Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
September 18, 1988
By Helen Fagg Mitchell
Vigo County Historical Society
Pencil pushers lured kids with premium
Manufacturers of household products long have used the psychological approach of appealing to children--and thus, to parents--by offering premiums that are unusual and mildly useful.
The Church and Dwight Co. that makes Arm and Hammer Soda did not depend on the genuine goodness of the soda alone for sales. This company had several advertising gimmicks which some will no doubt remember. These “gifts” either came with the product when purchased or could be obtained with coupons and a small cash outlay.
Sets of cards with pictures of American birds on them were coveted by grade school children. One thing that made them even more desirable was the fact that teachers also used them as reference material in nature-study classes.
The Church and Dwight Co.’s sales booster in the general store in the museum is an oversize pencil in its original box. It is the kind of object that would tend to drive a teacher insane if every child possessed one. Imagine 25 or 30 pencils about 11 inches long and nearly an inch in diameter.
This pencil is painted in narrow red, white and blue stripes. The slogans, “America Forever,” “Freedom Forever,” and then “Arm and Hammer Forever,” are engraved on the stripes.
A very obvious case of soda indoctrination would follow the use of the pencil. After all, who can resist patriotic slogans in our own colors of red, white and blue?
The cop of the pencil is of shiny metal with the Arm and Hammer insignia. You remember the arm with the manly muscle and rolled-up shirt sleeve and holding the large mallet-type hammer. This same insignia has been used how for more than 140 years.
This interesting bit of historical memorabilia was given to the museum by Lucille Failing. She thought it might have been an article from her father’s grocery store in Petersburg, but she wasn’t positive. It can be seen in the lower level of the museum.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.