---
title: 'Pears'' Soap: "The first step towards lightening the White Man''s Burden" (Cosmopolitan advertisement, 1899)'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pears-soap-white-mans-burden-1899/
description: Full-page magazine advertisement in which a white-uniformed naval officer washes his hands at a shipboard basin, framed by warships and a quay stacked…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Pears' Soap: "The first step towards lightening the White Man's Burden" (Cosmopolitan advertisement, 1899)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/pears-soap-white-mans-burden-1899.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/pears-soap-white-mans-burden-1899.jpg)

# Pears' Soap: "The first step towards lightening the White Man's Burden" (Cosmopolitan advertisement, 1899)

Full-page magazine advertisement in which a white-uniformed naval officer washes his hands at a shipboard basin, framed by warships and a quay stacked with Pears crates, while in one corner a kneeling, naked African figure receives a bar of soap from a robed missionary. The slogan takes the phrase from Kipling's 1899 poem about the Philippines and colonial rule and attaches it to a product, so imperial prestige and a civilising mission stand in for any claim about the soap.

- **Date:** 1899
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** A. & F. Pears Ltd (soap manufacturer, London)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [United Kingdom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-kingdom)
- **Medium:** [Advertisement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=advertisement)
- **Issuer type:** [Corporation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=corporation)
- **Regime:** [Salisbury Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=salisbury-government)
- **Leader:** [Robert Gascoyne Cecil](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=robert-gascoyne-cecil)
- **Audience:** [Foreign public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=foreign-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism), [Race and ethnicity](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=race-ethnicity), [Economy and finance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=economy-finance)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002715038/), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1899 in the Cosmopolitan; LoC: No known restrictions on publication) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-86352

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
THE COSMOPOLITAN.

The first step towards lightening
The White Man's Burden
is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness.
Pears' Soap
is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances, while amongst the cultured of all nations it holds the highest place—it is the ideal toilet soap.

[PEARS on the crates and soap boxes in the picture]
All rights secured.
```

Ghost text from the reverse of the leaf shows through at the top (a piano advertisement) and is not part of this advertisement. The 'o' of 'of' is faint in 'virtues of cleanliness'.

[← Les Anglais au Siam, en Égypte, au Soudan et autres lieux (The English in Siam, Egypt, the Sudan and Other Places), La France illustrée](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/les-anglais-au-siam-egypte-soudan-malbet-1898/) ["A Sacrifice to Aguinaldo's Ambition" (commercial stereograph, 1899) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sacrifice-to-aguinaldos-ambition-1899/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)