Encore Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 10:30 p.m. on KPBS 2 / Not available on demand
The quote, "There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary," attributed to Irish playwright Brendan Behan, sums up the advertising philosophy of famed textile executive "Colonel" Elliott White Springs of Springs Mills, Inc. "Colonel" Springs was nothing if not flamboyant and daring.
“Miss Springmaid” tells the story of how "Colonel" Springs spearheaded an innovative ad campaign that made Springmaid sheets a household word and changed the approach of the country's advertising industry from the late 1940s until his death in 1959.
After the war, Springs determined he would make a name for himself. Advertising the sale of bed sheets — however high the quality — seemed inherently dull, so he sought a new approach in his magazine ads. Calling it a "burlesque of the advertising business," the "Colonel" began acquiring and commissioning artwork depicting attractive young women as "Springmaids," and he copiously employed sexual innuendo in his ad copy.
Many were outraged by his approach, but within a year there was convincing proof that "sex sells." Initially, the advertising industry called his ads "degrading," but today "Colonel" Springs' potpourri of risqué images, puns and double-entendres are studied at major universities and hailed as the beginning of Madison Avenue's hold on the nation's sexual consciousness.
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Presented by South Carolina ETV. Distributed by American Public Television.
