Düsseldorf 11 December 2022: In 2022, Persil’s „Weiße Dame“ of the detergent brand Persil celebrated her 90th birthday. One of the very first brand ambassadors, she has always dressed smartly and smiles from the poster either as a young woman, a mother of twins or an entrepreneur - but always in pure white. 

For the Düsseldorf-based company Henkel, this is a reason to pay tribute to their successful advertising icon. The „Weiße Dame“ also has a tribute in Düsseldorf in the Persil watches that adorn the Düsseldorf cityscape. Alethea Magazine received an exclusive interview from Kirsten Teipel, Head of Corporate Heritage & Knowledge Henkel, to mark her anniversary.

Their beginnings

In 1922, the caricaturist and painter Kurt Heiligenstaedt was commissioned to design an advertising poster for Persil and modelled the lady on his friend Erna Muchow. He took her to the "KaDeWe" department store on Berlin's Alexanderplatz and bought her a white dress. With a Florentine hat on her head and a packet of Persil in her hand, the 18-year-old posed for the painter: this became the „Weiße Dame“ from the end of 1922.

At that time, Persil was already well-known because Henkel had revolutionised the washing process with its product. This poster marked the beginning of the great era of Persil posters. It adorned posters, enamel signs and house walls until the 1960s. The popular Persil clocks with their motif can still be found today in public places in many German cities.

Until the 1960s, the white lady would smile from posters and enamel signs before she was replaced only in the early 1960s. Before that, she can be seen once again in an advertising film "Don't we know each other?" a gentleman asks when he sees an elegant young woman in a white costume on Düsseldorf's Königsallee. The woman replies: "Maybe we do, sir. Millions know me."

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Alethea Magazine: The „Weiße Dame“ has always been developed further. How many different white ladies were there?

Kirsten Teipel: Over the decades, the „Weiße Dame“ has always been visually adapted to the spirit of the times and fashion tastes. Sometimes she was blond, sometimes brunette, sometimes dressed summery and sometimes wintery, but her white clothes always made her recognisable as a Persil advertising figure. Since the „Weiße Dame“ also advertised abroad and was visually modified many times, no exact number is documented. There are about 35 images of the „Weiße Dame“ in her original form - i.e. in an elegant white dress. If one adds similar representations in advertisements and unpublished designs, there are more than 50 motifs. In the past, the „Weiße Dame“ was repeatedly used on special occasions, for example as a historical motif on the Persil drums in 2001.

It was no longer used after 1957. But the Persil clocks with the „Weiße Dame“ remain in the city of Düsseldorf?

The Persil clocks can still be found today in many public places in a total of 20 cities, including Düsseldorf. Some of the clocks are owned by the cities and we hope that the clocks will continue to be part of the cityscape for many years to come.

How do you manage a brand so successfully over generations?

Products and communication have adapted to today's zeitgeist and so Persil also advertises on social media and is constantly developing its portfolio. This includes products in almost plastic-free packaging such as the new Persil Power Bars (New: Persil Power Bars with 100% Persil washing power) as well as Persil's online laundry service (Persil Service (persil-service.de).

Henkel also has a connection to art through Gabriele Henkel. Are you also involved with the art collection in your field and can you perhaps say when it will be possible to see it again?

Gabriele Henkel assembled the collection over decades until her death. The focus is on contemporary art, but it also has ethnographic focal points, such as textiles from all over the world and artefacts from Central America, Africa and Oceania. A selection was presented to the wider public for the first time in 2016 at the K20 under the title "Henkel - The Art Collection". Unfortunately, we are unable to make any statement about future planned exhibitions.

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