Advertising chiefly appears on a larger scale on the back covers of yellowback books, where Pears’ Soap and Fry’s Cocoa are the most popular. Even more advertising is included on the flyleaves of the volumes.
DR. ROOKE’S ORIENTAL PILLS AND SOLAR ELIXIR
Advertised a free of opium, Dr. Rooke’s many products were touted as a family medicine to be used for liver complaints, stomach upset, and pulmonary consumption. Widely endorsed by the doggerel poet John Close (1816-1891), the ingredients in this medicine still remain a mystery.
ENO’S FRUIT SALT
Invented in the 1850s by James Crossley Eno, these are effervescent fruit salts used as an antacid. Today this product is part of GlaxoSmithKline. Its chief ingredient seems to be sodium bicarbonate.
FRY’S COCOA
J. S. Fry & Sons also manufactured chocolate bars in Bristol, England, but it is the cocoa that is usually advertised on yellowbacks. Fry & Sons produced the first chocolate Easter egg in England in 1873. By 1919 the company had merged with Cadbury’s, but was dissolved when Cadbury was taken over by Kraft Foods in 2010 although a product still called Cadbury Fry’s Cocoa is marketed in Canada.
LIEBIG COMPANY’S EXTRACT OF MEAT
Developed in 1847 and with a texture like of molasses, Liebig’s meat extract was a reduced meat stock to which salt had been added. It was advertised for its nutritional value, and it was popular in both Europe and the United States. From the time of the Civil War up to World War I, Liebig’s Extract was still in use in the military.
PEARS’ SOAP
Beginning in 1807, Pears’ transparent soap was produced in a factory near Oxford Street in London. Other soaps and beauty products marketed at the time were often harsh, containing either lead or arsenic. Andrew Pears experimented with purifying soap by using glycerine and other natural products. He combined his transparent soap with a superb marketing campaign, including the actress Lillie Langtry, the first woman to endorse a commercial product, and images of babies, touting the soap’s purity. Pears soap, with some formula changes, is still available today.