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Advertising 101Selling girdles |
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Advertising, as we know it, is a relatively recent phenomenon, but today no company will survive, unless it masters the art of advertising. In the Victorian era advertising was relatively discreet, and corset advertisements would generally have been reserved for the women's magazines. The charming, if very naive, advertisement on the right was issued as a trade card for the Madam Warren Corset, presumably for corsetieres to show or give to their customers. But towards the end of the 19th century corset makers became bolder, and began to advertise in publications read by men as well as women. After the 1939-45 war, when television started to become universally available, the girdle makers were quick to realise its potential. A number of manufacturers used it for long-running advertising campaigns, but perhaps the most famous, and certainly the most successful (at least in Britain), was the Little-X campaign. In 1955 the relatively small Silhouette Corset Company gambled everything it had on a massive press, radio and TV campaign, and succeeded beyond its wildest dreams. In the seventies, when the girdle began to lose popularity, at first the advertisers tried desperately to boost their popularity, but as sales fell the funds available for advertising also fell, and today shapewear advertising is only a vestige of what was in its heyday. In this section we will look at some of the techniques used to sell girdles, and some notable advertising campaigns. |
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The Art of Corsetry Ed: Bunyip Bluegum |
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