Home
Permanent
Finest Wave At Any Price
“Which twin has the Toni?”
-- Bill Cullen
Lincoln, Me. (DG)—
 The
creation of Toni Home Permanent opened the door for women who
wanted a permanent wave without going to the beauty parlor and paying all outdoors
for one. Since its debut, the people
of The Toni Company, the makers of Toni Home Permanent,
were finding ways to make their star product better--- and to let the people
know of its achievement. In other
words, Toni Home Permanent was going head on with the other brands
of home permanents of the era--- and more importantly, the perms that were done
professionally at beauty parlors.
In
order to get the word out on the radio, announcer Bill Cullen described a
classic advertising promotion on Toni’s serial program, THIS
IS NORA DRAKE, and the popular drama, CASEY, CRIME
PHOTOGRAPHER.
The
ad promotion featured identical twin sisters who had identical looking waves
done to their hair. There was
a slight difference, however. One twin had her hair done professionally at a beauty parlor,
and the other twin used Toni on her hair. The classic question Cullen asked the listeners was, “Which
twin has the Toni?” Now
bear in mind, the cost of the perms were $15 for the professional wave and $2
for a Toni Kit, which includes waving lotion and plastic curlers.
Unless the people were told (and they usually were in the small print in
the magazine ads), it was inconclusive who had what.
For the ladies who wanted a professional looking wave, it was easy to use
Toni at home and save the extra $13 for something that needed $13. As an added note, once the Toni Kit was
purchased, when another Toni perm was the order of the day, the Toni
Refill (bottle of waving lotion only) was available for $1.
If my math is correct, that would be a saving of $14 to the professional
wave.
With
Toni Home Permanent an immediate success, it received the
ultimate compliment. Its popularity
was overwhelming--- which means the competition were creating their own brands
of home permanent. “The Toni
Twins” promotion was so popular, the phrase “Which Twin Has The
Toni?” became a part of our language.
In addition, the Toni name itself is now slang for a woman
who was about to have a home permanent.
Since
twins were used in Toni advertising, and the word “twins”
is usually associated with the number 2, it made sense if The Toni Company
came up with a second product to accompany Toni Home Permanent---
and they did!
 The
second product in question was Toni Creme Shampoo.
Just like Toni Home Permanent, “The Toni Twins”
were featured in its print advertising, and Bill Cullen described on the radio
how it gave its users “Soft Water Shampooing” even in water as hard as
concrete.
What
this means, for people who have hair and hard water to contend with, using
another shampoo may not necessarily supply much lather to work with.
Once the hair was rinsed, the other shampoo was inclined to leave a
dulling, soapy-like film on the hair. On
the other hand, if the situation was the same as before with the exception of Toni
Creme Shampoo as the product used, the lather content was
rich and abundant. Once it exploded
into rich lather, Toni was ready to go to work in removing
dandruff, dirt, and gunk. Once the
shampooing was completed, Toni Creme Shampoo rinsed off
completely--- along with the dandruff, dirt, and gunk, of course.
The final result was fresh, shiny, and easy to manage hair.
Of course, Toni Creme Shampoo gave the same results for
those people who had soft or normal water.
With
the creation of Toni Creme Shampoo, The Toni Company*
focused on a complete line of products in later years such as White
Rain, Spin Curlers, Tonette, Silver Curl, Tame, Pamper, Adorn, Viv, Deep Magic,
and many other products for the hair and complexion.
Of course, these products were consistent sponsors of radio, TV,
and print.
The
idea of a getting a professional style wave at home was a major success
story for Toni Home Permanent and The Toni Company.
It was also a success story for Bill Cullen, who was the Toni
commercial spokesman on radio. He
went on to a distinguished career as one of the greatest game show M.C.’s
of all time. It seems like good
things happen to everything and everyone when Toni was involved.
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