DuPont: Rise and Establishment of an Advertising Empire
Introduction - The DuPont Company
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, also commonly referred to as simply DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July of 1802 as a gunpowder mill. The company was founded by a French-American chemist and industrialist by the name of Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours, or E.I. du Pont for short. As of 2014, DuPont was the world’s 4th largest chemical company based on market capitalization ("2014 Global 500 companies ranked by sector" (Excel Spreadsheet). The Financial Times. June 27, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2015.), making the company an economic powerhouse in terms of profitability and market presence. In today’s market, DuPont is responsible for the development for polymers such as neoprene, nylon, Teflon, Kevlar, Tyvek, among many others. The company’s headquarters is located in scenic Wilmington, Delaware, and the company continues to serve the United States of America as well as many other countries around the world.
The Early Years - Establishing and Expanding DuPont through the 19th & 20th Century
E.I. du Pont used capital he had raised in France to facilitate DuPont’s growth in the early stages of the company’s development. E.I. du Pont also used gunpowder machinery imported from France to begin his work in the field. The company was initially set up at the Eleutherian Mills, on the Brandywine river near Wilmington, Delaware. This endeavor was set up two years after du Pont’s family fled France to escape the French Revolution, which was a period of social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. The DuPont company began initially as a manufacturer of gunpowder because du Pont noticed that the gunpowder industry in North America was significantly lagging behind that of Europe at the time. This is one of the main reasons why DuPont was able to establish such a foothold in the gunpowder market in the early 19th century. By the mid 19th century, DuPont had grown quickly enough to become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the United States military. This made
DuPont especially successful when the American Civil War came around; the company supplied half of the powder used by the Union Army during that time. In modern day, the Eleutherian Mills is now a museum and has been declared as a National Historic Landmark.
Through the 19th century and into the early 20th century, DuPont continued expansion, moving into the production of explosives like dynamite and smokeless gunpowder. This is the time in which DuPont made their products marketable towards a broader audiences rather than just military operations. As seen in advertisements from their early 20th century publications, DuPont, while still operating out of the mill in Wilmington, Delaware, created advertisements that targeted recreation game hunters and skeet shooters. This marketing tactic lead to publications that pictured “sportsmen” inspecting and commenting DuPont’s quality smokeless gunpowder, a demographic which was much different than their previous, militarized one. Slogans included commemorative quips such as “Leave nothing to chance, but see that all your shells are filled with DuPont Smokeless”. This advertisement, and the myriad of others similar to it that DuPont produced, shows how much of a demand there actually was for DuPont’s superior, smokeless gunpowder that could propel projectiles further, harder, and faster. DuPont knew that they were manufacturing a superior product (which was easily recognized, since North America had not seen gunpowder of this quality before DuPont); during this time, almost all magazines and advertisement publications had at least one instance of DuPont pushing their notorious gunpowder. As seen in this Century Advertisements publication from between 1900 and 1910, DuPont has a large, eye-catching advertisement for, you guessed it, their gunpowder. This article is interesting because it uses DuPont’s successful past of supplying military entities as credibility towards marketing a superior product to anyone who may need blasting supplies, including the general public, which was most likely their target audience with publications such as these.
From the 20th century On:
This initial successful beginning for DuPont carried the company into the mid 20th century, a time in which they branched their production out into fields such as automotives, textiles, and wartime implements. Dupont drew much success from the Second World War in which the company produced nylon for parachutes, powder bags("Hosiery Woes" Business Week, February 7, 1942, pp. 40–43), and tires ("Nylon in Tires", Scientific American, August 1943, p 78). Later and more modern developments for DuPont towards the end of the 20th century would include flak jackets
and kevlar vests, along with their variety of textiles that are used for construction and other industrial purposes. .
Nylon and DuPont Nylon is a textile that is more than often ignored. It is in everything that we wear and use , it is cheap, and long lasting. Many people do not know that the local DuPont family created this synthetic fiber.
One of the most popular types of advertising that DuPont uses when it comes to fashion is the Nylon campaign. Nylon was an up and coming synthetic fiber created on February 28th , 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont's research facility at the DuPont Experimental Station. Nylon was the first commercially successful synthetic thermoplastic polymer . It is made by repeating units linked by amide bonds, which as a result creates a silky texture that was made to replace silk ( which was very expensive and time consuming to make because it had to be made by hand). Nylon became the most popular textile because it “ was used in World War II for parachutes, mosquito netting and surgical sutures. Postwar production returned to hosiery”. Nylon , which became synonymous with women's hosiery was commercialized once the war was over and became a fashion statement in itself. It was low in cost and easy to produce so many women were drawn to this product.
An advertisement that came out for Nylon depicted a pin up girl wearing a long white gown and pulling up her Nylon hosiery in a delicate manner. She is sitting on top of different colored nylon stocking and seems as though she does not have a care for the world. There are three additional illustrations that shows the same model doing domestic chores like lighting up the dining room candles before a family dinner and what we can presume is her husband is washing her Nylons. The man is also packing a Nylon coat into a suitcase, which showcase the versatility of this textile.
On the top in big red bold letters it says “ news about NYLON” and a short description about what this stocking is about. at the bottom of the chair there is a mock letter that lists reason why DuPont’s Nylon fiber is desirable and the best offer. DuPont’s signature seal is located right on top of the “letter” letting the consumers know that it is their product.
Other Nylon advertisements have a similar aesthetic to them. Since this was the start of commercial advertising , the ads are not as flashy as the ones today but worked just as well when it came to convincing women to buy their products. A common theme with these Nylon advertisements is that they are almost comic book like. There is one main focus which usually features a beautiful woman and around her picture are illustrations of people or children doing everyday activities.
There are a couple of advertisements that have male models as their main focus but it is greatly outnumbered by women. Here is a picture of an ad taken out of a magazine that shows a man wearing “rugged” sweater made out of DuPont’s Nylon material. It embodies the successful American man who’s stylish and put together.
Advertising with Different Products and Techniques DuPont had a lot of different products that they worked on over the years. In 1923, DuPont scientist William Hale Charch, developed cellophane. DuPont advertised it in magazines with colorful pictures of women holding meat that was wrapped in the newly developed product. They titled the advertisement as “Shopping’s speedier—meat is cleaner,” which is a simple slogan designed to catch the reader’s eye.
They had many different products that their company
pushed to consumers through advertising. DuPont pushed car polish with comics and giant bolded headlines. They sold sponges, car wash, nylon, tires, “Orion,” paint, gunpowder, and many other products, all of which had the typical DuPont advertisement format.
DuPont’s advertising techniques were pretty standard as a whole, especially considering the time period. They used very large images, usually in color, to capture their audiences. On every advertisement, there is a large, bolded title, which generally used all capital letters—depending on how much space they had available for the advertisement. They accompanied the large images with smaller images off to the side to indent the main text that described the product and its uses, while showcasing the product. Most of the advertisements included images of women, usually with the product being shown. They used more than 3 different fonts in most product advertisement, and sometimes more than 5 different fonts. DuPont was also frequently featured in magazines. They usually had full-page spreads, but would sometimes be featured off to the side.
The titles they used were all creative too—such as “Thanks to nylon, this warm outer coat weighs only 7 ounces more than a football!” which was featured in The Saturday Evening Post with a picture that took up 3/5 of the entire page. Another title was, “Easiest way to make your car shine: DUPONT No7 POLISH cleans and shines at the same time. It’s faster… it’s easier.” The product title was in all capitals, which actually grabs the potential customer’s attention very easily simply by making the product title stand out more. There is no question about what they are being sold.