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Abstract
In his history of Unilever, Charles Wilson stated that cinema advertising was not part of the company’s marketing strategy until the late 1930s. However, despite the paucity of surviving archival sources, recent research has proved that Lever Brothers was engaged with the new medium of cinematography from its earliest days and that the practice continued up to and after the formation of Unilever in 1930. William Lever is renowned for his innovative approach to advertising and marketing, and as a pioneer of creating brand identity, but he was also one of the first British businessmen to recognise the value of film as a marketing tool. This article will argue that Lever Brothers was active in the use of cinematography from the mid-1890s and that it played a significant role in the company’s marketing campaigns.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Sharpe (Citation1965, p. 45). LINTAS stood for Lever International Advertising Service.
2 Unilever Archives & Records Management (UARM), ‘The Cinema and Sunlight Soap’, Progress, April 1922, p. 89.
3 Lever Family Archives (LFA), Lever Diaries, passim.
4 UARM, ‘Monsieur FH Lavanchy-Clarke’, Progress, July 1922, pp. 120–121.
5 Ibid, p. 120; ‘Sunlight’, La Revue (Lausanne), 3 February 1890, p. 2 – https://scriptorium.bcu-lausanne.ch/ [accessed 9 August 2018]; ‘Dernier Courier – Olten’, La Tribune de Lausanne et Estafette (Lausanne), 13 October 1898, p. 3 – https://scriptorium.bcu-lausanne.ch/page/home [accessed 9 August 2018].
6 Lever (Citation1927, p. 71); ‘Le concours des lessiveuses’, La Liberté (Fribourg), 25 April 1889, pp. 2–3 – https://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch [accessed 31 July 2018]; ‘Au paradis des blanchisseuses’, La Gruyère (Bulle), 27 April 1889, p. 3 – https://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch [accessed 31 July 2018]; ‘Concours de lavage’, Journal de Genève (Geneva), 24 April 1889, p. 3 – http://www.letempsarchives.ch/page/JDG_1889_04_24 [accessed 1 August 2018].
7 [No title], The Eastern Morning News, (Hull) 29 April 1889, p. 2.
8 UARM, ‘Monsieur FH Lavanchy-Clarke’, Progress, July 1922, p. 121; UARM, LBL/10/1/25, Lever Brothers photograph album 1889.
9 UARM, Progress, July 1910, p. 81; British Film Institute (BFI), Grand Washing Contest (1930) – http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150059692 [accessed 4 August 2018].
10 ‘Monsieur FH Lavanchy-Clarke’, Progress, July 1922, pp. 120–121.
11 Lever, Lavanchy-Clarke and Stollwerck had mutual business interests and met on a number of occasions, as the Lever diaries attest. By 1899, Stollwerck was empowered to act on behalf of Lever Brothers in connection with the Sunlight Seifenfabrik Aktiengesellschaft to be established in Mannheim - UARM, UNI/PLC/BM/1/1, Lever Brothers Board Minutes, 17 April 1899.
12 Deac Rossell, ‘Ludwig Stollwerck’, Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema – http://www.victorian-cinema.net/stollwerck [accessed 31 July 2018]; although Herbert (Citation1994, p. 14), lists the Skladanowsky Bioscop as opening in Berlin on 1 November 1895.
13 UARM, ‘The Cinema and Sunlight Soap’, Progress, April 1922, p. 89.
14 Mannoni (Citation2000, p. 421). Before joining the Lumières, Lavanchy-Clarke was a partner in the Société Générale du Phonoscope, Portraits Vivants et Tableaux Animés, founded in Paris in 1892, together with Ludwig Stollwerck and Georges Demenÿ (1850–1917), another pioneer of cinematography (p. 357). Mannoni suggests that Louis Lumière poached Lavanchy-Clarke from Demenÿ (p. 421).
