A Legend Rare of Frigidaire

Advertising requires a certain amount of ingenuity to sell a product. When there are multiple similar items on the market, an advertiser has to convince the consumer that their product is better than the rest. There are a variety of ways to do this, such as by providing an endorsement from a doctor or an authority figure. Other advertisements convince the consumer that everyone is buying or using their product. They argue that the consumer is being left out and needs to join the bandwagon. Still other businesses come up with creative and interesting marketing strategies that influence the viewer more subtly.

In 1926, the Delco-Light Company produced a story called A Legend Rare of Frigidaire and published it in a pamphlet as an advertisement for Frigidaire refrigerators. Frigidaire refrigerators had started with Alfred Mellowes, who created a refrigerator with the compressor located in the bottom of the cabinet. These refrigerators were produced and sold by the Guardian Frigerator Company in 1916. By 1918, the company became the Frigidaire Corporation under the control of the General Motors Company. Finally, in 1921 the company was put under the control of The Delco-Light Company, a General Motors subsidiary. With the mass production techniques used by General Motors, the Frigidaire refrigerator became extremely successful. The clever advertising techniques used in this pamphlet give us a greater understanding of that success.

A Legend Rare of Frigidaire tells the story of Aladdin after he had married his princess. Aladdin’s princess is distressed because her milk, cream, celery, and other vegetables are spoiling. Aladdin then asks his genie to bring her ice so that the food is kept cold. However, the ice melts every day and the food continues to spoil. So the genie brings them a refrigerator, which is used until Aladdin dies. Aladdin decrees that the magic of the refrigerator must be kept a secret for ten thousand years. The pamphlet argues that we now hold the secret to the cold chest that Aladdin had. The advertisement claims that Aladdin’s cold chest is replicated in the Frigidaire refrigerator. 

The pamphlet is an interesting piece of history in that it draws on the popularity of using Eastern design styles and elements. During the 1920s, Art Deco designers drew inspiration from around the globe, including Egypt, Africa, many parts of Asia, and China. People were enamored with the East and craved paintings, furniture, clothing, and household items that referenced what they considered to be exotic. They desired products that used design motifs from the past and romanticized ancient cultures. This pamphlet exploits this trend by drawing stereotypical Asian characters and clothing in a story set ten thousand years ago. It references ideas of mysticism and fantasy by including a genie, who brings Aladdin a magical cold chest. However, at the same time, the pamphlet conveys the effectiveness of the cold chest that Aladdin’s princess uses. The story connects the legacy of that cold chest to the Frigidaire refrigerator. The argument is made that only Frigidaire holds the secret to effectively keeping food from spoiling. In this way, it convinces consumers that Frigidaire is the best refrigerator on the market. At the same, it shows the changing representations of Eastern cultures during a time period that was captivated with the exotic.

Works Cited
[The Legend Rare of Frigidaire, 1926], SC-271, A Legend Rare of Frigidaire, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

[Register of the Frigidaire Collection at General Motors Institute, Flint, Michigan, 1980, Box 1A], MS-262, Frigidaire Historical Collection, Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.

Victoria and Albert Museum. “Art Deco’s Global Influences.” Accessed March 3, 2019. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/art-deco-global-influences.