Laundry was big business in the 1950s. As the decade progressed, most households owned automatic washing machines. Before automatic washers, laundry was done using wringer basins. As a child growing up in the 1960s, my grandmother had not yet transitioned to an automatic washer and dryer. She still used a basin where clothes were washed by hand, and then squeezed through a wringer to get the water out. She would then hang the laundry on a close line to dry. When automatic washers and dryers became mainstream, you can imagine how much time it saved. Consumers anxious to find the right laundry products for her family may have come across this ad for Ivory Flakes.
Ivory made a product called Instant Ivory Flakes. The soap was not granulated like typical laundry soap. Rather, it was make up of soft flakes. The popular detergent was used in the washing machine, or hand washing basin. It was marketed to mothers who wanted soft clothes for babies.
I searched my collection of mid-century women’s magazines and found some earlier ads for Ivory laundry soaps. This one from 1951 suggested that Ivory Flakes was the best way to wash delicates like nylons.
Here is an ad for another Ivory product called Ivory Snow.
For Everything you wash with Special Care . . . by Hand or Machine
Ivory Snow Ad – June 1953
Note the drawing of a wringer washing machine by the caption “For Nice Things you Wash by Machine”. They did not draw an automatic washer. This tells us that “machine” early in the decade meant manual and not automatic.
More Ivory Ads on MidCenturyPage.com
More About Ivory Flakes
Ivory Flakes Advertising and History from the Smithsonian from the Smithsonian.
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