The stress Factor

Vessels are made more prone to disease by stresses which reduce the ability to cope with the toxic oxidants to cholesterol-filled cell release. The main stresses are rampant in diabetes and smoking. cigarette smoke is full of hydrocarbons, any number of which impair the natural defence mechanisms of toxins.

treatment of heart disease is thus aimed first at prevention. Stopping smoking is the most important factor. Good blood pressure control, and good diabetic control, losing weight and reducing cholesterol  all significantly reduce risk.

The Queen uses Pears Soap

(From BBC website)

 

The royal train has been opened to the public in an attempt to dispel its lavish image.

The carriages, housed in a rail works shed near Wolverton station, Buckinghamshire, will carry the Queen to every corner of Britain during her Golden Jubilee tour.

 

What will the queen be using on her travels around the country during her golden Jubilee because it is thought that the queens train carriage is very lavish. Director of royal travel Tim Hewlett said: "There is a perception the train is a bit like the Orient Express.  "But there are not many bathroom furnishings you could not get in Homebase or B&Q."

 

En-suite bathrooms have pink plastic baths and sinks with Pears soap in dishes, plain mahogany toilet seats and clear plastic shower curtains. The Queen herself uses Pears Soap.

 

A compartment used as an office by various private secretaries has a fax machine and telephone bearing the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh's extension numbers.

 

A framed senior railcard in the name of the Duke of Edinburgh adorns a wall

Two battered red despatch boxes used for the Queen's correspondence lie on a desk, next to a plastic Union flag.

 

A 2002 copy of Who's Who is also at hand.

The sleeping and office accommodation has pastel carpets and check curtains.

And the Buckingham Palace staff dining car is laid out in the style of a first-class train carriage.

 

Most rooms contain bottles of Tesco's Perthshire mountain spring water.

The two locomotives, Prince William and Prince Henry, are used for other duties when the royal train is not being used.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1966614.stm

 

Andrew Pears

Andrew Pears was born around 1770. He is believed to have spent much of his early life on the family farm in St Ewe as he was the son of a farmer  before leaving for London at the age of about 18. At this time he had trained as a barber and he continued this trade in Soho from 1789. His customers were wealthy and he was soon making a good living in the capital.

His trade helped his to recognise a gap in the market – the need for a pure and gentle soap. Consequently Pears set about perfecting a way of refining the quality of soap, The resulting product was of very high quality and was unique in being transparent.

The fashion at that time was to maintain a pristine alabaster complexion as tanned faces were associated with those who laboured outdoors. He found that cosmetic products at that time contained arsenic and lead and caused damage to the skin, he began experimenting with soap purification and eventually produced a gentle soap made from glycerine and other natural product which was known as the original Pears soap.

 This gave it a novelty value and guaranteed immediate popularity. Pears Soap can still be identified by its unique image today.  The transparency was the unique product plus that established the image of Pears Soap. His method of mellowing and ageing each long lasting Pears Bar, for over two months, is still used today where natural oils and pure glycerine are combined with the delicate fragrance of rosemary, cedar and thyme.

Andrew Pears retired from business in 1838, leaving his grandson, Francis, to continue the business of the London-based firm of A & F Pears. The son in law of Francis was Thomas J Barratt, who is often referred to as the father of modern advertising. It was he who eventually saw the potential of Sir John Everett Millais’ painting ‘Bubbles’ as an ideal advertisement for Pears.

Pears Soap Manufacturing Process

The concave shape of the soap is formed by shrinkage while the soap is drying, and is not due to deliberate moulding. After washing, the concave area on the top of the soap is used to dissolve the last sliver of the previous bar of soap. Pears Soap is often used by the elderly for its skincare properties.

According to Pears Inc. USA, there is now only one manufacturing facility worldwide for Pears Soap and that is in India. The Indian producer now owns all rights to the soap, its formula, packaging, etc. Bars of soap produced in the factory come in two sizes: 75g and 125g.

1939- 1945

1939-1945

The Second World War , was a global war began on September 3rd 1939 and ended 15^th August 1945. It involved a vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Marked by significant events involving the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare, it resulted in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities. These deaths make the war the deadliest conflict in human history.

the first commodity to be controlled was petrol, but food rationing was also introduced quite soon. On 8 January 1940, , butter and sugar were rationed. This was followed by meat, tea, jam, biscuits, breakfast cereals, cheese, eggs, lard, milk and canned fruit. Strict rationing inevitably created a black market. This was illegal, and buyers could be tricked with cheaper substitutes such as horsemeat instead of beef.

Almost all controlled items were rationed by weight, but meat, exceptionally, was rationed by price.

Fats were rationed during the Second World War, and soap was no exception. In February 1942, because of shortages of fats, whether animal, vegetable or mineral, soap rationing began. It was introduced without warning to prevent panic buying and price rises.

