Selling Brotherhood Like Soap

"Selling brotherhood like soap" is kinda a thing in Social Marketing. If you don't believe me, google it. So why does everyone want to sell brotherhood like soap?
All because of G.D. Wiebe.

In 1951, Wiebe published an article called "Merchandising Commodities and Citizenship in Television" in The Public Opinion Quarterly. In this article he (famously) stated, "But in these frightening times, the question persists: Why can't you sell brotherhood and rational thinking like you sell soap?" If you're wondering what happened to "rational thinking," it seems to have been cut by Philip Kotler, in his 1971 article.

One thing that strikes me about this question is that while everyone and their gender neutral family member wants to sell brotherhood like soap, no one ever asks the reverse question - Why can't you sell soap like brotherhood?

In fact, I think I'm going to start a new ad campaign: Use Soap. Save the World. I mean, it seems pretty obvious to me that using soap makes the world is a better (and less smelly) place. So why don't the soap companies pull out a touchy-feely, do it for the children! approach? Sure, they like to throw up pictures of happy smiling babies - but those tactics are used to differentiate the brand and strictly to "sell soap."

So why can't you sell soap like brotherhood? Easy. Brotherhood doesn't sell. Why doesn't it sell? Easy. Because, its not sold like soap.