in the 1930s those governments were worried about people’s general health,
because everyone was suddenly buying canned fruit, artificial butter, meat in tins...
that kind of thing.
Q23
It became very common. And so newspapers were featuring lots of
government reports about how serious this was.
Lucy:
I see.
Sam:
And then, some people saw a business opportunity.
Lucy:
Naturally.
Sam:
In the 1940s, companies started making and selling vitamin supplements in bottles. And they
decided the easiest way to market them was to target housewives.
Lucy:
Why was that? Because housewives were responsible for keeping families healthy?
Sam:
I’d say so.
In the weekly magazines housewives read, the companies made exaggerated
claims about what the supplements could do, and they showed pictures of rats in a
laboratory before and after they were given vitamins. The ‘before’ pictures showed
the rats looking very sick.
Q24
Lucy:
So they scared the housewives into buying their product.
Sam:
Apparently.
Lucy:
But vitamins were still expensive, weren’t they? It wasn’t until the 1950s that more people
could afford to buy them.
Sam:
Why was that?
Lucy:
Well manufacturers had discovered how to produce vitamins artificially and in enor-
mous quantities in their factories.
Q25
Sam:
I suppose that’s what goes on with any product. It starts expensive until manufacturers
adapt their technology. Were there any developments in the 1960s?
Lucy:
Companies changed their promotional strategy to increase their sales.
They used movie
stars to say how effective the supplements were.
Q26
Sam:
That’s still true today. Celebrity endorsement really seems to work. Someone on the TV
says vitamins have made them healthier and immediately more consumers go out and buy
them.
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