Ever wonder why Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Eastenders are called soaps? Here’s the reason…
The TV favourites' weird moniker is all down to something that happened back in the 1930s
HAVE you ever wondered why our TV favourites are called soaps?
It’s not because the characters are always in a lather or because they have to keep it clean thanks to the watershed.
The real reason soaps are called soaps goes all the way back to the Jazz era.
Back in the 1930s, when radio was king and the majority of women didn’t work, broadcasters were desperate to increase revenue and ratings.
To tap into the female market, they decided to come up with something to keep the busy housewife amused as she went about their daily chores.
So the long-running daytime drama was born and, with it, a whole raft of sponsoring.
The first to jump on the bandwagon was US soap powder company, Procter and Gamble, who were desperate to promote their Oxydol soap powder.
The company launched a one cent sale, meaning shoppers could buy one box of the product at the regular price would receive a second box for a cent.
They then flagged it up to women by sponsoring Ma Perkins, a drama about a woman who ran a lumberyard.
The idea was trialled on a station in Cincinnati, Ohio before going National in December 1933.
The idea proved such a hit the company began to sponsor more dramas and even produce their own
The combination of the washing powder link and the high melodrama of the shows led to the them being dubbed “soap operas”.
In the following decades the soap company sponsored some 20 soap operas on radio and television and became a pioneer in producing award-winning daytime serials.
Other soap companies, including Lever Brothers and Palmolive, also muscled in until pretty much every long-running serial on radio, and later on TV, was accompanied by a jingle for a soap powder or toiletry product.
In time, soap operas got shortened – and that’s the squeaky clean reason we call them soaps.
