Ring around the collar! 

If you’re under 45, those four words probably draw blanks. But if you’re of a certain vintage, you can hear the jingle in your head right now. 

“Ring around the collar … ring around the collar!” 

The old television commercial was brilliantly simple. A husband wore a white dress shirt. The collar had a dingy gray ring around it. The announcer practically gasped in horror while America’s homemakers were left wondering whether the neighbors had noticed. 

The message was unmistakable: If your husband’s collars looked like that, you were failing at your wifely job. 

Looking back, it’s maybe more disturbing than funny. Guilting poor Mom into a product purchase. Maybe hubby simply needed to spend a little more attentive time in the shower. 

Madison Avenue wasn’t really selling detergent. It was selling anxiety. It created a problem, magnified it, and then offered a miracle solution that came in a brightly colored box at your neighborhood grocery store. 

“Ring around the collar …” 

It worked beautifully. 

Millions of families bought the detergent. Millions also bought into the guilt. Even now, I check the insides of my shirt collars — and I was just an innocent bystander kid when those ads ran. 

Those commercials were part of an era when advertisers convinced us we needed whiter whites, fresher breath, shinier floors and coffee........

© Santa Clarita Valley Signal