondary goal increasing their business. If you were a retail druggist in 1910, you had to be excited by that.  It was another example of the close and cooperative relationship between the Company and its customers, which dated back to the founding of Johnson & Johnson, and would later find expression in the first paragraph of Our Credo. 

One day’s worth of letters — 3179 of them — requesting the free sample from the ad campaign

The modern ad campaign was a success, and spurred thousands of letters requesting the free samples from men eager to try the product.  In later years, customer testimonials to JOHNSON’S® Shaving Cream Soap would continue to be used in ads for the product, and be reprinted in THE RED CROSS MESSENGER.   The product never did get a slogan that made it into popular culture, though.

Some of the most beautiful and appealing ads in the history of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies are the historical ads for JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder.  One of the most popular of those ads – and still a favorite today — is the Wonderful Mother ad from 1922.  But did you know that the ad was inspired by Abraham Lincoln?  Read on to find out why.

The Wonderful Mother ad appeared in the leading magazines of its day, such as Women’s Home Companion.  The centerpiece of the ad is a beautiful illustration of a mother looking down at her sleeping baby.  Her arm is protectively around her other child.  The ad conveys nurturing, trust and comfort, and perfectly captures the parent-child bond and the love between the mother and her children.   

So what did all of that have to do with Abraham Lincoln? 

Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States…and the inspiration behind one of our most popular ads.

Believe it or not, the title of the ad and the inspiration behind the text comes from a quote from Lincoln, which is reproduced in the body of the ad:   “‘I had a wonderful mother, said Lincoln. ‘All that I am, I owe to her.’” 

Here’s a close up of the text:

The ad begins by talking about how parents can help shape their children’s futures, mentions the ways in which the product could help mothers soothe their babies so they can get the sleep they need, and finishes by bringing in another theme that ran through the Company’s advertising from the very beginning:  the scientific basis, reliability and trustworthiness of the Company’s products. 

A small paragraph on the left side of the ad (as it appeared in magazines) mentioned a new Baby Gift Box that contained the three baby products we made in 1922:  JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder, JOHNSON’S® Baby Cream and JOHNSON’S® Baby Soap.  The paragraph on the lower right, under the baby powder tin, was a shout-out to the retail pharmacists who sold our products to the public at that time, in the days before supermarkets became widespread.

Closeup of Your Druggist is More Than a Merchant paragraph of the 1922 Wonderful Mother ad

This was a reference to a national public awareness campaign the Company initiated that talked about the important role of the retail pharmacist as a trusted, ethical expert who could help people with their own and their family’s health.  It was done to give a boost to community retail pharmacists, in the face of the growing impact of the popularity of the automobile – which let people travel farther to shop.  (The campaign was thought up by Scientific Director Fred Kilmer, himself a former retail pharmacist.)

The Wonderful Mother ad was such an all-time favorite that, approximately 70 years later, our consumer operating company brought it back. 

Wonderful Mother ad circa 1990

The mother and little girl in the new Wonderful Mother ad have updated clothing and hairstyles, but the basic image is the same.  They’re in the same pose, and they’re dressed in just about the same colors as their 1922 counterparts.  The orange and white baby powder tin from 1922 is now the more modern white container of the late 1980s/early1990s.  Looking at the two ads together really gives you a sense of the history of JOHNSON’S® Baby Powder (since 1893!) and the multiple generations of parents and children it has touched.

What Johnson & Johnson ad was so popular that people were inspired to make their own versions of it?  Hint:  the ad ran for an incredible 30 years and, when the Company tried to update it, consumers protested.  Here’s another hint:  the ad contained one of our most memorable advertising slogans, and it advertised a product that most people today have never heard of.

The Ad that Launched a Thousand Tributes

The ad was for RED CROSS® Kidney Plasters, and the tagline was “Feels Good on the Back.”  RED CROSS® Kidney Plasters were one of the Company’s most popular medicated plasters, and they provided pain relief for abdominal and lower back pain.  They got their name because they were kidney-shaped and were worn low on the back – over the kidneys. 

An actual kidney plaster, with its distinctive kidney shape

The Feels Good on the Back ad made its debut around 1889-1890 and immediately became a hit with the public.  The image of the couple sitting on a beach watching the waves come in, with the man’s arm around the woman’s waist, really resonated with people.  And when you look closely at the ad, that’s no surprise:  the image, with its tagline “Feels Good on the Back” appealed to people because it wasn’t about kidney plasters.  It was really about human connections and human touch.  The phrase certainly applied to the therapeutic effects of a kidney plaster, but when accompanied by the illustration, it also highlighted the soothing and comforting effects of touch – something that the Company also brought out in its baby products advertising, and which continues to be a focus in many of our ads today. 

