Charmin Lady Paper Towel Holder & History
Jul 19, 2011
Debby, from Georgia,recently submitted this picture of a paper towel dispenser with the Charmin Lady on it, asking what type of folded paper towel would fit in. Paper towels? Yes, paper towels were once part of the Charmin family of products! P&G eventually discontinued all the other Charmin products, including napkins and facial tissue.
The Charmin Lady was the original icon for the Charmin brand. The silhouette of the woman’s head was from a cameo pin. I found this ad on the Thirsty in Suburbia blog from circa 1952, which still had the Charmin Lady on the packaging.
At the time, toilet paper was being marketed to women, enticing them with feminine advertising. By avoiding the topic of the actual use of toilet paper, the Charmin Lady ad campaign succeeded in a time when competitors were marketing toilet paper as a medicinal product. The Charmin branding eventually evolved to include babies, the well-known Mr. Whipple, and the Charmin bears.
We recommended that Debby use Signature C-Fold Hand Towels in the holder. Thanks for submitting your photo!
Readers, let us know if you have any questions or submissions! We love to hear from you!
It is interesting that marketing has changed so much in the past years – that before no one would ever dream of creating an ad that actually had something to DO with the use of toilet paper itself. Apparently we can handle more of the “truth” psychologically these days – although they still use cute little bears to get around showing an actual human being using the product… Not that I’m complaining – they’re adorable!
Awesome, thanks for sharing! I wonder what the older advertisements for Charmin around the world looked like?
Ha! How did we get from this to a big snuggly bear?!? I love vintage ads and this one is beautiful. Great post.
Does anyone else find it funny that the toilet paper ad features a women standing in a *kitchen* and not a bathroom? I would think those two ideas would be contradictory!!
-Sandy
[...] Mr. Whipple, came the Charmin Lady, which we featured a few weeks ago. Now, the Charmin advertising campaign is based on bears in the [...]
Wow! What a cool old paper-towel holder. I would love one to find one of those for my vintage decor.
I wonder why all of the other Charmin products got discontinued! I love their TP and would definitely consider buying other items from them if they were still around.
Kayla
Charmin is great, but I’m thinking about switching to a recycled toilet paper product.
And look forward to reading more here, really interesting times. Thank you again for all the details.
Huh, didn’t know that about Charmin. I love seeing old ads, it’s fascinating to see how advertising and marketing has changed over the decades. It also shows how society’s views have changed over time, as well- ie: how Charmin ads were targeted towards women whereas now they appeal to everyone.
So true! Although many household items advertisements still are primarily targeting women.
I know that this site is about TP (which I LOVE- the site and TP I mean) but since this is a vintage ad thought you might like this site, too. Maybe there’s some other TP stuff on there but I haven’t seen it.
http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/
I really love the skirt and shoes the model is wearing in the ad…I know, I’m such a girl. Lol. That whole off the shoulder Carmen Miranda look doesn’t really work for me though. I like finding old ads like this.
Valuable info. Lucky me I found your site accidentally, and I’m surprised why this coincidence didn’t happened earlier! I bookmarked it.