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Planet Money

How Tupperware took over our homes, with Decoder Ring

14 Mar 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the significance of Tupperware in modern homes?

85.756 - 88.078

Yes, encrusted in mold, in my case.

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88.538 - 95.081 Willa Paskin

No, I mean, Tupperware is such an amazing and interesting subject because it is really this totally everyday object. Like we all have.

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95.742 - 99.364 Willa Paskin

And it feels like it's always existed and it feels like it's maybe old fashioned.

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99.544 - 100.304

Yeah.

100.404 - 105.087 Willa Paskin

But like in this story is so much stuff that's just really alive and still kicking and just really still with us.

105.187 - 126.815

Yeah. I think what's so interesting about the story that you tell about Tupperware is that how it was so revolutionary in so many ways, like not just the product, but also the sales strategy. And also it is a story about class and gender and told through this thing that we all buy and don't give any second thought to.

126.955 - 127.615 Willa Paskin

Yeah, absolutely.

128.155 - 129.575

So Willa, will you take it away?

Chapter 3: What revolutionary sales strategies did Tupperware implement?

1148.468 - 1161.99 Brownie Wise

Nominally, Earl Tupper is the president of the company, but she's the genius behind this. It was good advertising. It spread the message. But ultimately, that's what started to cause the friction with Tupper and Brownie.

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1164.513 - 1170.3

After the break, how Tupperware the company started to crack and how its descendants lived on.

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1178.556 - 1195.061 Willa Paskin

As the 50s wore on, Earl became increasingly aggravated by Brownie's popularity. Brownie became increasingly aggravated by Earl's micromanaging. They were both trying to grow the company, but they were often at odds, a situation that became prickly and tense over time.

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1195.081 - 1201.563 Brownie Wise

And then the big thing was the annual jubilee in Kissimmee in July of 1957.

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1203.53 - 1212.515 Unidentified Speaker (Brief Interjection)

Yes, this is Jubilee 1957, the Tupperware Homecoming Jubilee, called by many the most unusual sales convention in the world.

1213.435 - 1232.886 Willa Paskin

The Tupperware Jubilee was an annual over-the-top themed celebration and team-building exercise Brownie had started in the early 1950s. Tupperware dealers and managers would come to Tupperware headquarters on their own dime for an elaborate four-day show of appreciation and indoctrination.

1233.564 - 1241.347 Brownie Wise

Oh, they'd wear costumes, they'd sing their songs, I got that Tupper feeling down in my heart. I mean, they were into it.

1241.607 - 1250.371 Unidentified Speaker (Brief Interjection)

I got that Tupper feeling all over me, all over me, you say.

1251.892 - 1261.339 Willa Paskin

For the 1957 Jubilee, the theme was around the world in 80 days. And the highlight was a massive excursion organized by Brownie.

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