1940s WW2 advert for Pears Soap short supply Peggy bathtime war advertising 1945

Pears soap was going through a shortage during war time. Even though soap was rationed and in short supply it did not stop Pears advertising.

1908-1923

Olympics 1908

Lonon held the Olympics in the summer of 1908. A rare programme from the 1908 London Olympics has been unearthed during a house clearance in Surrey. Jeffrey Avery made the discovery while sorting through rubbish at the property in West Clandon near Guildford.

He said the programme was among a large amount of Olympic memorabilia and photographs stretching from 1908 through to the 1960s.

The programme contained an advert for Pears' soap and Robinson's Barley Water

"Such items are very rare and as such they have been copied, but from the limited images that I can access on such programmes this does appear to be ok."

Mr Avery said the house belonged to a professional body builder and close friend of Johnny Weissmuller - who won a total of five Olympic gold medals in swimming at the 1924 and 1928 Games.

After his swimming career Weissmuller became a movie star and, cast as Tarzan the Ape Man, he starred in 12 films. He died in 1984.

Sporting exhibition

Realising the significance of the find he contacted the chairman of the Maidenhead Heritage Centre and offered to loan the programme for its exhibition Our Sporting Life.

Mr Avery, whose business is based in Mitcham, south-west London, said: "He was so excited and I thought this is the time I should be keeping these things and letting other people see them so I agreed to let him borrow it for the exhibition."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-16395130

Halleys Comet

Public perception of the comet was that in 1910: that the world was going to end with the comet. The anticipation of its arrival creates quite a stir. In some circles, the comet’s unusually close approach is seen as a sign of impending doom, a notion the down-market press does little to dispel.

Company’s such as Bird’s Custard and Pears’ Soap featured the comet in their advertising: ‘Pears’ soap is visible day and night all over the world’ was one slogan. Even before the comet was visible to the naked eye, people wrote to the Royal Observatory to report their sightings, which turned out to be misidentifications of the bright planets Venus and Jupiter and in one case the Andromeda Galaxy. They used the hysteria to their advantage.

1914-1918

On 28th  June 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was shot and killed by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb terrorist, while visiting Sarajevo. The mood in Austria was already hostile towards Serbia, and now it turned towards war. The Austrians were certain that the Serbian government had been in some way involved in the murder, and while it is not certain how far that was true, the leader of the terrorists was also head of Serbian Intelligence. On 23 July, Austria delivered a note to the Serbia government that, if agreed to, would have almost ended Serbian independence. This was clearly intended to be refused, and in the most it was.

 On 28 July 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia. Now the alliance system swung into play. On 30 July, Russia started mobilisation. In reaction, Germany declared war against Russia on 1 August. On the next day, Germany invaded Luxembourg, and demanded free passage across Belgium. On 3 August, Belgium refused the German demand, Germany declared war on France, and Britain pledged to support Belgium.

On 4 August a British ultimatum to Germany was refused, and Britain declared war on Germany, while Germany declared war on Belgium, and launched an invasion of Belgium. Finally, on 5 August Austria declared war on Russia, and the First World War had begun.

Pears  advertising has always moved with the times and cashed in on world events and the First World War was no different. Pears was able to use the nationalism and patriotism that comes from a war in order to sell more soap.

After the war there was a time of relative peace.

1923 during the Olympics

Punch Magazine was a humorous and satirical weekly magazine first published on July 17th 1841. Punch became a staple for British drawing rooms because of its sophisticated humour and absence of offensive material, especially when viewed against the satirical press of the time.

1899 Witch

 

This 1899 advertisement for Pears soap is an unsigned woodcut, which was photographically reproduced and printed, dozens at a time, on large sheets of paper, before being pasted onto card, cut down to individual images and distributed. Despite the mass production of these advertising cards, few examples survive. The same advertising image and caption was used in newspapers and in magazines.

And, in case it is not already obvious, the witch is writing “the Name of PEARS on the Sky” with her index finder. This is at a time when women were getting executed for the crime of being a witch. And if your neighbour or friend had an argument and accused you of being a witched you were taken away and killed.

This is a good example of Pears taking what is scaring the public and using it to their advantage. The witch trials killed across the Europe and North America was 35,000.

Thomas Pears

The 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. On April 10^th 1912 titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from South Hampton. The ship had on board 2200 passengers and crew it was one of the deadliest peacetime disasters. She was believed to be “unsinkable” but, only four days into her voyage titanic hit an ice berg on the 14^th April at 11:40pm less than three hours the ship sank.

RMS Titanic, one of the biggest and most luxurious ocean liners of its time. It was 269 meters long. Journalists at the time said it was as long as three city blocks and as tall as an 11-storey building. The Titanic was described at the time as being as luxury being compared to the best hotels at the time. Even second and third class was better than any other ships of its time.

