![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/how-ads-sold-soap-and-pills-to-women-in-colonial-india/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/127300099_figure3334.1.jpg&description=Image caption, A 1933 advert for a tonic called Stri Mitra or A Woman's Friend featured a lipstick-wearing woman with her hair tied backAfter joining the consumer goods giant Unilever in 1937, a young Indian manager took part in what was possibly the first major marketing survey in the country based on household interviews.Female interviewers defied social conventions of the time by visiting the homes of strangers and asking middle-class housewives about which soap they preferred to use, recounted Prakash Tandon - who later became an influential business leader - in his biography.The interviewers pressed on even after they received a familiar reply - "my husband chooses" - which hewed to the conventional thinking of the time that Indian men controlled what their families bought.On further prodding, a respondent said: "Oh I see what you mean. My husband chooses, but of course, I tell him what to choose."After this survey, Lever Brothers - the then Indian subsidiary of Unilever - began developing campaigns for their products targeting housewives. This showed how a multinational firm "quickly applied its discovery of female centrality in decision-making [in India]", notes Douglas E Haynes, a professor of history at Dartmouth College.Prof Haynes has researched the emergence of professional advertising in colonial India, especially during the interwar years. His new book, The Emergence of Brand-Name Capitalism in Late Colonial India, provides fascinating insights into how multinationals wooed Indian women and the middle class during the 1920s and 1930s, the early days of advertising in the subcontinent.Image caption, An advert for a health pill targeted at Indian women in September 1933The firms gingerly tip-toed around local traditions to sell soaps, pills, perfumes and creams by promoting images of women which drew on ideals of marriage and motherhood. The firms also pitched products to husbands at a time when many housewives did not go to the market and stores for sho){kind=link}
After joining the consumer goods giant Unilever in 1937, a young Indian manager took part in what was possibly the first major marketing survey in the country based on household interviews.
Female interviewers defied social conventions of the time by visiting the homes of strangers and asking middle-class housewives about which soap they preferred to use, recounted Prakash Tandon – who later became an influential business leader – in his biography.
The interviewers pressed on even after they received a familiar reply – “my husband chooses” – which hewed to the conventional thinking of the time that Indian men controlled what their families bought.
On further prodding, a respondent said: “Oh I see what you mean. My husband chooses, but of course, I tell him what to choose.”
After this survey, Lever Brothers – the then Indian subsidiary of Unilever – began developing campaigns for their products targeting housewives.