Every cotton bud box has a warning label: 'Do not insert swab into ear canal,' and if you're going to use it to clean your ears, gently swab the outer part only. 9News
Every Q-tips box has a warning label: "Do not insert swab into ear canal," and if you're going to use it to clean your ears, gently swab the outer part only.The humble Q-tip was so perfectly designed for this purpose that it turned into a generic word for a product.Even the makers of cotton buds are clear: do not put these inside your ears.The origins of this strange consumer phenomenon can be traced to Leo Gerstenzang, an immigrant from Poland.
"Baby Betty Gays" was the original working name for the swabs because daughter Betty laughed when her parents tickled her with them, according to her 2017 paid obituary. By the time Gerstenzang put out one of the first newspaper advertisements for his invention in 1925 it was shortened to "Baby Gays."By the mid-1930s, "Baby Gays" was dropped from the name.
Q-tips never told us to stick the swabs in our ear canal to clear out earwax. But, from its beginning in the 1920s, it made ear care a key focus of its marketing strategy. This trained generations of Americans to associate it with cleaning there. It wasn't until the 1970s, under previous owner Chesebrough-Pond's, that Q-tips added a warning about not sticking the thing in your ear. It's unclear what prompted this change.
"It was just accepted that that's how people were using it," said Aaron Calloway, the Q-tips brand manager at Unilever in 2007 and 2008.So whatyou use Q-tips for? The company has several suggestions. For decades, it has tried to emphasize the versatility of cotton swabs.
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