1940's Advertising-Toni hair treatment Traditional Cache

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Hidden : 1/9/2011
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:



A series dedicated to 1940's advertising. Each cache is a look back
at how the media portraid common products, some good, some bad. All
of the locations will have something in common.

Taken from old magazines I found at my grandpas house from
1947.





In 1938, Arnold F. Willatt invented the cold wave, which is the precursor to the modern perming or permanent waving. This modern technique does not require any machine or heat to produce curls in the hair. In this modern curling hair technique the hair is wrapped on rods after the application of a thioglycolic acid lotion. This lotion breaks open the disulfide chemical linkages between the polypeptide bonds of proteins that are present in the hair shaft structure. This makes the hair receptive to a new shape. By arranging the chemically treated hair on rods the hair can be molded into a new curly shape. Next, an acid neutralizer lotion containing hydrogen peroxide is applied, to close the disulfide bridges again. This fixes the hair to the shape of the rod. Earlier techniques of hair curling used to take a long time, probably several hours, but thanks to the modern curling techniques and improved chemicals in products that are currently available it is now possible to completed the whole hair curling process with in a few minutes.

The creation of Toni Home Permanent opened the door for women who wanted a permanent wave without going to the beauty parlor and paying all outdoors for one. Since its debut, the people of The Toni Company, the makers of Toni Home Permanent, were finding ways to make their star product better--- and to let the people know of its achievement. In other words, Toni Home Permanent was going head on with the other brands of home permanents of the era--- and more importantly, the perms that were done professionally at beauty parlors.

The ad promotion featured identical twin sisters who had identical looking waves done to their hair. There was a slight difference, however. One twin had her hair done professionally at a beauty parlor, and the other twin used Toni on her hair. The classic question Cullen asked the listeners was, “Which twin has the Toni?” Now bear in mind, the cost of the perms were $15 for the professional wave and $2 for a Toni Kit, which includes waving lotion and plastic curlers. Unless the people were told (and they usually were in the small print in the magazine ads), it was inconclusive who had what. For the ladies who wanted a professional looking wave, it was easy to use Toni at home and save the extra $13 for something that needed $13. As an added note, once the Toni Kit was purchased, when another Toni perm was the order of the day, the Toni Refill (bottle of waving lotion only) was available for $1. If my math is correct, that would be a saving of $14 to the professional wave.

With Toni Home Permanent an immediate success, it received the ultimate compliment. Its popularity was overwhelming--- which means the competition were creating their own brands of home permanent. “The Toni Twins” promotion was so popular, the phrase “Which Twin Has The Toni?” became a part of our language. In addition, the Toni name itself is now slang for a woman who was about to have a home permanent.

Toni was purchased by Gillette in 1948 for $12 million from founders Neison and Irving Harris. Gillette is now part of Proctor & Gamble. Gillette sold the remnants of Toni (what it called its White Rain line of hair care products) to Tampa-based Diamond Products Company in April of 2000, including a Gillette factory in St. Paul.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

ba n cbfg oruvaq gur ovyyobneq fvta

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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