The couple was facing away from the viewer, which only added to the appeal.  Since viewers couldn’t see their faces, people could substitute themselves for the couple in the ad peacefully watching the ocean – sort of a late 19th century zen moment.  (Actually, blog readers might want to take a moment and try doing that right now:  it actually works, and you’ll get a few seconds of calm, peacefulness and comfort.  You can practically hear the waves and feel the sun.) 

1916 Drugstore Window Display

Johnson & Johnson was inundated with requests for the ad, and poster-sized copies were soon displayed in thousands of drugstore windows.  During World War I, the image and theme were used a number of times to illustrate support for the men and women serving in the armed forces. 

A 1918 U.S. Liberty Loan Campaign featured this cartoon homage to the Feels Good on the Back ad.  Lady Liberty has her arm around a soldier.

People took the Feels Good on the Back ad so much to heart that many of them felt compelled to produce their own versions, which they sent to Johnson & Johnson.  Fred Kilmer, who edited the Company publications, reprinted these efforts in THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, the publication for retail pharmacists.  (Since I’m blogging, I feel compelled to point out that the consumer artwork in our publication around 100 years ago was an early example of user-generated content!)  Here are some of the public’s efforts that were reprinted in the MESSENGERS.

A couple in Philadelphia, PA  re-enacts the ad for “Anybody’s Magazine in 1911.

Drawing inspired by the Feels Good on the Back ad

Another drawing — this one with a little bit of humor added to the scene

Even the Company got into the act.  This one appeared on the cover of the January, 1917  edition of THE RED CROSS MESSENGER.

The Feels Good on the Back ad ran unchanged for an astounding 30 years.  At one point, the Company tried to update the woman’s outfit, causing a flood of protests from consumers who wanted the ad kept exactly as it was.  Here’s what Fred Kilmer said: 

“…she had become a favorite in many lands.  The whole world had grown to know her as a friend and to manifest an interest in her love affair.  And her friends simply wouldn’t permit her to wear anything but those simple old-fashioned clothes.  They protested vehemently.  So for thirty years she has snapped her fingers at Dame Fashion.”   [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. XII, No. 4, 1919,  p. 93]

The Company very wisely decided not to go through with the update.   And even though the product advertised by the couple in the ad is from a much earlier time in our history, their image still connects with people today because of the universal feelings it appeals to. 
 
In my next post, I’ll talk about an ad from 1922 that was so popular that the Company brought it back over half a century later.

When people think of LISTERINE® Antiseptic, probably the last thing they think about is electric guitars.  But they should, because LISTERINE®  and the electric guitar go back more than half a century together.  What was the connection?  It was through Les Paul (1915-2009), one of the inventors of the solid body electric guitar, who passed away this summer at age 94.  The LISTERINE®  Brand sponsored his groundbreaking television show in the 1950s.

This on-screen sponsorship ID appeared at the beginning of every episode of Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home

Starting in 1952, the LISTERINE®  Brand sponsored Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home, a five-minute long network television show broadcast from Les Paul’s home in Mahwah, New Jersey.  (That’s not a typo — the episodes were only five minutes long!)  Each episode featured Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford, and some absolutely amazing, incredible guitar playing.  The show ran for 170 episodes. 

Guitar Legend Les Paul and Mary Ford, 1952

The story goes that Les Paul relocated from Hollywood, California to New Jersey specifically to do the show because Mahwah was close to the headquarters of the Lambert Company, which made LISTERINE®  Antiseptic in the early 1950s.  (The merger that would make them into Warner-Lambert happened in 1955.)  Apparently, the Lambert Company president had heard Les Paul and Mary Ford’s hit song “How High the Moon?” and loved it so much that he came up with the idea for a LISTERINE®  – sponsored TV show broadcast from the couple’s home five days a week.  Les Paul accepted, and moved to New Jersey.  You can read the whole story on the Jazz Times website. 

Here’s one of the episodes of Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home.  Be sure to check out the vintage glass LISTERINE®  Antiseptic bottle at the beginning:

And here’s an episode in which Les Paul tries to fix their refrigerator…by serenading it!  This episode also features a vintage LISTERINE® commercial in the middle of the show.

