Dutch-o-rama, advertising in the Netherlands

[foraloysius]

I have a lot of Dutch newspaper ads from the fifties, sixties and seventies. I'm going to share some of them here now and then.

I'll start off with an ad of a twintub, it's a DRU (Diepenbrock and Reigers in Ulft), one of the earliest companies in the Netherlands, founded in 1754. This was my mother's first washing machine that my parents bought in 1955 when they married. Twintubs weren't very popular in the Netherlands although they were widely available. In the early years many people found them too expensive, in later years they got tough competion from fully automatic washing machines that became very popular in the sixties here.

This twintub has an agitator and the option to rinse in the spinner with a rinse column, that sprayed rinsing water all over the laundry. As said, my parents bought this washing machine in 1955, the ad is from 1963, so it was on the market for a rather long period. My parents replaced it in 1965 with a Candy frontloader.

 

[petek]

Google translating lol

When I googgle translate that caption above the machine it says " Are you a new combi-washer ? Obviously somethings lost in the translation.. LOuis ?

 

[foraloysius]

Ah yes, the errors of Google Translate... lol

I would translate that as: "Are you ready for a new twintub".

 

[foraloysius]

Here's an ad from 1953. There were lots of different wringer washers on the market. In the Duomatic thread we established that at some point there were over 100 washing machine manufacturers in the Netherlands. That is quite a lot if you consider that around that time there were just a bit more than 10 million people living in this country. That's one factory on 100,000 people! But apparently that wasn't enough, we imported a lot of brands too. The Wasco and the Hoover were on the cheaper side, the Prefect the cheapest in this ad with an electric wringer. The somewhat more expensive Servis, probably with a bigger capacity. And then there was the Thor. 1075.- guilders was quite a lot of money. And if you wanted the dishwasher option you had to pay 310 guilders more. That could buy you an automatic washing machine already back then.

 

[foraloysius]

The first automatic washing machine was a Bendix that was imported in 1947 and installed in Rotterdam. I found an ad from 1950. Ofcourse these were expensive, but in the ad it says it is cheaper than a maid or a laundry service. The distributor for the province Limburg was a dry cleaning shop. They organised a demonstration week.

 

[foraloysius]

Westinghouse appeared here on the market too. Here's an ad from 1957. It uses the patented Westinghouse "agi-tumble" wash method.

 

[foraloysius]

Skip was one of the first low sudsing detergents on the market here. They used a Westinghouse frontloader in this ad from the early 60's. The price is steep with 1385 guilders, although the ad says the price shouldn't be a problem.

 

[foraloysius]

The Westinghouse Spacemate appeared here too. It was available with a built in heater, but it was over 300 guilders extra. That amount of money could buy you a simple wringer washer!

Other American brands were available on the Dutch market too. General Electric toploaders were rather popular, I knew several people who grew up with one.

 

[foraloysius]

The British Acme was active on the Dutch market too. Their appliances were rather expensive compared to other brands. With a heater and an extra lid you had to put down 1000 guilders. It must have been one of the most expensive twintubs on the market. This ad is from 1961.

 

[foraloysius]

One of the reasons the twintubs didn't attract many customers was the appearance of the AEG Turnamat on the Dutch market. It was an H-axis twintub, with a drum like a frontloader, but with the opening on top. It washed and rinsed automatically (with lots of water!). The only thing you had to do was spin the laundry afterwards. It was just a bit more than the Acme twintub, but you had less hassle with handling the laundry, which was very positively recieved by the Dutch customers. In no time the AEG Turnamat became very popular and soon the priced dropped because of that. This ad is from 1961, just like the Acme ad.

 

[joeekaitis]

As the owner of a Subaru Impreza with a Lineartronic CVT . .

 

 

. . . I would welcome the opportunity to pay homage to the originator by basking in the glory of a few DAF Variomatic ads.

 

Links to TV commercials would be simply divine.

 

[foraloysius]

And then came Candy! Candy plaid an important part on the Dutch market when they introduced an affordable frontloader. Here are three ads. The first is from 1962, the Candy still costs 995 guilders. Two years later the price had dropped to 698 guilders. And then in 1966, it was 598 guilders, in four years the price had dropped with 40%. The competition on the Dutch market had started and that helped with the sales figures. Soon the automatic washing machine was widely accepted, a bit earlier than in a lot of other European countries. There were many players on the Dutch market, amazing that a small country had so many competitors on it's white goods market.

 

[Ultramatic]

Louis...

 

 

I see a Dutch-O-Rama Part One, Two, Three, etc! LOVE the ads!

 

[vacerator]

Yes, most interesting Louis!

Like Holiday "candy" too.
I learned of American appliances and vehicles in Holland at first from the Dutch 1980 film Spetter's. Couldn't believe I saw a 1969 Impala in it.
HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime in those days showed many foreign films.

 

[petek]

Funny you never see the Dutch here getting their knickers in a knot over this stereotype , at least not yet LOL

 

[iowabear]

Thank you for posting these, I really enjoyed them.

 

I especially love the ad for Skip detergent and the "horrors of suds" graphic in the upper left corner.  Tide should bring something like this back!

 

[mieleforever]

Hi Louis,

Ons kry steeds "Skip" hier in Suid Adrika. I suppose you could interpret that.

Currently we have Skip, Omo in our house. Skip is still the more expensive brand around here but is really good.

I love your advertisements. Keep them comming.

Groete,

 

[vacbear58]

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to post these Louis - it is a very interesting thread

 

[foraloysius]

Thank you guys, it's a pleasure to share them with you. And thank you Louis for the inspiration for the title of the thread.

Pete,

When Dutch can earn money with stereotypes, we are not complaining. lol

Skip disappeared here from the market a long time ago, just like Radion that was a detergent from that time too. My grandmother started using Radion in her first automatic, a Zanussi, but it was suds galore!

Spetters is not my favourite Paul Verhoeven film. Turks Fruit also gives a good impression of the Verhoeven's view on life and Dutch society.

Here's an ad for you Joe. It looks like there are no DAF commercials on Youtube, couldn't find them. This DAF ad is from 1961.

"Shifting is old fashioned: Drive variomatically your time ahead".

And: "Every year five million Americans pay 700 guilders extra for an automatic transmission in their car. But you can save on that because the DAF is fully automatic without a cent extra".

The price for the basic model (including heating!!) is 4130 guilders, so about the same price as four automatic washing machines...