15 Lumière catalogue, ‘Les Laveuses’, https://catalogue-lumiere.com/laveuses/ [accessed 30 July 2018].
16 Lumière catalogue, ‘Embarquement’, https://catalogue-lumiere.com/embarquement-2/ and ‘Débarquement’, https://catalogue-lumiere.com/debarquement/ [both accessed 30 July 2018].
17 UARM, LBC/39/134, Lavanchy-Clarke to Lever, 20 March 1896.
18 LFA, Lever Diaries, No 6, 11 July 1896.
19 UARM, ‘The Cinema and Sunlight Soap’, Progress, April 1922, p. 90. Lavanchy-Clarke was responsible for the production and distribution of the Sunlight Almanac in Switzerland.
20 Numerous examples of advertisements and promotional items can be found in UARM, accession 1998/11.
21 Lumière catalogue, ‘Défilé du 8e bataillon’, https://catalogue-lumiere.com/defile-du-8e-bataillon/ and ‘Berne: arrive du roi du Siam’, https://catalogue-lumiere.com/berne-arrivee-du-roi-de-siam/ [both accessed 30 July 2018].
22 UARM, LBC passim contains references to attendance at theatres and entertainments; Lever (Citation1927, pp. 272 and 305).
23 UARM, LBC/28/148, Hulme to Lever, 3 July 1922.
24 UARM, UNI/PLC/BM/1/1 – Agreement recorded in Lever Brothers board minutes ‘for the joint exhibition of animated photographs’.
25 Email correspondence with Tanja Aenis, Historian & Information Specialist, Nestlé Historical Archives, Vevey, Switzerland, 15 November 2018–12 March 2019.
26 ‘The Thanksgiving Service’, Illustrated London News, 25 June 1887, p. 707.
27 Barnes (Citation1996a, p. 197). Princess Louise was Queen Victoria’s sixth child.
28 UARM, ‘The Cinema and Sunlight Soap’, Progress, April 1922, p. 90.
29 ‘Music Hall Gossip’ and ‘Amusements in Norwich’, The Era, 6 November 1897, pp 19 & 21.
30 ‘Croydon Camera Club’, The British Journal of Photography, 44:1963, 17 December 1897,p. 811.
31 Barnes (Citation1996a, p. 197) citing an original poster in the Kodak Museum, Harrow, for performances in Chelmsford on 1 and 2 October 1897.
32 Cosandey, ‘Francois-Henri Lavanchy-Clarke’, Who’s Who of Victorian Cinema and weblink.
33 Barnes (Citation1996b, p. 69); The Times, 13 February 1898, p4, for example, includes an advertisement for the show at the Alhambra.
34 ‘Anglo-Australian cricket pictures’, The Era, 18 February 1898, p. 30.
35 ‘Nestle and Lever Bros’ Animated Photographs’, The Era, 14 May 1898, p. 28.
36 ‘Music Hall Gossip’, The Era, 2 April 1898, p. 21.
37 Advertisement, La Liberté (Fribourg), 18 March 1898, p. 4 – https://www.e-newspaperarchives.ch/ [accessed 9 August 2018].
38 UARM, ‘The Cinema and Sunlight Soap’, Progress, April 1922, p. 90.
39 ‘Animated hoardings’, Daily Mail, 17 January 1898, p. 3; ‘Lever Bros Interest in the Cinema’, Birkenhead News, 1 July 1922, p. 6.
40 UARM, ‘Twenty-Five Years’ Service to Education’, Progress, January 1922, pp. 24–25.
41 BFI, ‘Workers leaving Gossage’s Soap Works’ – http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150598665 [accessed 5 June 2019].
42 Vanessa Toulmin, ‘Local films for local people’, p. 124; Library of Congress, Parke Davis’ employees, dated 1899 – https://www.loc.gov/item/00563606/ [accessed 4 May 2020].
43 Lumière catalogue, ‘Sortie d’usine [1]’, https://catalogue-lumiere.com/sortie-dusine-i/ [accessed 21 August 2018].
44 UARM, LBC/39, Lever and Lavanchy-Clarke correspondence.
45 ‘Mr Lever, The Film Pioneer’, Liverpool Echo, 7 March 1957, p. 6; UARM, Progress, October 1917, p. 100.
