The White Lead Promotion Campaign
In addition to specific companies' ads, in 1938 the lead industry as a whole, through the LIA, began its White Lead Promotion Campaign, the single largest activity under taken by the LIA up until that date. The purpose of the campaign was to increase interest in white lead in paint because the LIA recognized that "white lead is also constantly subject to attack from the health standpoint." The LIA thought that there was a "morale problem" and that advertising would help "to offset the stigma attached to lead because of attacks made upon it by consumer organizations." The association believed the campaign would "help to dispel fear or apprehension about its use."
Early in the promotion campaign, LIA secretary Felix Wormser made it clear that white lead was being promoted for use in interiors. In a 1938 article, the LIA's Lead magazine produced an elaborate economic rationale for using lead paint in residential housing, specifically in low-cost construction. The magazine continued to promote white lead for interiors of low-cost homes in its July 1939 issue. In an article on decorating plywood structures, the magazine showed pictures of a recreation room and a kitchen painted with white lead."
Two representatives of the LIA, Seldon Brown and W. L. Frazee, traveled throughout the country visiting officials of public and private institutions in efforts to convince them to use white lead. The LIA specifically targeted markets in urban areas. In mid- October 1940 the LIA reported, "In the course of his work with government officials in the neighborhoods of New York City, our representative also conducted a survey of painting practices of 36 real estate developments. A separate report of this survey has been sent to interested members. Brown reported his success with the Brooklyn Brewcourt Management Company: "Through a demonstration of the true costs of white lead as compared with mixed paint for interiors, Mr. Kilman plans to use white lead on several jobs and probably all future works."
In 1940 the campaign was expanded to include municipal, state, and county institutions. Brown specifically marketed white lead paint for public schools, noting in reports to the association whether institutions he visited used mixed paint or white lead on both exterior and interior walls. The LIA claimed that Brown made a total of 427 calls in his first 2 years on the job, of which 380 were to state, county, and miscellaneous institutions.
Brown was particularly insistent on pushing white lead for interior use. When he visited one superintendent of maintenance, he finally met with resistance. The superintendent, he reported, was "completely sold on white lead for exteriors, but can't see the value of white lead for interiors and [I] was not able to convince him. It was suggested that a demonstration of white lead and flatwall paint be [run] for this department by a lead salesman. Brown also reported on his ability to sell the virtues of white lead to those who knew little about it. In Flint, Mich, the superintendent of maintenance for the Board of Education was "very interested in our description of the qualities of interior white lead. [He] said that he thought that white lead was going out because he has heard so little about it. [He knew] nothing about white lead for interiors. [But he] plans to run comparative tests between white lead and present mixed paint used on interiors."
In addition to selling to schools, the LIA marketed lead paint to cities, hotels, and even health departments. Frazee reported that he had visited Little Rock, Ark, where he convinced a local hotel manager to have "his entire hotel, inside andout, done with lead and lead reducing oil." In Pierce County, Washington, the LIA representative visited the county health department, where he "explained properties of interior white lead paint, stressing sanitary aspects of a highly desirable and washable surface."
In addition, the White Lead Promotion Campaign comprised an advertising campaign, the placement of articles promoting the use of white lead in trade and popular journals, and mailings. In 1939, Dutch Boy Painter magazine announced a "big, new, cooperative advertising effort in behalf of white-lead.... A series of large-size advertisements in such widely read magazines as the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, American Home, Country Gentleman, and Better Homes and Gardens will bring the white-lead story to the public in general and to home-owners in particular." The magazine campaign would produce "separate messages that will be carried in the publications named."
In 1940, the secretary of the LIA praised the campaign's success in countering concerns about lead's effect on human health:
One beneficial result of our campaign is the good will it is building up for lead in general. I have always felt that the cultivation of good will for our metal and publicity about the indispensable work it does for mankind is something that lead needs more than other common metals because lead m many forms is constantly under attack on account of its toxic qualities. Our campaign helps to meet this issue.
The LIA saw its promotional campaign as an important antidote to the negative publicity that lead was receiving in the national press: "In the long run [the campaign] will share in dispelling anxiety about [leads] use. In any event the problem remains serious for our industry. Hardly a day passes but what this office has to devote some attention to lead poisoning," said Wormser in 1941.
Next: The Dangers of Lead Paint Become National News
