Selling “Healthy” Radium Products With Science: A Multimodal Analysis of Marketing in Sweden, 1910–1940

Abstract

We study the marketing of radioactive products in Sweden from 1910 to 1940, using a dataset of newspaper and magazine advertisements. We use multimodal critical discourse analysis to show how marketers harnessed the meaning potentials of language and semiotic resources to embed radium in discourses of science and technological development, and thus convince consumers of its health benefits. We find that canny marketers continuously colonized, shaped, and remarketed radioactive products in response to greater scientific knowledge and growing safety concerns. These techniques highlight the challenges of distinguishing legitimate/illegitimate applications of discoveries when science and entrepreneurialism move at the same pace.

All that glistens is not (green) gold: historicising the contemporary chlorophyll fad through a multimodal analysis of Swedish marketing, 1950–1953

“…Many sanitary towel advertisements emphasised the wonders of chlorophyll through imaginary scenarios designed in comic book style with vignettes and speech bubbles. Similar vignettes can be found in other beauty product advertisements of the era (Eriksson and O'Hagan, 2021), as well as in historical advertisements for the Scottish carbonated soft drink Iron-Bru (Leishman, 2019) and US porridge brand Cream of Wheat (Parkin, 2021), all serving to inject a sense of fun into the product. The Mimosept Lyx vignettes had such titles as "Her first seaside holiday" or "Her first big exam" and then proceeded to follow the same format: the woman has a big occasion, her period arrives and is set to spoil it, but her friend/mother offers her a chlorophyll sanitary towel, which saves the day.…”

“…By reiterating safety, brands symbolically communicated a discourse of safety, even though consumers had no pre-established knowledge or supporting evidence to determine whether this was actually the case. Similar strategies can be found in the historical marketing of radium-based products (Eriksson and O’Hagan, 2021) and nerve food (O’Hagan, 2019).…”

“…This was done overtly through images of leaves and trees or a blob of green toothpaste on a brush or more covertly with green typography or arrows. Although this was not the first use of green in advertisements to signal nature (Eriksson and O’Hagan, 2021 on radioactive shampoo), it demonstrates how marketers cannily capitalised upon the symbolic meanings of green to transmit messages about health and well-being.…”

“…This image contrasts with the two-dimensional scientific diagram on the right, which depicts an internal view of her body, focusing particularly on the oesophagus and the effects of Stomatol. The use of a featureless silhouette associates the image with the biological field of anatomy, while the side angle and colour contrast draw parallels with X-Ray imaging, thereby foregrounding Stomatol's scientific message and increasing its credibility (Eriksson and O'Hagan, 2021). A series of arrows point downwards into the oesophagus, visually indicating the direction of the mouthwash, their green hue highlighting Stomatol's chlorophyll components.…”

“…This absence is reflective of a more general dearth of literature on the historical link between science and food/cosmetics marketing, with most studies emphasising science in marketing as a product of the modern age (Jovanovic, 2014; Chen, 2015; Chen and Eriksson, 2021). Of the scant historical studies that exist, most concern patent medicines and vitamins (Apple, 1996; Hansen, 1999; Loeb, 2001; Curth, 2002), with little attention paid to food/cosmetics and how science is used to shape discourses, beliefs and behaviours around health and healthy lifestyles (for exceptions, see Nelson et al , 2020; Eriksson and O’Hagan, 2021).…”