‘Desert dri’ for Shulton, 1960, 2/3 page ad with black and white photo, 13 x 29 cm
This 1960 advert by Shulton, presenting the Desert Dri Roll Anti-perspirant, shows interesting features. Main target is to keep the arm pits dry, pesonified by the desert sand from which the model seems to emerge.
Leaving no doubt about the whereabouts, her head dress points towards Egypt. Adding the exotic meaning of the pharaonic past, underlined by the rigid arm pose. It also signifies the specific novelty of the cream deodorant in its specific holder: ‘her fingers needs never touch’.
In a broader context the pose is interesting as ‘more Egyptian than Egyptian art’, a theme I shall research for the SECAC conference in Pittsburg.
The female raising up from the desert sand is also used as the opening shot of the TV commercial for the deodorant, yet as she fades-in she keeps her eyes turned downwards. Her’all day protection’, by the way, results in her standing in a kiosk on top of a sand dune. Behind the fluttering white ‘delicate fabrics’, she is able to receive a male visitor under a starry sky, ‘dri’ and fresh as she still is by that time.
The complete long version of the commercial:
https://archive.org/details/dmbb09313
Also reproduced in:
Brier, Bob, Egyptomania. Exh.cat. New York (Hillwood Art Museum) 1992, p.52