On board Titanic was Thomas Clinton Pears who was 29 when he died in the sinking of the Titanic. He was the great great grandson of Andrew Pears the founder of the Soap-manufacturing company A&F Pears LTD. Thomas joined the company in 1903, he was not a director of the company but, he was responsible for the running Isleworth Works and Lanadrom Rubber's estates in Malaya.

Thomas was a keen sports man. He supported the Pears' Athletic Club and participted in motor car and motor cycle races. Two gold medals remain in the possession of the Crowe family. The inscriptions the medals record his participation in 'The 23 Hours Run, London - Edinburgh on May 28-29, 1908 Car' and 'The 24 Hours Run, London to Edinburgh, June 5th and 6th, 1908, Car'. Tom had had the two medals mounted as table napkin rings, inscribed 'T.P' and 'E.P' respectively

Thomas married Edith Wearne on September 1910. Between them they had a wide circle of friends in the neighbourhood and Edith was reported as endearing herself to all those who knew her. They worshipped together at St John the Baptist Church, Woodlands, Isleworth.

In 1912, three years after his father's death, Tom prepared to cross the Atlantic, possibly to look at a site for his company's expansion into America. He boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a first class passenger (ticket number 113776 £66, 12s), he and Edith occupied cabin C-2. At 6.05 p.m. on 13 April a radio message was sent from the Titanic via the S.S. Potsdam to the company's Isleworth Works, which read 'All well, telephone Hampstead [his wife's family address] and Pyrford'. The message would not arrive at the works until 1.30pm on Monday 15 April leading to considerable confusion over whether Mr Pears had survived or not. Edith was rescued in lifeboat 8.

Memorial services for Tom Pears included one held on Sunday 21 April at St John's, Isleworth, attended by about 1,200 people, including many of his local workforce, collections at these services were donated to local charities that he had been connected with.

After Thomas Death Edith was left a sum of £16,763 10s 7d so Edith was probably well provided for however, she was shocked to learn that she could not continue to live at her home as it was a company-owned house.

During the first world war Edith, at her father's suggestion, was sharing a London flat with Norah, the daughter of an old friend of his, Dr. Crowe. Edith served as a nurse in the British Red Cross, for whom she drove an ambulance. She also joined the WRNS, for whom she drove a cab, her main duties being to fetch Admirals and other senior officers from the Admiralty, from their Clubs at night! Norah's brother Mr D. V. Crowe was an electrical engineer by training. His poor eyesight had ruled him unfit for military service. He therefore became a tea-planter in the South of India at When he came home on leave, he met Edith while visiting his sister. In due course they were engaged, then married. A daughter was born in Travancore in 1920 and a son in 1924, at Worcester Park, Surrey.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/4258888/Haunting-whistle-blew-at-1140pmas-wreck-of-Titanic-lay-below-us.html

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/Descendant-soap-entrepreneur-perished/story-15781028-detail/story.html

Bubbles

Andrew Pears enlisted the help of Thomas J Barrett to devise a marketing strategy, he was a relative of the creator, albeit a few generations younger. He pioneered systematic brand advertising combining distinctive imagery with frequently repeatedly slogans like “Good morning. Have you used Pears Soap?”. The most iconic advert, “Bubbles” is still well known today, it has been reproduced on a plethora of merchandise over the years and is synonymous with British nostalgia. Barrett had a keen eye for art and often bought rights to pieces of art work in order to subtlety modify them into commercial advertisements. This was at a time when art was very inaccessible for ordinary people, Pears Soap gave way for art to be in ordinary people’s houses, and reproductions of the advert were even hung on walls which are a marvel even by today’s standards.

Bubbles, originally titled A Child's World, is a painting by Sir John Everett Millias that became famous when it was used over many generations in advertisements for Pears soap. During Millais's lifetime it led to widespread debate about the relationship between art and advertising.
The painting was one of many child pictures for which Millais had become well known in his later years. It was modelled by his five year old grandson William Milbourne James

The painting portrays a young golden-haired boy looking up at a bubble, symbolising the beauty and fragility of life. On one side of him is a young plant growing in a pot, and on the other is a fallen broken pot, emblematic of death. He is spot-lit against a gloomy background.

The painting was first exhibited in 1886 under the title A Child's World at the Grosevenor Gallery  in London, and was acquired by Sir William Ingram of the Illustrated London News.  The painting was reproduced and presented in the weekly newspaper as a colour plate, where it was seen by Thomas J. Barratt, Managing director of A&F Pears. Barratt purchased the original painting from Ingram for £2,200 which gave him exclusive copyright on the picture. Millais' permission was sought in order to alter the picture by the addition of a bar of Pears Soap, so that it could be used for the purposes of advertising. At the time Millais was one of the most popular artists in Britain and he was initially apprehensive the prospect of his work and his grandson, being the subject of commercial exploitation. However when he was shown the proofs of the proposed advertisements he grew to appreciate the idea, which portrayed the soap as if the child had used it to make the bubbles.

