When the Cinématographe was introduced to the world by Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1895, a new kind of mirror was created, and a large window was opened. A mirror, when the audiences found themselves on screen, leaving the workplace, waiting for a train, or having breakfast with their families. A window, when film producers, governments, or companies recognized cinema as an opportunity to communicate with a mass audience. It was in the spirit of cinema as a wide-open window that the Societé Lumière entered the advertising business and filmed Laveuses (1896). Photographed by Alexandre Promio, Laveuses is considered one of the very first existing commercials. It pictures a group of women in Geneva, Switzerland, doing laundry by hand; the women seem joyful, and small children are running around trying to help. We clearly see two large boxes of washing soap, labelled “Sunlight Savon” and “Sunlight Seife”, making this one of the very first product placements in cinema history.
Sunlight Soap was introduced in 1884 by the British company Lever Brothers. It was not only the world’s first branded laundry soap (as distinct from toilet soaps), but also one of the first laundry soaps to replace animal fat with vegetable oils. According to the web publication Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History, it was also one of the first products produced as a customer commodity, since until its appearance most households used their own homemade soap.
Given that women in the late 19th century were expected to be solely responsible for household work, the Sunlight Soap placement is clearly targeted at a female audience. In neither of the film’s two versions does a man get involved with the laundry (though one demonstrably guides the action of the children). Seen in the light of the era’s burgeoning struggle for women’s voices and votes, Laveuses can be viewed both as a catalyst for dialogue as well as quite possibly the first motion picture advertisement.

Enrique Moreno Ceballos, Veronika Klubertová