Laveuses

Laveuses (1896)

This film from Louis Lumiere is a historically interesting one as it had to have been one of the first commercials for a product. Sunlight soap is clearly advertised as a group of women are washing some clothes. This is certainly a fun film to watch as you can't help but be entertained at the way they tried to sell the soap. There's really not too much going on outside the woman washing the clothes. In the background some are hung up. Towards the frame are boxes of soap with the Sunlight name clearly visible. I'm not sure if this film helped sales or not but it's fascinating to watch.

Women scrub scrub scrub their clothes in washbasins, while children wander into the frame. The boxes bear the name of the soap prominently: "Sunlight Savon."

They still make Sunlight Soap, at least in Britain. The Wikipedia page for the product says it was introduced in 1884, and "was the world's first packaged, branded laundry soap." It was made by Lever Brothers, now Unilever, and they were clever producers and marketers of household soaps and suchlike goods. They still are. Nice, innovative advertising here.