Within the Curve of a Woman's Arm
Odorono1919
Within the Curve of a Woman's Arm is a 1919 magazine advertisement for Odorono, created by J. Walter Thompson.
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The line
Within the curve of a woman's arm
Why it works
The ad that taught American women to worry about sweat. Odorono, an antiperspirant first sold by a Cincinnati schoolgirl, had stalled by 1919, and a J. Walter Thompson door-to-door survey showed why: every woman knew it, but two-thirds felt they had no need for it. Copywriter James Webb Young stopped selling a remedy and started selling a social danger. Beneath a picture of a couple about to embrace, his headline opened into lyrical long copy warning that a woman could offend without ever knowing it. Some 200 Ladies' Home Journal readers cancelled their subscriptions and women Young knew stopped speaking to him, but Odorono's sales rose 112 per cent to $417,000 the next year, according to JWT's archives, and reached $1 million by 1927. It is studied as the prototype of "whisper copy", the insinuating, anxiety-led style that rivals soon imitated, and as an early case of research redirecting creative strategy. Young was later inducted into the One Club's Creative Hall of Fame.
Techniques
- Fear appeal Lyrical copy warns that a woman could offend without ever knowing it, turning sweat into a hidden social danger the product removes.
Sources · 3
Updated
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