The LISTERINE® Brand became a part of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies in 2006, so we can’t take credit for the idea of sponsoring Les Paul’s television show, but it’s a fascinating piece of history that’s now part of the collective history of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. 

From the video clip above, Les Paul plays for his refrigerator

By the way, not only was Les Paul a pioneer in inventing the solid body electric guitar, he also invented multitrack recording, tape delay and many other things that we take for granted as part of modern music.  Most people know Les Paul for the Gibson Les Paul guitar, one of the most recognizable and iconic electric guitars in the world.

The guitar that needs no introduction:  The Gibson Les Paul

So the next time you pick up that bottle of LISTERINE® in your bathroom, you’ll know that you’re not just holding an antiseptic mouthwash first formulated in 1879…you’re ALSO holding the product that sponsored Les Paul — the legend who helped make not only rock music but modern recording techniques possible. 

From Les Paul and Mary Ford’s TV show:  perhaps the most interesting LISTERINE® spokesperson…er, spokes-frog, ever.

And because this is just WAY too good to pass up, here’s one last episode of Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home, with a talking cartoon frog advertising LISTERINE® Antiseptic!

About this time of year almost 100 years ago, Johnson & Johnson would have been reminding you that it was time for Clean Up Week.  What was Clean Up Week, and why was a company nagging people to clean their houses and yards?

Clean Up Week was a concept promoted by Johnson & Johnson to rally people around spring cleaning…which leads us back to the question:  Why did the people at Johnson & Johnson feel they needed to remind people to clean their houses?  It’s not as if they were planning a visit.  

The reminders were due to something else entirely:  the Company’s commitment to public health and reducing the spread of infectious diseases.  So the idea behind Clean Up Week wasn’t just to spruce up your house after a long winter or get rid of clutter, it was to really scrub any areas in which germs could be lurking.  That was critically important in the days before antibiotics and vaccines, when the warmer weather of spring all too often brought the resurgence of diseases such as polio, diphtheria, measles, smallpox, typhoid, whooping cough, and more.  The Clean Up Week campaigns were designed to educate the public so that they could help reduce the spread of these illnesses and keep their families and communities safer.

Illustration of Lister’s Fumigator, one of the Company’s early products, at work.

 Here’s what the March, 1917 edition of THE RED CROSS MESSENGER (our publication for retail pharmacists) said:

“Clean-up time means much more than it did a few years ago to most people.  Now they do not simply plan to clean-up for the sake of tidiness.  They clean to protect their homes, to make them safe for their children…to disinfect and fumigate their homes and to freshen living rooms and bed rooms and kill disease germs.”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. IX, No. 5, March 1917, p. 132] 

So Johnson & Johnson ran full-page color ads in national magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Designer, Woman’s Magazine, Cosmopolitan and Pictorial Review announcing Clean Up Week.  The ads were beautiful and eye-catching, and featured a woman in full “cleaning the house” attire of that era, as well as hands holding a variety of Johnson & Johnson products that could be used for Clean Up Week.  These products included the antibacterial soaps Synol Soap and Camphenol, as well as fumigators (to get rid of disease-causing insects) and gauze (to use as scrubbing cloths). 

Black and White reproduction of a 1917 Clean Up Week ad 

The ads also promoted the giveaway of a Household Hand Book free to anyone interested.  The Household Hand Books were distributed by retail druggists, and could be imprinted with the name and address of the drugstore.  THE RED CROSS MESSENGER ran articles urging druggists to become leaders in their community with regard to public health, by distributing the handbooks and encouraging people to come to them for advice and supplies that they could use to clean up their homes and protect their families.

The Household Hand Book had a beautiful full-color cover, featuring a knight dressed in an odd combination of medieval and ancient Roman armor, with a “J&J” on his chest, ready to protect the home against germs, and standing in front of a banner with the dire-sounding quote “Men and Women are doomed constantly to combat dirt disease, and the devil.”    Naturally, Fred Kilmer was the editor of the Hand Book, and he thought of everything a family could potentially need from the publication.  The first page had space to write the contact information for the nearest doctor, druggist, hospital, police and fire station.  The introduction stated:

“The mission of this book is to assist in the war against disease and to aid in the conservation and promotion of health and life.  It is a book for every-day use by the individual, in the household, camp, shop, factory or community.  Primarily the book points out the way to prevent the spread of sickness and disease.  The teachings of the book are based upon the highest and most modern authorities in hygiene and sanitation.”  [Household Hand Book, 1917, inside front cover.]

