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Story: Washing, cleaning and personal hygiene

Dangerous dirt and healthy soap

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Dangerous dirt and healthy soap

Mothers have long been the target of advertising for home and body cleaning products. This 1925 advertisement for Lifebuoy soap treats mothers as experts – a marketing ploy designed to get women on side with the product. 

Using this item

National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past

Reference: Evening Post, 10 December 1925, p. 19

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Kerryn Pollock, Washing, cleaning and personal hygiene – Bathing and personal hygiene, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/document/40794/dangerous-dirt-and-healthy-soap (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Kerryn Pollock, published 1 February 2013.