This cache was inspired by the fact that it is Mother’s Day very soon. Whilst thinking about ideas for this one, I found myself going off on a tangent. One thing led to another, and this cache is the end product.
Do you remember the
"I can get by without my bikini top, but I can't get by without my Mum"
deodorant ads from the 70's and 80's?
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any videos of that particular ad anywhere on the internet. I would have liked to have included a link to it in this listing to make you smile as you took a little trip down memory lane…
Mum is generally recognized as the first brand of commercial product to prevent body odour. The original formulation contained a zinc compound as its active ingredient. It was developed and patented by an inventor in Philadelphia in 1888, whose name has been lost to history.
The inventor trademarked his invention and distributed it through his nurse under the name of Mum, which was originally sold as a cream in a jar and applied with the fingertips. The small company was bought by Bristol-Myers in 1931.
Mum is a good name for a deodorant, because the term "mum" means "to keep silent".
So, "Mum's the word" simply means "Don't say anything! It's secret!"
And being a geocacher, you definitely should know how to be discreet.
So "Shhh!"
But why all the need to keep silent you might ask??
During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, society considered frank talk of certain bodily functions in polite company inappropriate. Taboos against mentioning things related to natural bodily functions appears to be peculiarly Puritan in origin, found principally in Britain and the United States, a “shame culture” that began in the Victorian era. The slightest mention of nudity, sex, and eliminating wastes evoked widespread disgust, shame, or even horror. Restrictive social conventions resulted in a proliferation of euphemisms: “limb” for “leg,” “white meat” for “chicken breast,” and “white-sewings” for women’s undergarments, among others. This, then, was the scene in which early manufacturers set out to make their fortune in marketing personal hygiene products, otherwise referred to as “delicate products” or “unmentionables”.
Mum deodorant is just one of those “unmentionables”.
Below are a few more ads that have been used over the decades to advertise Mum deodorant.
Incidentally, Mum deodorant was originally marketed for both women and men to use, and wasn't just a 'girlie' product.
FTF Congratulations urch