The Household Hand Book contained advice on how to avoid contagious disease, pointers on caring for a sick patient and proper conduct in the sickroom, how to recognize the symptoms of different illnesses, how diseases are spread, how to disinfect your home, when to send for the doctor, first aid information, and more mundane things like how to care for your baby, proper daily care of the teeth, and commonsense advice on how to avoid accidents.  If you were part of a household in 1917, you would not only want a copy of the Household Hand Book, you would probably refer to it constantly.   After the national Clean Up Week ads ran, the Company was inundated by requests for the Household Hand Book from across the U.S.

Public Health Display of Household Handbooks, 1918

People would have rushed to their local drugstore to get the materials they would need, as recommended in the Clean Up Week ads.  And because Johnson & Johnson educated retail pharmacists about its products, the pharmacists could speak knowledgeably (if they had read the materials) about how the Company’s products such as antibacterial soaps and fumigators worked, how they were manufactured, and how they could help people keep their families safe. 

In 1918, during World War I, the Clean Up Week campaign was portrayed as a home-front war measure in defense of the home from germs.  Once again, the Company enlisted the help of the retail pharmacists who sold our products to inaugurate Clean Up Weeks in their towns, urging them to get the cooperation of the mayor, the town’s merchants and the schools. 

By the way, here’s a list of places in and outside the house that people were urged to clean and disinfect during Clean Up Week.  Inside the house:  ceilings, floor, doors, closets, garrets, windows, baseboards, cupboards, stairways, cellars, window frames, sashes and glass.  Outside the house, people were advised to clear brush and rubbish in back yards, clean vaults and sewers, stagnant pools, gutters, barnyards, chicken houses, drains, stables and dog houses.  

Postcard from the Nineteen Teens, addressed to “Synol Soap” (instead of Johnson & Johnson) in New Brunswick, N.J.   

Once readers recovered from the backbreaking and exhausting task of spring cleaning in the Nineteen-Teens, they could be sure that they were, as the cover of the Household Hand Book said, “The Protector of The Home Against Germs,” an important mission and a necessity over 90 years ago.

Regular readers of Kilmer House have learned that, in the early days of the Company, Johnson & Johnson had its own water filtration plant to ensure that it had pure water for manufacturing, its own power house to generate electricity, and its own swimming pool as a benefit for employees.  So you’re probably wondering what else the Company had that might seem unusual today.

So here goes:  we also had our own printing presses – big ones.  They were part of the Johnson & Johnson Printing Department which, in 1916, had 35 employees.

One of the gigantic printing presses in the Printing Department, from 1911

So…what did we print?  The Johnson & Johnson Printing Department printed labels for the Company’s products, ads, show cards, scale pan covers* and other materials provided to retail druggists in order to increase their business and boost Company sales…and of course, RED CROSS NOTES and THE RED CROSS MESSENGER.  Employees in the Printing Department also printed a wide variety of booklets and pamphlets to educate doctors, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists and consumers about health and medical care, sanitation and public health.  Some of it was black and white, but much of it was printed in full color.

A Drugstore Show Card printed by the Printing Department            

  

Like every other area of the Company, the printing department was scrupulously clean.  A retail druggist who visited Johnson & Johnson in 1916 noted:  “Cleanliness was the unbroken rule everywhere, in and about the buildings.  Even in the printing department, where thirty or more employees are kept busy with modern machinery getting out the pretty labels and the beautiful art work, one could wear a Palm Beach suit without danger of having it daubed with ink.”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, January 1916, vol. VIII, Nos. 7 and 8, p. 459, “The Factory Behind the Goods.” ] 

Why did Johnson & Johnson do its own printing back then?  Because of the Company’s exacting standards and the demand for its products that kept production at high and growing levels.  Johnson & Johnson had its own printing department because it was the best way to help fulfill its mission.  But wait – hasn’t the Company’s mission always been to make products that saved lives and improved health?  So how was printing part of that? 

    

 Belladonna Plasters and Carbolated Gauze, showing printed labels

In today’s world, it’s no longer necessary for a company to print its own product labels or advertising materials.  But 100 years ago, with fewer resources widely available, it made more sense for Johnson & Johnson to do its printing in-house – in order to keep up with the rapid production of products, and to fulfill the Company’s advertising and educational goals.  (In fact, a 1914 edition of THE RED CROSS MESSENGER – at the start of World War I when the Company was working around the clock to produce bandages and other materials – noted that due to the high work load, the Printing Department was unable to print the usual issue of the MESSENGER at the time, and would make up for it with a double issue at the next publication date.)  The Printing Department was a huge part not only of fulfilling product orders, but also of the way Johnson & Johnson communicated through advertising and education.

