Mental Floss has compiled a list of 5 Great Depression Success Stories, among them Proctor and Gamble, who during the greatest economic crisis our country has experienced to date, mass produced as many as 21 serialized radio dramas at one time to sell the one product even cash-strapped consumers couldn't live without— soap.
How did the soap giant beat the Depression? Things were tough at first when mainstay grocery customers started cutting their orders and inventories piled up. P&G apparently realized that even in a depression people would need soap, though, so they might as well buy it from Procter and Gamble.
Thus, instead of throttling down its advertising efforts to cut costs, the company actively pursued new marketing avenues, including commercial radio broadcasts. One of these tactics involved sponsoring daily radio serials aimed at homemakers, the company’s core market. In 1933 P&G debuted its first serial, Oxydol’s Own Ma Perkins, and women around the country quickly fell in love with the tales of the kind widow. The program was so successful that P&G started cranking out similar programs to support its other brands, and by 1939, the company was producing 21 of these so-called “soap operas.” In 1940 the company started its own production division for soap operas, and in 1950 it made the first ongoing television soap opera, The First Hundred Years.
P&G’s share price is currently trading at about $20 below its 52-week high, so maybe it’s time for the consumer goods behemoth to go back to what works."