Gold Dust Twins

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A box of Gold Dust Washing Soap featuring the iconic "Gold Dust Twins", 'Goldie' and 'Dustie'

Gold Dust Twins is the trademark for Fairbank's Gold Dust washing powder products, first appeared in printed media back in 1892. The original Gold Dust Twins, "Goldie" and "Dusty," were always seen doing household chores together. The word has been in common usage since the early 1900s and has been used as a nickname on many occasions.[1]

The Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank Soap Company in New York City first introduced Gold Dust washing powder in the late 1880s as an all-purpose cleaning agent. Gold Dust Washing Powder was sold in a light orange box with a black and white picture on the front. In a big pool, two small African-American children were seen washing dishes. E.W. Kemble who was staff artist of the Chicago Daily Graphic created the instantly familiar trademark.[2]

This ad campaigned slavery

Racial Issue

The Gold Dust Twins used recognizable mascots, two asexual African-American children that promote racist stereotype.

"Are you a slave to housework?" Gold Dust washing powder advertisement

Drawings of the twins had been turned into a cartoonish pair of caricature, bald, black children of unidentified gender depicted sporting tutus with the words "Gold" and "Dust" on them by the time a nationwide advertisement campaign was introduced in 1903. They were often portrayed in a comical manner on product containers and commercials, along with a large stack of dishes in a washtub, with one twin cleaning, the other drying.

Fairbanks & Co. also introduced a nationwide Gold Dust Twins program in 1903, with the slogan "Let the Gold Dust Twins Do Your Work." Goldie and Dustie, two dark-skinned, subservient minstrel characters who put white America at ease, became the campaign's face.[3]

Phased Out

By the 1950s, attitudes toward the use of black children in advertisement had shifted. The introduction of Tide laundry detergent to the industry had a direct impact on Gold Dust prices. In the mid-1950s, the whole company went bankrupt.

External Link

Gold Dust Twin Soap advertisement at El Dorado Republican (El Dorado, Kansas), 20 Sep 1901, Fri, Page 1, newspapers.com

References

  1. Gold Dust Twins. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
  2. Schock, Barbara. The Gold Dust Twins, sandburg.org, 1 July 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  3. Thomas, Velma Maia. YOUR ADVERTISEMENT TROUBLES ME: ATLANTA’S GOLD DUST TWINS, atlantastudies.org, 27 July 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2020.