An employee in the Printing Department

So whether an employee worked in the Cotton Mill bleaching and sterilizing the cotton that went into the Company’s sterile surgical dressings, or in the printing department printing labels, ads and publications, he or she both would have seen their work as contributing to the Company’s goal of making products that saved lives and helped people.  They both would have felt they were helping improve people’s health, not only with products but with labels, advertising and educational materials.

An issue of THE RED CROSS MESSENGER printed by the Printing Department

So, you’re probably thinking, “Okay, fair enough.  But is there ANYTHING that Johnson & Johnson didn’t do itself 100 years ago?”  Of course:  we purchased raw materials to make our products, among other things.  And though the Printing Department may have printed the labels, we did purchase the elements that went into our product’s packaging.

Like cigar boxes, from the cigar box factory down the street:

Does this plaster box look suspiciously like a cigar box?

Or jars, from the local fruit jar manufacturer:

Rows of jars holding aseptic gauze in the Gauze Mill’s Jar Finishing Room

Or collapsible metal tubes, for JOHNSON’S^® Shaving Cream Soap.  (By the way, New Brunswick’s fruit jar company, the Consolidated Fruit Jar Company, was quite well-known at the time…even having John Mason – of Mason Jar fame – as a partner of the business in 1871.)

* Scale pan covers were designed to line the pans of scales used by retail druggists to measure items that were sold by weight.  Since both druggists and customers would be looking at the scale every time one of these transactions took place, it was a good place to advertise.

A Scale Pan Cover (scanned onto a black background) — they were round to fit on the round pans of drugstore scales.

How did the rise of the automobile and the space constraints of an electric sign lead to one of the best-known advertising campaigns in Johnson & Johnson history?   And why did Prohibition cause the Company to change it?

The rise of the automobile in the early part of the 20th century had a huge impact on American society.  With the advent of mass-produced, affordable cars, people suddenly had much greater mobility.  This enabled families to travel far beyond their local corner drugstores to shop for medicines, personal care items and other supplies.

L. & W. De Martini Drugstore, Jersey City, New Jersey, 1917

Druggists, the backbone of the Company’s retail trade, started feeling the pinch of reduced customer traffic and sales.  Sensing an opportunity, Johnson & Johnson created a slogan, “Your Druggist is More Than a Merchant,” and made it the theme of a national advertising campaign in 1920.  The campaign highlighted the corner druggist’s scientific knowledge and pharmaceutical expertise.  It also subtly reminded people that the proprietor of the local corner drugstore wasn’t just an anonymous merchant:  he had scientific expertise and he knew his customers and their families well because they were his neighbors.

Scientific Director Fred Kilmer (a former retail pharmacist) felt that retail drugstores were more than just commercial enterprises.  According to Kilmer, retail pharmacists were scientifically trained professionals guarding the health of the community, and the Company’s advertising campaign reflected this.

The Enormous Johnson & Johnson Sign, Under Construction

Johnson & Johnson had constructed a huge electric sign in New Brunswick, measuring 115 feet long and over 31 feet high, on the roof of one of its buildings.  The sign could be seen by the hundreds of thousands of passengers on the Pennsylvania Railroad as it passed through New Brunswick, and it served as a landmark.  It was impossible to miss, especially when it was all lit up at night.

According to Fred Kilmer, the most famous part of the advertising campaign — the slogan — started because of the sign.  The Company wanted something that would pay tribute to retail pharmacists…but it had to be brief enough to fit on the sign.  Here’s what Kilmer said:

“In our magazine advertising we can – and we do – pay tribute to the druggist at length.  But a few words is all the sign will carry and all the people can read from the car windows in these days of fast travel.  We wanted an easily remembered sentence that would sum up the advantages of dealing with the druggist.  And this is the message we flashed:  ‘YOUR DRUGGIST IS MORE THAN A MERCHANT.’”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol XIII, No. 1, 1920, p. 227]

The sign, lit up to advertise Baby Powder.  A description states that the lettering was white, the crosses were red, and the border was yellow.

