The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond's, 1920s-1950s

The Power of Refined Beauty: Photographing Society Women for Pond's, 1920s-1950s at Duke University Libraries. "...The Pond’s Extract Company developed its Cold Cream, a skin cleanser, and Vanishing Cream, a skin protectant, as early as 1907, but only in 1916 did a concerted advertising campaign for the two beauty products commence. Both quickly became top sellers among women’s toiletries. By 1923, however, the rate of sales growth had slowed for both due to competition from new products on the market. Research by Pond’s advertising agency, J. Walter Thompson Company (JWT), found that growing numbers of middle-class women, equating price with quality, and quality with European origins, were paying several times more for imported toiletries than for Pond’s products of similar, if not higher, caliber. At the same time, research indicated that prominent society women purchased Pond’s products even though they could easily afford more expensive imports."