46 UARM, ‘Lever Products at Wembley’, Port Sunlight News, June 1924, pp. 8–10. The National Film Archive holds three Lever Brothers films relating to Nigeria; Down the Niger River and Delta to the Coast; Palm Oil, Lumber and Rubber in Southern Nigeria; and Native Types, Manners and Customs in Southern Nigeria, all produced in 1924, which may have been the films shown at Wembley.
47 UARM, LBC/287/10, Lever to Herbert Morgan, 26 January 1925.
48 UARM, ‘Miscellaneous’, Progress, January, 1915, p. 31.
49 UARM, ‘Gladstone Hall Cinema Shows’, Port Sunlight News, October 1927, p. 320.
50 UARM, ‘Kinema and Auction – Eggs fetch 10d’, Progress, April 1918, p. 43.
51 ‘Electric Palace Cinema’, Cinema Treasures – http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/55722 [accessed 5 June 2019]; ‘Essoldo New Ferry’, Cinema Treasures – http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/55746 [accessed 5 June 2019]; History of Wallasey cinemas – http://www.historyofwallasey.co.uk/wallasey/Wallasey_Cinemas_Part_1/index.html [accessed 5 June 2019].
52 UARM, LBC/394, file re installation of the cinema and eventual liquidation of the Lewis Picture House Ltd, 1919–1923.
53 UARM, LBC/290/157, Lever to A.L. Webster, 18 September 1922.
54 UARM, LBC/290/77, Lever to A.L. Webster, 18 April 1924.
55 UARM, LBC/290/28, Lever to A.L. Webster, 21 November 1924 and LBC/290/21, A.L. Webster to Lever, 30 March 1925.
56 UARM, ‘Port Sunlight Lectures’, Progress, April 1919, p. 76; Newell et al. (Citation2006, p. 581).
57 UARM, ‘Port Sunlight Open-Air Bath’, Progress, October 1918, p. 109.
58 UARM, ‘In the Cause of Health and Cleanliness’, Progress, January 1928, p. 17; UARM online catalogue – http://www.unilever-archives.com/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=GB1752.UNI%2fGF%2fCR [accessed 26 July 2018].
59 UARM, Acc/1992/55, press advertising expenditure, 1908–1925.
60 UARM, LBC/25/18, Lever to his son, William Hulme Lever, 23 May 1916; G.E. Robertson was the artist responsible for many of the Monkey Brand advertisements.
61 UARM, LBC/119/71, Lever to John Cheshire, 22 February 1922.
62 BFI, ‘Changing Hues’ – http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150057735 [accessed 5 August 2018].
63 Examples of advertising from these campaigns from the 1920s onwards can be found in Unilever Archives and the British Film Institute.
64 UARM, Acc/1999/7(16), Lever to Lavanchy-Clarke, 25 September 1896.
65 ‘Brilant Arranges Remarkable Tie-ups to Exploit Mack Sennett’s ‘Molly O’’, Moving Picture World, 12 November 1921, p. 206.
66 ‘Does Some Good Exploitation for ‘The Sheik’ in Australia’, Moving Picture World, 27 May 1922, p. 390.
67 UARM, AFP/12/3-5 for examples of Pears advertising and testimonials featuring Lillie Langtry and other nineteenth century celebrities, and LBL/5/1 and MD/AL/1 for examples of the Lux film stars advertising, not only from Britain and America but also India and Turkey using indigenous actresses.
68 UARM, Acc/1992/55, shows that press advertising expenditure rose from around £140,000 per annum at the start of the century to over double that figure in the 1920s.
Additional information
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Jeannette Strickland
Jeannette Strickland holds a doctorate from the University of Liverpool and is now an Honorary Research Fellow of the university. Her thesis examined the advertising and marketing of Lever Brothers. She is also a qualified archivist with extensive experience and knowledge of archives in the corporate sector.