Here’s something I never expected to write: Old Tupperware commercials are mesmerizing, brilliant, and strangely convincing. Dips keep dippier! Hams keep hammier! My God!
It was home parties that were responsible for Tupperware’s iconic status. As Alison J. Clark relates in Tupperware: The Promise of Plastic in 1950s America, the product wasn’t taking off until the company turned to one of its most successful saleswomen, Brownie Wise, who said she made her numbers by hosting neighbors in gatherings at her own home, then plying them with plastics. The direct-selling approach worked magnificently, becoming the company’s sole distribution channel, and offered a socially acceptable way for women to make money. The Tupperware party quickly became a cultural touchstone.