Confession time... I'm a smelly kid. Yep, body odor to the max, especially stress sweat. Even I can't stand to smell myself with that going on. And with this fast approaching deadline for the Josephy Center art exhibit, I'm a little stressed.
To be honest, I don't always wear deodorant, after all, I'm usually home alone, and I don't brush my hair or change into "real" clothes unless I have to, so why should deodorant be any different... Though this week has been a different story. I cleaned my studio space, so I definitely put some antiperspirant on for that adventure, and I'm trying to keep up with my physical goals of getting 10,000 steps more often than not (4 days a week) and that's tough when you're an indoor cat! Most of the time that means I have to hop on the treadmill to get to my 5 mile mark!
But I digress, back to the deodorant... bottom line, I've been using antiperspirant/deodorant daily, sometimes even reapplying throughout the day. So, when was this miracle cosmetic invented?! Well, turns out the first trademark was in 1888, for a product called 'Mum'. Antiperspirant followed close behind in 1903 with 'Everdry'.
And we can thank a high school student named Edna Murphey for really jump-starting the American knowledge of antiperspirant. Well, her and a hot summer in Atlanta in 1912! Her booth was a dud according to records until the hot summer wore on and people started paying attention to 'Odorono' (the product developed by her dad, a surgeon, who needed to keep his hands from sweating during surgeries).
Of course, there were some bumps in the road... dyed clothing, acid eating at fabric, irritated armpits... but those were all smoothed out as time went on. Also, with help from a former bible salesman-turned-copywrite for the product 'Odorono'. He would actually go on to become one of the most famous advertising copywriters of his time, using 'Odorono' as his jumping point! One of his main advertising points was to tell women they smelled, and though many said they were offended, they did end up purchasing Odorono. Interestingly enough, Men's deodorant didn't appear until 1935, 8 years after Odorono had made $1 million in sales... go figure.
well, I can tell you right now, I'm the first person to tell you I smell, and I will put deodorant on if I know I will be in the company of others, that's to be sure! Even so, fair warning, if it's a stressful situation, even deodorant may not be enough me... though you'd never guess from my dainty armpits (dripping in sarcasm, pun intended).
