The 1920s Marketing Stunt That Made Ivory Soap a Household Name Procter & Gamble had a big problem: Kids didn’t care about soap. Enter Edward Bernays, the father of modern PR. He didn’t lecture kids about hygiene. He didn’t lower the price of Ivory. He didn’t run ads about germs. Instead, he turned soap into fun. After spotting an artist carving Ivory into sculptures, he launched a National Soap Sculpture Contest in 1924. Kids began carving their own creations. Newspapers and magazines covered the contests. Ivory soap became a symbol of creativity—not just cleaning. By turning “enemies of soap” into fans, Bernays didn’t sell a product—he sold an experience. The lesson for any business: Sometimes the smartest marketing move isn’t to push harder on logic—it’s to make people want to participate. What’s your version of a “soap sculpture” today? How can you turn something mundane into something magnetic?