Establishing Ethos: Scott Tissue Towels Fights Commies So You Don’t Have To

This particular ad by Scott Tissue Towels is quick to establish its credibility with a very particular audience – Patriotic Americans. They begin by rattling off a list of well-known companies, including R.C.A. Victor Co., Inc., National Lead Co., and Campbell Soup Co. Aforementioned are some well-rooted, all-American, traditional corporations just so the buyer knows that Scott Tissue Towels only associates with the highest caliber of consumers, suggesting its heightened stature. Scott’s integrity is only further bolstered by the ad’s incessant referencing to the admiration by employees of companies that use Scott brand’s products, as if to say “The proletariat citizens working under you will immediately adore you because our company and products are so reputable.”

The register of the ad is rather, almost surprisingly so, casual. In the way of establishing ethos, Scott Tissue seems to go the route of building a bridge to their audience rather than win them over with professionalism and charm. As far as extending a hand to their audience, they do that in a clear way. They play on America’s fear of communism, which spurred the Red Scare (which is elaborated on in the “Kairos” section). Scott’s use of their audience’s emotions borders on Pathos, but also serves its purpose for Ethos. Scott Tissue consequently establishes itself as a shield against Bolsheviks like the grimy, sinister-looking man they have used in the ad.

Through application of extrinsic ethos, Scott Tissue, by way of its anti-Bolshevism, assures its larger consumers that it is another good, capitalist, American company like you and wants nothing to do with worker unions and other communist nonsense.

Appeal to Pathos in Anti-Communism Propaganda: Putting the "Scare" in "Red Scare"

America is in flames. Amidst the horrible conflagration, Soviet soldiers are strangling and beating down our brave men and women who were valiant (or foolish) enough to make one last stand against the Red Menace. Our once-great flag is no longer standing tall, becoming food for the ever-growing fire.

While we never witnessed this terrifying sight, we were always a day away from it -- or so these advertisements, books, and movies would have you believe.

Throughout history, appealing to society's deepest fears has always been the best way to control people, and the easiest way to distribute fear among the populace is through propaganda. Once the Cold War was in full swing and the populace needed to be rallying against the Russians, America promptly tore down its posters of Hitler and Tojo looming over the horizon and replaced them with posters of Stalin and Mao doing the same. Whether it was posted on the streets, broadcast on the radio, shown in theaters, or even displayed on the cutting-edge media called television, the message was the same: "if you don't care about America and do what we say, tomorrow you'll be wearing red and calling each other 'Comrade.'"

In this advertisement, the fear of starting a Communist revolt in your own workplace is used against employers to convince them to buy Scott Towels. The imagery is as plain as day -- a disgruntled employee, fed up with your company's inferior towels, begins pondering the benefits of a Marxist society. Tomorrow, he'll be showing up at work with a hammer and sickle.

Stasis Theory: The only thing preventing Bolshevism is the worst part of capitalism

The Scot Tissue ad states outright that companies who don't provide proper accommodations for their workers face the greatest fear of capitalist employers - a union, or a revolution of the proletariat. Buying Scot Tissue Towels, it asserts, will keep the workers content (at least while they're drying their hands). Asserting their product as one of the causes behind the implied calm and effectiveness present in large companies such as Campbell's Soup, the marketers at Scot Tissue lead the audience to believe that providing employees with their paper towels will not only quell the revolution, but ensure economic longevity.

Playing on the fears present during the Red Scare (see the kairos post for more detail), the ad barely needs to state that keeping down a workers' revolution would be a positive outcome. The ad also claims that Scot Tissue paper towels are economically wise, as a worker would only need to use one instead of three or four to dry their hands. The action that the marketers would like their audience to take is clearly to purchase the paper towels. However, this ad also encourages a general disdain for Bolshevism, picturing the worker as dissatisfied, with a scheming face and a mischievous mustache.

By encouraging patriotic prejudice, this ad brings the concept of eliminating Bolshevism and the communist ideology in general into the realm of the public. The CEOs may stop the spread of communism by properly supplying their workers; a good american may stop the spread of communism by being content with the life their supervisors have given them.

Kairos and Profiling: It's not a new thing

This Scot Tissue ad started running in the 1930s, towards the beginning of the Red Scare. The Red Scare was essentially the American fear that communist countries (mainly Soviet Russia) would bring their ideology to the United States and take over the treasured democratic government. Meanwhile in Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin had been in power since the death of Vladimir Lenin in January of 1924. The Bolshevik party was still at large in Russia, but the ideology at the time was shifting towards a more global communism - that is, Russia did not need to stabilize before it tried to convert other countries to communism.

It was this Russian spirit of communist expansion that in part sparked the creation of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1938. The HUAC's goal was to eliminate fascist and communist groups so that American democracy could be better protected. However, their policies quickly turned to profiling any and all Russian immigrants, as well as most Jews and anyone seen associating with people that might be guilty of communist thinking.

Suffice to say, racial profiling based on political fear is not a new practice in America. When this tissue ad was running, fear of communist takeover was coupled with a general fear of the impending war (World War II, which lasted from 1939-1945).

The Cold War, which was more like a series of proxy wars that the States fought against communist Russia, began soon after World War II, and would see the Red Scare and general anti-communist propaganda and paranoia gain much more traction.