Fairy Soap (1897)
Fairy Soap is a soap brand owned by N.K. Fairbank Company around 1897. Nathaniel Kellogg 'N.K.' Fairbank (1829–1903) was a Chicago industrialist whose company, the N.K. Fairbank Co. manufactured soap as well as animal and baking products in conjunction with the major meatpacking houses of northern Illinois. [1]
Fairy soap is originally created by N.K. Fairbank, until it is bought by Procter & Gamble.
Controversy
It was predicted that this Fairy Soap ad probably appeared sometime after 1897, since N.K. Fairbank Co. was founded in 1875. As a company, N.K. Fairbank Company was in business from 1875 to 1921.
This ad is very much problematic, as it featured a white child asking a black child, “Why doesn’t your mamma wash you with Fairy soap?” [2] It sounded as if the black child was “dirty”, and the soap being advertised had the power to transform the colour of the child’s skin. This ad is connected with the recent racist ad from Dove
In this ad, Fairy soap presents a black child as dirty and devoid of any positive qualities. This ad emphasizes on the “accepted” skin colour in that period, is white.
Through the phrase “Why doesn’t your mamma wash you with Fairy Soap?”, this ad also criticizes the black mother’s choice of hygiene product for the kid, and praises the mother of the white girl.