To kick off the 2013 season, we explore one of the most effective marketing strategies ever devised: The use of “Shame” as a marketing tool.

First emerging in the late 1800s, toothpaste ads suggested a fresh mouth could help you attract a mate. But advertisers had a major obstacle to overcome – bad breath and body odour were not socially unacceptable then. So advertisers focused their sizable resources to linking odours to shame, and then shame to product solution. 

From bad breath, dandruff and ring-around-the-collar to gray hair, plastic surgery and skin lightening, the strategy of social shame has become the most lucrative selling strategy of all time.

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