Blast from the Past: New! Improved! Classic Laundry Soap Commercials

I've done a lot of Blast from the Past installments, on many subjects. And though I'm pretty sure I've included soap commercials, and maybe even one or two of the selections below, I've never hit the all-time NEW! IMPROVED!!! category itself: laundry detergent. For whatever reason, in the 70s especially, Wall Street was intent on selling us improved soap for our clothes. Some of these are still with us today, and they just keep improving them!

Often, this column expounds at length on the clips featured, but I'm not sure it's necessary with this one. I mean, what can you say about soap? I'll just let the commercials (mostly) speak for themselves!

1. Calgon - "Ancient Chinese secret, huh?"
2. Oxydol Plus



3. Tide
4. Wisk - "Ring around the collar!"



5. Cheer - With a Star Trek theme, from 1969!
6. Bold - With Laugh-In's JoAnne Worley!



7. Gain
8. Era



And that's a wash! We're done for the weekend, happy Monday, everybody!

The Best Excuse Not to Do Laundry: It Causes Cancer

Image from Raw Story

Yep, good old new and improved laundry detergents and dryer sheets may cause cancer. At our house, we use an unscented/undyed variety. But let's face it, it's from Big Lots. Do you really think we're safer? Oy. Anyway, these scents are not regulated, and neither emissions from dryer vents. And some people want less regulations (or like Rick Perry, no regulations). Great idea.


[Excerpt]

Top-selling scented laundry products release hazardous chemicals: study

Laundry vents emit hazardous air pollutants when people use popular fragranced laundry detergents and dryer sheets, according to research published in Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health. . .

Read more at: Raw Story