- The Centaur Company
The Centaur Company , founded in 1871, owned and marketed proprietary medicines, notably, the stimulant
laxative Fletcher's Castoria and theointment Centaur Liniment. The company is historically significant in that it was a driving force during the early development ofmass marketing and advertising.History
In 1871, The Centaur Company was formed by
Charles Henry Fletcher at 80 Varick Street, New York City to purchase the rights to and manufacture the laxativePitcher's Castoria , renamedFletcher's Castoria after the founder. Together withDemas Barnes andJoseph B. Rose who had purchased the formula forCentaur Liniment that same year, manufacturing began.In 1923
Sterling Drug purchased a 1/4 interest in The Centaur Company and eventually purchased the entire company. [New York Times, Feb 9, 1923, Page 24, col 1 ??]In 1934, the Centaur Company Division of Sterling Products (later called
Sterling Drug ) purchasedZ.B.T. products from the Crystal Corporation.In 1984, Sterling Drug sold Centaur's raison d'être product, Fletcher's Castoria, to
Mentholatum Co Inc.Advertising
In the 1870s, The Centaur Company began doing significant advertising to create its brands, but primarily the advertising was for Castoria. Castoria ads from the 1870s through 1920s are still visible today on the buildings of New York. [ [http://www.forgotten-ny.com/ADS/Castoria%20page/castoria.html Forgotten-NY Ads] ] [ [http://www.frankjump.com/009.html Frank Jump's] ]
Between 1870 and World War II "Children cry for Chas. H. Fletcher's Castoria" was one of the best known advertising slogans. [New York Times, Feb 9, 1923, Page 24, col 1]
At the opening of the
Brooklyn Bridge in 1883, Chas. H. Fletcher put ads on virtually every blank wall in sight. They are quite visible in images of the opening of the bridge. [The Miami Herald , Nov 11, 1984]In the 1920s, Centaur was one of the earliest advertisers targeting women directly ["Devil-may-care 1920s found papers giving women more voice and space", By
Martin Kady Journal Now , 1997, Centennial, 1897-1997,Piedmont Publishing ] . Their advertising prior to that had targeted both men and women, but in the 1920s they began to advertise additionally in the new publications specifically targeting women.Centaur was an early practitioner of the use of celebrities in mass advertising. One famous ad had the company represented by the
P.T. Barnum 's famouscircus starJumbo , the giantelephant .The Centaur Company also did some racially targeted advertising, some of which featured the legendary boxer
Joe Louis . [see [http://www.centaur.com/] for images.]There were two "Fletcher's Castoria"
B-17 Flying Fortress bombers during World War II, both part of the100th Bomber Group . The first was lost, but the crew survived. The second survived the war. Its pilot was William H. Fletcher (not a descendant of Charles Henry Fletcher), hence its name.References
External links
* [http://www.centaur.com history of the company and its advertising]
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