“Your Druggist is More than a Merchant” was a smashing success and it was soon picked up by retail druggists across the U.S. who started using it in their own advertising.  It grew more and more popular with each subsequent advertising campaign.

Everything was going just fine until a respected pharmaceutical journal suddenly refused to carry the ad.  According to the editor, the slogan “Your Druggist is More than a Merchant” was an incomplete thought…and too many people were completing it by adding their own ending:  “He is a Bootlegger.”  (This was during Prohibition in the 1920s, and bootlegging was of course illegal….and popular.)

So the Company’s advertising department quickly came up with its own ending:  “Your Druggist is More Than a Merchant.  Try the Drug Store First.”

That solved the problem.  Publications ran the new ads, and the new slogan went on to achieve even greater success.  Pharmacy associations across the United States adopted it as their official slogan, and druggists used it on banners in parades and in “truth” campaigns.  In England, it was adapted to become “Your Chemist is More than a Merchant,” and it was translated into French in Canada.  The campaign worked wonders for drugstore sales – including sales of Johnson & Johnson products – which started to soar again.   Fred Kilmer estimated that the slogan appeared over one billion times in advertising and promotions…not bad for what Kilmer referred to as “an easily remembered sentence that tells a big story.”  [THE RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. XIII, No. 6, 1921, p. 379] 

UPDATE:  a computer-savvy reader colorized the sign picture, based on the description above.  The sign must’ve been truly eye-catching in person.  Here’s the colorized version:

Many people remember Little Golden Books from their childhoods. They’re small, filled with lots of colorful illustrations, and have short, heartwarming stories for young children.  Everybody probably had a favorite Little Golden Book when they were little: The Three Little Kittens, The Fuzzy Duckling, Scuffy the Tugboat, Little Red Riding Hood, The Saggy Baggy Elephant…and the one about BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages.  Wait a second…the one about WHAT?

Cover of Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, courtesy of Little Golden Books

You read correctly: the one about BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages. In 1950, the publishers of Little Golden Books published Doctor Dan The Bandage Man, about a little boy named Dan who is out playing with his friends and scratches his finger.

In a scene familiar to most households, Dan gets his finger bandaged by his Mom.  Illustration and Text From Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, by Helen Gaspard, courtesy of Little Golden Books

Dan runs crying to see his mom, who promptly washes the scratch and covers it with a BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandage. For the rest of the book, every time a friend, a pet, a toy or his Dad gets a cut or scrape, Dan puts a bandage on the injury to make it better. On the last page, his Dad nicknames him “Doctor Dan the Bandage Man.”

Page showing where the six BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages were attached.

But that’s not all.  The book came with six real BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages — attached inside and advertised on the cover — so that kids could bandage their own hurt toys, should the need arise.

So how did the Company manage to get one of its most familiar products placed into a book series read by millions of parents to their children?  According to the Publisher’s Note at the beginning of the book, we didn’t…they came to us.  Here’s what Simon and Schuster (the publisher in 1950)  said:

“For a long, long time, the publishers have been ardent admirers of BAND-AID Adhesive Bandages – not only for themselves (publishers seem to cut themselves more than other people) but because of their effect on children.  We’ve noted that BAND-AID Adhesive Bandages not only cheer and comfort small boys and girls who bang themselves up, but that they make wonderful playthings as well.  No one quite knows how many millions of dolls and stuffed toys…have been patched up in this manner.”

“Consequently, when the idea for this book came to us, we promptly went to Johnson & Johnson and asked them if they would be willing to help us. They were very nice about it and asked that we point out that BAND-AID is Johnson & Johnson’s trademark for its brand of adhesive bandages and for several other products in its line.”

Besides illustrating the fact that we had a trademark law department that never slept even back in 1950, this publishers note shows that, three decades after they were invented, BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages had become such a part of parents’ and children’s lives that the most popular children’s book publisher wrote a story about them.

According to Random House (the publisher of Little Golden Books today), Doctor Dan marked one of the first ventures into book and product joint packaging, something that’s common today. And Doctor Dan’s first printing of 1.75 million copies (each copy containing six BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages – that’s a staggering 10.5 million total adhesive bandages given to readers!) is the largest first printing of any Little Golden Book to date, according to Random House’s timeline (which is dated 2002).

Here’s a good history of Little Golden Books – they were the first inexpensive, high-quality children’s books that were widely available, and allowed many more families to afford and own books for their children.

