Humans have underestimated deodorants. And mouthwashes. One could never imagine that a bar of deodorant sums up the torrent of history and annotates the definition of a long-established social myth.
A social myth, conforming to Dr. Uğur Kilinç of Ondokuz Mayis University, “is a narrative form, especially one concerning the early history of people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon.” In a nutshell, it is the universally inherited ideologies that were passed on by the collective unconscious. While Kilinç tied the term to archetypes due to their similarities (Kilinç, 2015), scholars like Gérard Bouchard and Irina Ponizovkina have also shared their viewpoints on the formations of social myths. Sociologist Gérard Bouchard claimed that social myths are sacralized values (Bouchard, 2016). Professor Maciej Czerwinski, on the other hand, illustrated how social myths are essential in advertisements (Czeremski, 2020). Indeed, social myths are commonly used in advertising to grab the audience’s attention and entice them into purchasing items.
This essay evaluates how social myth is molded into advertising campaigns using the examples of deodorant pioneer Odorono and mouthwash tycoon Listerine. Not only were the advertisements successful in marketing the goods, the social myths of people should not smell, and that body odor is related to etiquette and popularity were also solidified through the persuasive slogans. So...

What is Social Myth?
Social Myth, according to Gérard Bouchard, a Canadian historian, and sociologist of Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, is “sacralized collective representation, more specifically sacralized values.” An ideology goes through the process of mystification when it is given value by a civilization and furthered sanctified (Bouchard, 2016). Both Gérard Bouchard and Irina Ponizovkina, a professor of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics elaborate the term in their writings.
The analysis in Gérard Bouchard’s written work Social Myth: A New Approach hypothesizes reason as the main driving source of thoughts, and social myth as the engine of the culture modern society bears and discusses the new approach of sacralization in society. He includes several examples such as racial equality in South Africa, freedom in the United States, and universality of citizenship in France, etc. to display how natural these ideas are to most of the world ever since their sanctification. Not only are these grand ideals considered social myths, according to Bouchard, “…in a collectivity, any idea, message or symbol becomes influential…” after the social mythification. In this case, the idea of having odor is a severe issue that needs fixing for an individual to be acceptable in society is an example of such a social myth. The beliefs are “deeply seated” and secured through the years of ethnocultural diversification and globalization and are most likely to be passed on into the future (Bouchard, 2016).
Similar argument was brought up by Irina Ponizovkina in her thesis Social Myth in Modern Society where she claims that social myth is rooted in our society thanks to “globalization and informatization”. Ponizovkina states that social myth and the mass consciousness are interdependent and rely on each other to thrive. Nonetheless, social myth is what can be manufactured. The author gives examples of how certain people such as religious or political groups would use it as a tool to persuade the general audience of their notions (Ponizovkina, 2017). “Religious ideas, social utopias, images, and stereotypes, etc.” are what are commonly sacralized and put forth by people with any sort of intentions. On this account, advertising companies are also regulars of using social myth in campaigns to boost the sales of products.

Social Myth in Advertising
As stated above, social myth is an effective marketing strategy employed in advertising campaigns to promote the product. In the opinion of Maciej Czerwinski, a professor from Uniwersytet Jagielloński in Poland, mythization is a crucial process for a firm to be successful in its advertising. In every piece of advertisement, there should be merit that is eye-catching or appealing enough that spurs the want for the product from the customers and it is often the social myth that helps the product stands out. Czerwinski put an emphasis on how rationality in the decision-making process is often overrated, and many consumers rationalize or make excuses for their purchases only after the purchase is made (Czeremski, 2020). In other words, social myth itself, a product of irrationality, plays a huge convincing role in the advertisements to encourage irrationality that leads to consumption of the products.
The idea was also underlined by Dr. Uğur Kilinç in the book Handbook of Research on Effective Advertising Strategies in the Social Media Age, where he states “using myth in advertising persuades consumers some other stuff other than the product by impressing the consumers.” The author tied the concept of social myth with psychologist Carl Jung’s collective unconscious approach and labeled it as an archetype, a primordial pattern of circumstances thought consistently enough to be considered a universal concept (Britannica, 2021). He further analyzed the idea using the Meaning Transfer Model proposed by Grant McCracken in 1986 (Kilinç, 2015). 

As the advertisements were broadcasted, the messages conveyed were also propagated to the general public (Ponizovkina, 2017). The more times the statement is repeated, the easier the messages are to be absorbed by the receptive collective unconscious. Kilinç stated in his book, “It (Advertisement) manipulates people to buy a new lifestyle as well as the goods.” While the ads pay off for the advertising companies, the rest of the world had to pay for what they already paid for (Kilinç, 2015). After all, it is the human unconsciousness that made the decision of accepting the message, making it an archetype, and changing their lifestyles.
 
