Thomson Kirsch, Stone Guise, Max Zheng, Brandon Albrecht
Toilet paper: the ultimate disposable product. Justifiably, of course. Whoever wants to
recycle toilet paper? Once it is used, it is used, and reusing it would probably violate a good
number of health and sanitation recommendations. However, it was not always this way.
Immediately before someone (read: game-changer) came up with the idea of paper designed
solely for use where the sun does not shine, people used paper that they normally would have
thrown away, like old newspapers or advertisements. What they did before that isn’t worth
contemplating. Now, we live in a world with dozens, if not hundreds, of different types of toilet
paper, all with one quality that the creators would really like you to notice. Thus, advertising.
Advertising for toilet paper has probably changed as much as the actual product has, if not even
more. We present two different examples of this advertising to help illustrate this change. Above
left, we have Gayetty’s medicated paper, which was made in 1857 and was the first toilet paper
specifically advertised as such. On the right, we have a Charmin advertisement, exact date
unknown, but much more recent than the Gayetty’s ad. These advertisements are for the same
type of product, but the difference that a century and a half makes is remarkable.
First, how are the advertisements representing the product? Some of the only text in the
ad reveals how their product is “more durable than before, so it holds up better!” The Gayetty’s
ad, on the other hand, has no image. Instead, it relies purely on text to market itself. Even then,
the ad does not talk about the superiority of the Medicated Paper, instead focusing on how
terrible normal paper is for you. This ad also barely addresses the fact that the consumer would
be wiping their bum with the product.
The advertisements also try to develop a target audience with their use of advertising
ploys. For example, Gayetty’s focuses on the science behind their product, which gives the ad an
overall more educated feel. Charmin, on the other hand, makes no pretense about education or
class, instead just focusing on the humor in a bear trying to wipe its ass. Gayetty’s product is
therefore marketed to a higher-class, sophisticated clientele, and therefore it is also marketed to
anyone who wants to be high-class or sophisticated. Charmin relies almost entirely on their
brand name and the humor in the image to find their clientele, which gives them a broader, more
average target audience.
The advertisements also use radically different marketing strategies. Charmin puts a
strong focus on its name by placing their logo in the middle of the top of the ad. This makes
sense given the fact that Charmin is a very recognizable brand name. Instead of using text to get
their point across, the ad instead uses one large, central image that illustrates what the advertisers
believe is a significant problem amongst TP-users. This image anthropomorphizes bears, which
both provides humor and allows the advertisers to broach a subject that would normally be taboo
(imagine humans instead of bears in the image and it gets weird quickly). Charmin maintains
a very happy, joking atmosphere while marketing their product. Gayetty’s instead uses a more
aggressive approach by immediately warning the customer of all the terrible chemicals found
in normal printed paper. It goes on to describe the contents of an average sheet of printed paper
(which people used as TP at the time) as “death-dealing material”. Essentially, the advertisers
have no qualms about scaring people into buying their product. The ad goes on to say that it
is actually much less costly to pay for toilet paper instead of getting free paper, but having to
deal with the potential consequences. Gayetty’s also uses scientific phrases and chemical names
which, in the late 1800s, was the same as using magic to prove your point.
It is not hard at all to see the differences that time has wrought in these ads. When
looking at the Charmin advertisement, it’s quite clear that they don’t really care about the ideas
behind their product. Yes, it is for a rather unmentionable action, but they make it as light and
joking as possible, while still retaining some dignity. Gayetty’s is very prim and proper, and
barely mentions what their product is actually used for. Instead of actually talking about their
product, Gayetty’s focuses on how terrible the competition is for you, and the science behind
these claims. These ads definitely show how the standard for things you can display and talk
about has significantly lowered since 1857.
“The idea of the durable and reusable was displaced by aspirations of leisure and luxury,
ease and cleanliness” (Strasser 201) This quote from Susan Strassers’ book Waste and Want
neatly sums up what happened when Gayetty’s Medicated Paper was introduced. Why would
one use old, handled paper when fresh, soft, and easily disposable sheets were available? And so
began America’s love of mass consumption and trash production. Gayetty’s Medicated paper
was on the forefront of this revolution in disposability, bragging about how it was specifically
designed to be used once and thrown away. The Charmin advertisement does not draw any
attention to its disposability, but that seems to be because it is assumed that their product will
offer no problems when the times comes to get rid of it. This assumption was, in part, made by
Gayetty’s novel idea that we should have paper that exists only for you to clean yourself and
then be easily disposed of.
Strasser, Susan. "Having and Disposing in the New Consumer Culture." Waste and Want. 161-
201. Print.
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