Doctor Dan bandages his sister’s doll, courtesy of Little Golden Books

Doctor Dan the Bandage Man proved to be so popular that it was reprinted in 2004 and is still in print today (and yes, it still comes with BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandages). It’s also featured in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian as a piece of American culture.

If you’re interested in reading Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, it’s available to read here.

In 1908 Johnson & Johnson completed an addition to the “New” Red Cross Cotton Mill.  The mill had been built in 1901 and just a few short years later, it needed to be expanded due to the growth of the surgical dressings, cotton and gauze business and the need for extra manufacturing capacity.   As was its tradition, the Company held a reception and dance for employees to inaugurate the new building…on the evening of Friday, October 2, 1908 from 8:00 pm to midnight. 

Let’s step back to that evening 100 years ago and take a look.

According to Oct. 3, 1908 edition of The New Brunswick Times, the party was “one of the largest and jolliest dances ever held in New Brunswick,” and The Home News estimated that over 2,500 people attended.   The Times went on to mention: “It has been the custom of this firm to have an affair something in the nature of a housewarming in every large addition built to the plant before the machinery is installed.”  (N.B. Times article, “Two Thousand at J. And J. Dance,” Oct. 3, 1908) This was the Company’s way of celebrating its success with employees, and it had a special significance in 1908.  The U.S. had been hit by the Panic of 1907, a financial crisis and recession, but Johnson & Johnson had managed to weather the storm and even continue expanding its plant capacity due to the nature of its products and the prudence of its management.

The Cotton Mill and New Addition, 1907.  The dirt road is George Street.

So on that Saturday night in October of 1908, employees and their guests arrived at the addition to the Cotton Mill, which was located exactly where Johnson Hall stands today.  The new addition brought the Company’s campus to 40 buildings and a half million square feet of manufacturing space.  There was such a large crowd in the Cotton Mill that the dance took place on two floors of the huge addition, with Haywood’s Orchestra providing the music on one floor, and Professor Chas. Mezei’s Hungarian Orchestra playing traditional Hungarian music on the other floor for the enjoyment of the Company’s numerous Hungarian employees. Each attendee received a card marked “Refreshments,” which was redeemed for a brick of Neapolitan ice cream and cake. Robert Wood Johnson and James Wood Johnson attended along with their families, and employees received a dance order booklet and a small commemorative spoon as souvenirs.  (A dance order booklet provided space in which to write the names of everyone you danced with.)

Souvenir Booklet from 1907 Reception

Inside Back Cover of Booklet, Showing Order of Dance Listing

In keeping with the character of the Company, the booklet didn’t just contain space for social information.  It also had a letter to employees from President Robert Wood Johnson, a listing of the Company’s entire executive and supervisory staff (a number of the department supervisors were women, and there was a female scientist in the Scientific Department!), an article on the Company’s history up to 1908, and articles on the Laurel Club and the Company’s Welfare Department (the department that provided medical care and other benefits to employees).  Here are some excerpts from Robert Wood Johnson’s letter: 

Robert Wood Johnson 

“We are all fortunate, in that we are engaged in manufacturing products to be used throughout the world for the relief of pain and suffering.  We believe that each and every one of us is entitled to some credit and a certain reward for being factors in benefitting [sic] mankind.  Johnson & Johnson have been educators, teaching the world how to treat wounds according to modern methods and how to save life….Johnson & Johnson do not forget that a great part of their success has been due to the skill and care taken by their employees, you all put forth your best effort loyally and jointly, observing all the rules relating to modern wound dressing so that when the products reach the surgeon or the physician he has felt absolute confidence in them.” 
“You are carrying out every day rules of cleanliness which have always been our watch-word, and we feel proud of having a force who know and realize the necessity of such supreme care, and who realize that the use of the goods which they prepare may mean life or death to those whom they may be applied.” 
“We, therefore take this opportunity of thanking you and to express our appreciation of the good work which you have done not only for Johnson & Johnson but for the world at large.”

The letter shows the camaraderie that Johnson felt for his ever-growing number of employees, and the knowledge that they were all engaged together in an important mission to help people.  Echoes of Johnson’s words from 100 years ago can be seen today in the way we refer to the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies, as well as in our new Company description: 

Caring for the world, one person at a time… inspires and unites the people of Johnson & Johnson. We embrace research and science – bringing innovative ideas, products and services to advance the health and well-being of people. Employees of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies work with partners in health care to touch the lives of over a billion people every day, throughout the world.