“The Closer You Shave, The More You Need Noxzema” TV Commercial ~ 1967 Noxzema; Gunilla Knutsson

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Noxzema Shave Cream commercial. Sexy Swedish model Gunilla Knutsson: “Men, nothing takes it off like Noxzema Medicated Shave.” The can: “Noxzema Medicated Instant Shave – New! Concentrated – More Shaves Per Can”

Originally a public domain film from the Library of Congress Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and one-pass brightness-contrast-color correction & mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

Wikipedia license:

Gunilla Knutsson (sometimes billed as Gunilla Knutson, Gunilla Knudson or Gunilla Knudsen) is a Swedish model, actress and author. Coming from Ystad, she was named Miss Sweden in 1961 and was a semi-finalist in the Miss Universe pageant the same year.

She is most famous for a series of Noxzema Medicated shaving cream commercials from 1967 – 1973 in which she urged men to “take it off, take it all off” (referring to facial hair). During 1973, she appeared with Joe Namath in such a commercial when he was the star quarterback for the New York Jets American football team. Gunilla Knutsson later became spokesperson and vice-president of sales for Rose Milk Skin Care Lotion.

A photograph of Gunilla Knutsson appeared on the cover of the 11 December 1970 issue of Life Magazine. This issue of Life magazine, with the caption ‘Model Gunilla Knutson owns a health food store’, featured a three-page article entitled ‘The Move To Eat Natural’ with a photo of Gunilla Knutsson at her store Nature’s Children, of which she was part owner. A photograph of Gunilla Knutsson appeared on the October 1972 cover of RC Modeler Magazine in front of a radio control model of an American Bell Jet Ranger Helicopter designed by Len Sabato. In 1979, the Beaver County Times issued an article, “The Gunilla Knutsson Saga”, in which she spoke about her everyday life as an executive married woman. ″In the 1990s, she worked as a wine taster for Sabrina Wine Importers and a gymnastic instructor at the Buckley Elementary School in Manhattan…

Noxzema (/nɒkˈsiːmə/ nok-SEE-mə) is a brand of skin cleanser marketed by Unilever. Since 1914, it has been sold in a small cobalt blue jar. Noxzema contains camphor, menthol, phenol and eucalyptus, among other ingredients. Originally developed as a sunburn remedy, it is frequently used as a facial cleanser and make-up remover. It can also be used for cleaning chapped, sunburned, or otherwise irritated skin. Since the introduction of Noxzema, the brand name has appeared on shaving cream, razors, and skin-cleansing cloths.

History

The formula for Noxzema was invented by Francis J. Townsend, a doctor who lived in Ocean City, Maryland. The formula was called “Townsend R22” and referred to commonly as “no-eczema”. Townsend prescribed it as a remedy to early resort vacationers burned by the sun.

Townsend later gave the formula to Dr. George Bunting who for many years denied the transaction. In about 1917 Bunting began selling “Dr. Bunting’s Sunburn Remedy” as an alternative to the greasy, tallow-based medicating creams in use during the period. For the first three years, Bunting and Elizabeth Buck mixed, heated and poured the product themselves. The name was changed to Noxzema, supposedly because a satisfied customer who exclaimed, “You knocked my eczema.” An early slogan was “the miracle cream of Baltimore”.

Beginning in 1920, the cream was produced by Bunting’s Noxzema Chemical Company in a small factory in Baltimore. By the 1940s the product was being sold throughout the United States, and was promoted by radio and print advertisements. Noxzema continued to be produced by the Noxzema Chemical Company, which was reorganized in 1966 as Noxell Corporation, and was still under the ownership of the Bunting family.

In 1989 Procter & Gamble acquired the brand as part of the acquisition of Noxell. Alberto-Culver bought the rights to the brand in 2008 from Procter & Gamble and operated the line of skin-care products until Alberto-Culver was acquired by Unilever in 2010. In October 2014, Noxzema brand in Greece changed its ownership from Procter & Gamble to a domestic company, Sarantis for €8.7 million…