Orive | 1938
“Realce su personalidad” (Enhance your personality) by smiling with white, shining teeth, promised Orive toothpaste in 1938, presenting itself as “el primer dentífrico español” (the first Spanish toothpaste).
The brand is named after Salustiano de Orive y Oteo, a pharmacist born in 1842 in Briones, in La Rioja. In 1871 he opened a pharmacy on Calle Ascao in Bilbao, where he made his fortune with Licor del Polo, a mouthwash still sold today. In his last years he prepared to move the factory to Logroño, where he died in 1913. Hence the line at the foot of the ad: “Laboratorios Orive, Logroño”.
In this ad we can see the tube sliding out of its box and a couple drawn in 1930s style: his hair slicked back, hers in the fashionable waves. It appeared in FOTOS, a Falangist propaganda weekly published in San Sebastián, on 31 December 1938.
“The first” was the advertiser’s own claim: other Spanish toothpastes of the time also called themselves pioneers.
In 1992 the La Toja-Orive group was bought by the German company Henkel.
Text in the ad
Realce su personalidad luciendo al sonreír unos dientes blancos y brillantes
Pasta dentífrica Orive le ayudará a conseguirlo
El primer dentífrico español
Laboratorios Orive, Logroño
Translation:
Enhance your personality by showing white, shining teeth when you smile
Orive toothpaste will help you do it
The first Spanish toothpaste
Laboratorios Orive, Logroño
- Brand
- Orive
- Year
- 1938
- Decade
- 1930s
- Country
- Spain
- Medium
- Magazine
- Themes
- Cosmetics
- Original publication
- FOTOS, 1938
