Kilmer House

From the earliest days of Johnson & Johnson, the Johnson brothers recognized the importance of advertising, and Robert Wood Johnson the first was often personally very involved in the development of ads for the Company’s products…sometimes too involved, the people at the advertising agency felt.  Johnson had excellent instincts about what would and wouldn’t work, and he kept J. Walter Thompson and his advertising agency busy with his many suggestions and changes. Thompson and Johnson were friends, and Thompson handled the Johnson & Johnson account personally.  (Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel, by Lawrence G. Foster, pp. 50-51)  From the beginning, the Company’s ads always were good and some of them were brilliant, with specific ad campaigns becoming a part of popular culture or breaking new ground.  

In keeping with the times – and depending on the product being advertised — some of the earliest ads were wordy and explanatory,

Example of an Explanatory Ad Typical of the Era 

some were sentimental,

while others were brief and to the point. 

However, it was with ads for Zonweiss, an early tooth-whitening tooth cream, that the Company really got creative.

This ad for Zonweiss is fairly simple, though eye-catching, with a black background and a smiling sun getting its teeth brushed by a small, flying cherub. The text of the ad stressed the “snowy-white creamy Zonweiss” in its blue jar (the blue enhanced the whiteness of the tooth cream), and included some quotes from satisfied customers – including a U.S. Senator! — praising the product.  The subtle (or not so subtle) inference that could be drawn from the illustration was that Zonweiss tooth cream would make your teeth blindingly white, as bright as the rays of the sun in the picture. 

Here’s another ad for Zonweiss from the 1800s, which appeared in my previous Zonweiss post, with a cartoon showing hat-wearing bears enthusiastically brushing the teeth of a baby bear.  If the bears weren’t enough, the ad included a poem:

“When pearly rows of Teeth are seen
In beauty glistening white and clean,
No need to ask about the cause,
Or moralize on Nature’s laws,
But let your thoughts at once incline
To ZONWEISS, perfect, pure and fine
A Dental Cream of cleansing power,
That grows in favor every hour.”

Zonweiss “Gulliver’s Travels” Ad 

There were Zonweiss ads with Halloween witches and Ancient Greek gods sitting on clouds. One of the most wildly creative Zonweiss ads is this one from 1887, which looks like it came straight out of a Victorian children’s book illustration.  The hand-drawn ad shows a scene from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, in which Gulliver is tied down to the ground by the Lilliputians.  However, in the ad, they’re not menacing him; they are brushing his teeth with Zonweiss.  The accompanying product testimonial is from Gulliver himself, and says:  “The efforts of these little fellows to find uses for my toilet articles particularly their attempt to scrub my teeth with my tooth brush and Zonweiss amused me greatly and I was pleased to see that they appreciated an article of such rare excellence as Zonweiss! – Gulliver”

Zonweiss Tooth Cream in its Blue Jar

So what spurred Johnson & Johnson to make such a departure from its usual advertising style and use these unusual and eye-catching ads for this product?   Most likely, it’s because Zonweiss never really caught on with consumers.  The Company made Zonweiss from 1887 until 1935, even packaging it in what was said to be the first squeezable toothpaste tube, but that still wasn’t enough to catch people’s attention…so the Johnson brothers tried to make up for that lack of attention with these fanciful ads.

James Wood Johnson

While the outgoing, forceful personality and ideas of Robert Wood Johnson the first were the cornerstones of the early success of Johnson & Johnson, the contributions of his brother James Wood Johnson also helped make the Company into the organization we know today. 

James Wood Johnson was born on March 17, 1856 at Crystal Lake in Pennsylvania and was the eleventh and youngest child in the Johnson family.  From childhood, he was interested in mechanical things and, although he started out as a “traveler,” or salesman at Seabury & Johnson at age 22, he quickly moved to something that took better advantage of his talents and interests:  developing plaster-making machinery.  James became assistant superintendent of manufacturing at Seabury & Johnson, and he solved many of the early engineering problems behind mass-producing medicated plasters, bringing this expertise with him when he co-founded Johnson & Johnson in 1886. 

It was James Wood Johnson who, while traveling by train from New York to Philadelphia, saw the “To Let” sign on the former wallpaper factory building in New Brunswick, New Jersey, causing him to get off of his train and rent the first space for the Company in New Brunswick…where Johnson & Johnson has been headquartered ever since.  While Edward Mead Johnson concentrated on opening a small sales office at 32 Cedar Street in New York, James focused on the operations side of the business in New Brunswick, hiring workers and installing machinery.  Here’s a photograph of the plaster making machinery at Johnson & Johnson from 1912.

This photo shows the plaster spreading room, with plaster grinders and mixers.  The plaster masses, infused with medications, can clearly be seen on the tables, ready to be spread flat by the plaster-spreading machinery.