 Following the success of this advertisement Millais was attacked in print by the novelist  Marie Corelli who accused him in her novel The Sorrows of Satan of prostituting his talent to sell soap. Millais wrote to her pointing out that he had sold the copyright of the painting and so was unable to stop the company from altering it in reproduction. Millais's son later claimed that he had tried to stop the advertisement being made, but had been advised that he had no legal power to do so. Corelli retracted her comments in a later edition of the book.

The advertisement became so well known that William Milburne James  who later rose to the rank of Admiral in the British navy, was known as "Bubbles" for the rest of his life.

Pears Shilling Cyclopaedia

The most orginal advertisement of all for Pears Soap was the Little Red Shilling Cyclopaedia. it was first printed for A&F Pears by David Byrce and Son of Glasgow. it was Published in December 1897, the year of Queen Victorias Diamond Jubillee. The First addition contained an English dictionary, medical dictionary, a gazetteer  and a atlas, desk information and a compendium of general knowledge entitled "A Mass of Curious and Useful Information about things that everyone ought to know in commerce, History, Science, Religion, Literature and other useful topics of Ordinary conversation ". The idea behind the Cylopaedia was to keep the general public informed on issues of the day, to equip them of social discourse and to satisfy their curious minds for knowledge.

The idea behind the Cylopaedia was to keep the general public informed on issues of the day, to equip them of social discourse and to satisfy their curious minds for knowledge. the Cyclopaedia ranged from from hard facts to questions of etiquette.

Previous Pears Public Relations

Currency

In the 19^th century Pears imported a quarter of a million French pennies and imprinted the Pears Soap name on them and then flung them into circulation. These pennies were generally accepted as currency and was one of pears earliest publicity stunts. There was no law against defacing foreign coins until Parliament introduced an Act which declared all foreign coins illegal tender. This lead to all the coins being rounded up and melted down but the rare few which managed to survive have become expensive collector’s items.

Miss Pears
Miss Pears was a competition run by Pears Soap starting in 1959. Adverts were placed in newspapers which offered parents the chance to enter their daughter into the competition to be the next face of Pears and also to win a cash prize of Adverts were placed in newspapers which offered parents the chance to enter their daughter into the competition to be the next face of Pears and also to win a cash prize of £500. The competition had several conditions for entry. The child must be under 12 years of age, must be a permanent resident in the UK and is not a professional model. To enter the completion applicants simply sent in a photo of their child that was taken in the last year with some personal details and awaited the response. In 1997 market research conducted by Pears revealed that the once young family purchasers of Pears had moved to alternate brands and the new users of Pears were Style conscious single people which led to the Miss Pears competition being seen as a waste of money and a final competition was held in 1997 in which the winners mother was rushed to hospital suffering mystery illness and missed the crowning of her daughter Ella Cox.

Cyclopaedia

Thomas J. Barratt who revolutionised the way Pears promoted the brand came up with several forms of promotion including the production of the Pears Shilling Cyclopaedia in 1891. The cyclopaedia contained a world atlas and pages of interesting facts from throughout the year. The cyclopaedia turned out to be so successful that one was produced every year and on several occasions more than one was produced a year depending on demand.

 

Pears Annual

In the same year Thomas J. Barratt produced the Pears Annual which ran until 1925. The book promoted contemporary illustrations and colour printing. The annuals were produced every Christmas and contained Christmas stories along with adverts which came with presentation prints.

Pears Collectables

Thomas J. Barratt was at the forefront of the Pears revolution he produced countless different forms of promotional material ranging from simple stationary to at one point getting the Pears logo on several stamps he also managed to produce rulers, paper napkins, glass miniature tablets, china figurines, school atlases and many more that have been forgotten due to the vast quantity of items produced. These items are still promoting the brand to this day as all of these items are now classed as collectables and are bought and sold all over the world.

Thomas J Barratt

Thomas J Barratt is considered by many to be “the Father of Modern Advertising”.

In 1865 Thomas married into the Pears family by marring the founder Andrew Pears great granddaughter Mary Pears. Within a few months Barratt had revolutionised Pears distribution system making it more effective than ever. After this success Barratt decided to turn his hand to the sales side of the company in began using some of the most original and successful publicity schemes of its day.

The then owner of Pears, Francis Pear, feared for the company’s future and withdrew from the company leaving only a loan of £4,000 to run the company on. It was Barratt’s fearless and creative forms of promoting Pears that managed to save the brand most notably his methods of PR.