SOAP

This week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist with Greg Poppleton, is a brand of laundry detergent. You’ll hear ‘Mrs Goodsort’ talk sternly about it on a 1938 Rinso Show, International Broadcasting Company, Radio Normandy.

ONLINE

This week’s Phantom Dancer will be online after the 3 December 107.3 2SER Sydney live mix at 2ser.com.
Hear the show live every Tuesday 12:04-2pm on 107.3 2SER Sydney.

RINSO

Rinso was one of the first mass-marketed soap powders. It was advertised widely with a boast that Rinso contained “Solium, the sunlight ingredient”. In 1936 the sponsored show Rinso Music Hall was recorded in London and broadcast on Radio Luxembourg and Radio Normandie, followed from 1937 to 1939 by the popular Rinso Radio Revue, which you’ll hear an excerpt of on this week’s PD.

A still from this week’s Video

The product’s claim to better rinsing was due to its incorporation of sodium silicate as a builder rather than, or in addition to, the more commonly used sodium carbonate. The hard water calcium precipitate formed with metasilicate tends to be finer and hence less likely to be trapped in cloth than the chalky calcium carbonate.

Rinso was replaced by another Unilever detergent brand, Surf, in its four major markets, including Australia. However, Rinso is still made by Unilever for the Turkish, Asian, and Central American markets. Rinso was launched in Indonesia as the nation’s first detergent brand. As of 2013 Rinso leads the Indonesian detergent market.[3]

Whitest, brightest Rinso was the sponsor of the 1957 Australian television series Leave It to the Girls.

Sir Edmund Hillary promotes Rinso in New Zealand

VIDEO

This week’s Phantom Dancer video of the week is a 1943 Rinso ad which incorporates the wartime austerity message to save energy. It’s relevant today in the climate change emergency. Take note…