Fred Kilmer wrote a description of James Wood Johnson in the January, 1913 issue of RED CROSS MESSENGER, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 1887 incorporation of the Company that had taken place in the previous year.  By this time, James Wood Johnson was president of Johnson & Johnson, having succeeded to that role on the death of Robert Wood Johnson the first in 1910.  Here’s how Kilmer described James Wood Johnson: 

“Mr. Johnson is skilled in engineering, and it has been a portion of his work to devise and put together machinery, apparatus and systems which have played a notable part in the progress of Johnson & Johnson.”  (RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. 5, No. 8, January, 1913, p. 214)

“Personally, Mr. Johnson is quiet and unassuming, but he holds a firm grasp on all the many-sided affairs of the industry, and is in constant touch with every activity.  He is well informed in the progress of the times, in science, literature, and in commerce.”  (RED CROSS MESSENGER, Vol. 5, No. 8, January, 1913, p. 214)

James Wood Johnson was president of the Company from 1910 to 1932.  Backed by a group of strong managers from his brother’s years of leadership, James Wood Johnson continued his brother’s policies. 

His tenure saw the expansion of the Company’s baby products and first aid products lines and the introduction of the BAND-AID® Brand Adhesive Bandage, which he gave the go-ahead to after it was invented by a Cotton Mill employee named Earle Dickson.  James Wood Johnson’s leadership of the Company also saw the purchase of the Chicopee Manufacturing Company in Massachusetts, and the Company’s first international expansion — to Canada in 1919, and England in 1924, and expansion to Mexico and South Africa in 1930.  This expansion was the idea of James’ nephew Robert, who was taking an increasingly larger role in Johnson & Johnson; initially, James was opposed to it because he felt it would hurt the Company’s export business. 

James Wood Johnson and One of his Daughters

James Wood Johnson lived with his wife and two daughters on Union Street in New Brunswick, in a house full of artifacts that he had collected on his travels, which included trips to the Klondike and Mexico, as well as numerous other expeditions.  (Robert Wood Johnson: The Gentleman Rebel, by Lawrence G. Foster, p. 93)  Quieter and less excitable than his brother Robert Wood Johnson, James had a reputation for kindness.  He remained President of Johnson & Johnson until 1932, although ill health forced him to take an increasingly smaller role.  But the Company’s strong management, and the growing responsibilities of his nephew, Robert Wood Johnson the second, insured that the Company remained strong. 

It’s a sign of the times.  People feel hurried, under stress in a time of rapid change.  Their diets have expanded but they’re not eating the right foods.  And all of that is taking a toll on their digestion.   Quick –what year is it?  The answer may surprise you:  it’s 1888.    Indigestion, or dyspepsia, was so common in the United States at the end of the 19th century that it was referred to as America’s “national disease.”  The diet at the time was heavily tilted toward meat and potatoes (even for breakfast!) accompanied by heavy sweets, such as cakes and pies.  The need for products to combat dyspepsia naturally did not escape the notice of the Johnson brothers.  And they turned to…a tropical fruit. 

At Johnson & Johnson, serious attention was being given to experiments with the Carica papaya fruit from Central America.  The juices from the papaya broke food down in a way that was very similar to human digestion, with the result that it was thought to be the perfect remedy for indigestion, or dyspepsia. The Company conducted numerous scientific experiments with papaya extract, and made a range of products with names such as Papoid, Dr. Finkler’s Papain, Essence of Carikola (which contained both papaya extract and kola and was marketed as a combination digestive aid and stimulant) and JOHNSON’S® Digestive Tablets.   

Papoid was the first of these products marketed by the Company.  It originally was developed by a company in Germany, and it appears in the Johnson & Johnson 1887 price list.   From this beginning, the Johnson brothers began investigating and developing their own products based on papaya extract. 

Ad from 1899 RED CROSS NOTES

Fred Kilmer detailed their experiments with the Carica papaya in RED CROSS NOTES, which was the Company’s scientific journal for doctors and surgeons. 

Edward Mead Johnson

Founding brother Edward Mead Johnson was particularly interested in these investigations and in the ability of Papoid products to help digestion.  The experiments with these products occupied more and more of Mead Johnson’s attention, with the result that in 1897 he left Johnson & Johnson to head the American Ferment Company, a small subsidiary company in Jersey City that focused on the development of papaya-based products.   One of these products, Cartoid, helped infants who had problems digesting milk.   Johnson changed the company name to Mead Johnson & Company, and in 1915 moved his business to Evansville, Indiana, where the company still is located today. 

Although the early Papoid products are an historical footnote, products made from the papaya still are used by many people today to help digestion and to tenderize food.  Here’s an interesting photo from our archives:  it shows Scientific Director Fred Kilmer (on the left) and the Company’s Secretary and Sales Manager, Alexander R. Lewis (right) posing for an advertisement for JOHNSON’S® Digestive Tablets.  The banner fastened to the tablecloth says “YOU CAN EAT ANYTHING AND BE HAPPY AS LONG AS YOU USE JOHNSON’S® DIGESTIVE TABLETS.”