"Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?"

“Is your washroom breeding Bolsheviks?” is  an ad from the Scott Paper Company that warned readers of the dangers that could come with supplying their offices with low-quality paper towels. It was published in the 1930's amidst concern over communist revolution in America as the Soviet Union grew in power.

This advertisement provides insight into how hot topics can be used to grab attention, even if they are not relevant. In the subheader and body copy, Bolsheviks, communism, socialism, etc., are not referenced at all. The subheader points out that companies who do not provide adequate facilities are not respected by their employees. The text speaks mostly to the quality of the paper towels that Scott Paper sells. It does make a reference in the first line about how using “harsh, cheap paper towels or awkward, unsanitary roller towels” at work would make you “grumble," but nothing about a proletariat uprising. 

Why then, is the word “Bolsheviks?” in the title in large, red type placed in the center of the image? The goal of this design was to attract and interest the reader as fast and hard as possible, as paper towels are not something that command attention with most readers. When was the last time that you found yourself enthralled with a paper towel ad on TV? The most obvious solution is to pander to a significant topic that people can recognize immediately.  Any reader at that time would see “Bolsheviks?” in bright red and would be able to connect that to what they were hearing on the news the other day. That is enough to get them invested in seeing why the Bolsheviks are being referenced, what washrooms have to do with “breeding” them, and why the man in the image looks so disgruntled.

This advertisement is very clearly of-its-time, and it shows us one of the methods that advertisers and designers were able to easily grab attention in the mid-20th century. It also begs the question, “What are advertisers doing now that is using this type of trick?” What is the early 21st century equivalent of a washroom that breeds Bolsheviks?

-Owen Cook

Pages, The Society. “‘Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks?’ - Sociological Images.” Accessed April 24, 2024. https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2010/11/09/is-your-washroom-breeding-bolsheviks/.

“2010.54.19907 | OMCA COLLECTIONS.” Accessed April 24, 2024. https://collections.museumca.org/?q=collection-item/20105419907.

Political Posters, Labadie Collection, University of Michigan. “Is Your Washroom Breeding Bolsheviks.” Accessed April 24, 2024. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?id=S-LBC2IC-X-SCLP0484B%5DSCLP_0484B_CO.