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For most people, memories of coughing and childhood colds are synonymous with an ointment with the smell of menthol in a dark blue pot with a turquoise cap.
For more than a century, Vicks Vaporub has been a familiar name through the continents. How it became a root in the Spanish flu pandemic at the beginning of the 20th century.
The story begins with an act of paternal love.
In 1894, in the state of North Carolina, in the east of the United States, the nine-year-old son of a pharmacist named Lunsford Richardson was sick of Croup, a respiratory infection which caused a bark cough.
Desperate to find a treatment, Richardson began to test mixtures of aromatic oils and chemicals in his pharmacy and produced an ointment that helped his son.
But it was not Vicks Vaporub – at least not yet.
Seeing that his ointment had worked for his son, Richardson began to sell it for 25 cents per pot. The strong odor product was made up of menthol, camphor, eucalyptus and several other oils mixed in a base of oil jelly. The ointment helped open the blocked nose, and when it rubbed on the chest, the steam soothed a cough.
Richardson initially appointed its Croup & Pneumonia Salve converge. Enthusiastic gardener, he thought of the name after seeing an advertisement for the seeds of the Vicks plant, whose leaves smell the menthol when they are crushed. He also borrowed the name from his brother-in-law, Dr Joshua Vick, a trusted doctor in their city in Greensboro. He felt that “Vick” was “short, easy to remember and looked well on a label».
“ Magic ” salve in vaporub
In 191117 years after the creation of the Baume, Richardson’s son Henry Smith, the one who has already suffered from Croup, directed the family business. He renamed the Vaporub Salve product from Vick’s Vick’s Magic Croup Salve, the name under which he had been sold since 1905. That year, the packaging was also changed from transparent glass to distinctive cobalt blue.
Until then, Richardson had also created 21 remedies for various conditions, including Vick Small liver pills For “constipation and torpid liver»; Turtle oil for “spares, wounds and rheumatism”; Sarsaparilla de Tar Heel purify “bad blood”; And flu hit the flu. They were sold under the Vick’s family remedies Company, which he created in 1905. But none has sold as well as the original balm.
Thus, in 1911, Henry arrested all the other products, renamed the company Vick Chemical Company and began to focus only on the marketing and the distribution of their signature product. The company began to distribute large amounts of free samples while sellers have published advertisements on trams and visited pharmacists, urging them to try the product.
Marketing during the Spanish flu
Seven years later in 1918, the deadliest pandemic in modern history has torn the world. The Spanish flu cost the life of 50 million people – more than eight times the number of COVID -19 deaths.
It was at this time that the VAPORUB sales of Vick began to skyrocket.
“His closest rival was Ely’s cream … Something of a copy product but does not seem to have had the same cachet,” said Catharine Arnold, author of the Pandemic 1918 book.
She added that there were other remedies for respiratory diseases, including coughing, colds and flu, such as honey from Horehound and Tar of Hale. Some products have not resisted the time test, such as “vaporizers”, similar to modern nebuliers and throat lozenges such as formamint. It contained the chemical formaldehyde, which is toxic in large quantities.
However, a marketing campaign led by Smith took the Vicks brand to the world scene.
When the pandemic struck, the company produced a series of six announcements. Rather than promoting only the Vick Vaporub, the series focused on raising awareness of Spanish flu and included information on symptoms, processing and advice to avoid getting sick. He urged people not to panic and transmit that the brand cared about the well-being of people at a dark moment. The flu was only another variation in a flu that strikes each century and is caused by germs that attack the nose, throat and bronchial tubes, according to advertisements. The Vick Vaporub “would throw flu germs” and facilitate breathing, they said.
Years later, the accuracy of this content was criticized. However, “at the time, this advertisement had to seem reassuring, telling readers that it was just the same old flu, only, of course, this was not the case,” said Arnold.
“The Spanish flu was an atypical autoimmune virus which attacked the youngest and the most fit and caused unusual reactions, such as the violent hemorrhage and the notorious cyanosis of the heliotrope when the skin of people became blue.”
However, the advice in advertisements to rest and stay in bed were “sensible”, she added, because the virus has spread through human contact.
Become a familiar name
Sales broken up and in October 1918 to seven months after the pandemic – Vick Chemical Company informed pharmacists that the enormous demand had annihilated its excess actions. The supplies that should last four months had been exhausted in three weeks.
Newspaper opinions published at the time showed that the company had received orders from 1.75 million pots from Vaporub in a single week, and the company’s daily turnover was around $ 186,492. The pots entered Three sizes Cost of 30 cents, 60 cents and $ 1.20.
“The big expeditions are on the way to Jobbers (wholesalers) by freight and express. Until they arrive, there may be a temporary shortage. All the deals reported. Buy small lots only,” said an opinion.
The company informed the public that she worked day and night to make up for the request. The orders received were twice the daily production of the company and, in November 1918, the firm said that its factory took place 23.5 hours a day to produce 1.08 million pots each week.
The product gained global popularity during the pandemic and, according to company data, Vaporub sales increased from $ 900,000 to $ 2.9 million from 1918 to 1919.
Subsequently, Vick Chemical Company continued to market his product in a new way. He sent millions of free samples to mailboxes and in 1924 published a 15 -page advertisement in the form of a children’s book entitled The Story of Blix and Blee. The story, written in rhyme verses, concerned about two elves called Blix and Blee who lived in a Vicks Vichs empty pot under an old jujube. One night, they rushed to the rescue of a sick child, Little Dickie. The elves convinced the child, who refused to take the medication given by his mother, to use Vicks Vaporub to appease his cough so that he can sleep.
More than 130 years later, Vicks Vaporub is sold in around 70 countries on five continents with more than 3.78 million liters (more than a million gallons) produced each year. From 2011 to 2016 only, there were more than a billion units sold worldwide, according to its owner Procter and Gamble.
For Arnold, Vicks Vaporub is part of an American childhood.
“The generations of us grew up with this composed of familiar waxes, the dresses and the pajamas that are redicious of Vicks during the flu season,” she said. “This familiar blue and green label is as much an American cultural icon as the Coca-Cola or Campbell soup.”
This article is one of the ordinary articles, extraordinary stories, a series on surprising stories behind well -known articles.
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