Real-life Examples of Social Myth in Advertising
This circumstance had taken place in today’s vastly deodorized world, where “Do I smell?” is a frequently self-asked question that is rarely raised in social occasions, but rather an essential one individual would ask themselves in order to meet the social expectation on body odor. Having perspiration and halitosis are seen as social faux pas pursuant to an established social myth.
The idea of having body odor is unhygienic and negative had been imprinted into ethos over the years that when it comes to the decision making of having a “smelly” body or a “presentable” one, the answer is without a doubt the latter one. According to Gérard Bouchard, “during the mystification process, reason takes a back seat to emotion as the main driving force, a shift that opens the way to sacralization (Bouchard, 2016).” Simply put, people ask themselves “how to?” instead of “how come?” when putting on deodorant and using mouthwash for not having body odor has become a normalized perpetuate concept since long.
That said, the mythification of body odor’s immediate tie with etiquette or even popularity was widely intensified by deodorant and mouthwash companies in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Deodorant company Odorono and mouthwash enterprise Listerine being two prominent examples played a huge part in amplifying the social myth. The slogan used in the early advertisement campaigns, regardless of the negative side effects, did indeed serve their purposes of promoting the products and popularizing the ideology of eliminating body odor.

“Let’s face the truth about underarm perspiration odor.”
Sure, let’s face the truth: Is deodorant necessary? Yes. But was it necessary?
Have people put down their arms and think for a second, they would have realized that Maybe this is a social myth that is sold to them by deodorant companies.
It all started when Edna Murphey, a high school girl, opened a company called Odorono (Odor? oh,no!) to promote the anti-perspiration invention of her father, a surgeon, to keep his hands from sweating during operations (Theweek, 2021). Back in the late 1800s, the niche invention was considered unhealthy and unnecessary. Yet it was not until Murphey was introduced to James Young, a copywriter from an advertising company with no advertising training, that the product finally prospered (Everts, 2012).
Despite the fact that Young has no experience in promoting products, he was ambitious and mastered the skill of inaugurating social myth in advertisements. The first few years, he targeted the consumers who thought covering up the odor is unhealthy and redressed their beliefs. Sales went up as a result of his diligence but did not stay as he wished. The smart man soon figured a way out by convincing the audience that excessive perspiration is an extreme embarrassment.
In 1919, Young started to inculcate the idea that women’s odoriferous armpit has always been a taboo issue that requires deodorization but no one dared to mention (Figure 2). In addition, he linked body odor to etiquette and female’s popularity among men (Figure 3). The dramatized advertisement was sensational as it stigmatized the natural human odor (Everts, 2012). Although the campaigns exploited females’ insecurity, it indeed was effective in promoting the deodorant, and many companies such as MUM soon emulated the scaring method since then (Figure 4).
Aforementioned, a social myth is formed when an idea is sacralized and becomes what is seen as natural. In consequence of Murphey and Young’s advertisements, the social myth of human needs to be odorless serves as a sufficient incentive mechanism. It encourages irrationality and lures the audience into becoming customers in accordance with Czerwinski’s theory (Czeremski, 2020).


“Halitosis makes you unpopular”
Similar techniques were used in mouthwash advertisements. One notorious example is Listerine, one of the biggest mouthwash companies in the world. On the report of Listerine’s official website, it claims that mouth wash was invented as an oral germ killer by Dr. Joseph Lawrence and it is very crucial in people’s daily lives (LISTERINE®, 2021). However, picture this: human’s mouth has been smelly for over 5,000 years, but it was not until the late 1800s that any of the humans bothered to worry about it.
Owing to a corresponding social myth of one should not smell, mouthwash has become a prerequisite since the rename of bad breath to “Halitosis” (Clark, 2015). Bad breath was not seen as a social faux pas but rather a minor personal imperfection in the 1800s. Nevertheless, some intelligent salespeople from Listerine came up with a marketing strategy that gave “bad breath” a scientific name “halitosis” and made it a severe health condition that will affect ones’ social life (Figure 5). Luckily, they immediately provided a cure for that, which is the Listerine mouthwash (Prichard, 2012) (Figure 6). Since then, personal hygiene has become commercialized and mouthwash is a necessity.
While the advertisement suggests that having the condition is pertaining to ones’ popularity, it has in fact formulated the audience’s mindsets and created a demand for the product. This, attested by Kilinç, served as a social myth and spurred reactions of the collective unconscious (Kilinç, 2015). Regardless of whether or not odor was a factor in determining popularity, it is one now. Now that humans are reminded that they are smelly, there is no way back.


To conclude, social myth serves as a cogent factor in marketing with the essence of its sacralization. Through the anatomization of scholars such as Gérard Bouchard and Irina Ponizovkina, the nature of social myths is demonstrated. In addition, professors Uğur Kilinç and Maciej Czerwinski further link the term with advertisements and display the importance of such respectively. Advertising companies’ subtle manipulation all contributes to the emergence of social myths. Consequently, the social myths serve as marketing strategies and are used in later advertisements. In the cases concerning body odor, it is proven that the idea of having body odor from mouths or underarms, despite its regularity, is seen as negative and needs fixing. The advertising campaigns of deodorant and mouthwash surely left far-reaching impacts. The ideology implanted is inherited and roots in this generation, soon the next.
Though the usage of social myths in advertising campaigns seems beneficial toward the companies, wouldn’t it be nice to picture a world without having to worry about body odor? (1939)