The phrase "Better Living Through Chemistry" is a variant of a

DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...

advertising slogan, "Better Things for Better Living...Through Chemistry." DuPont adopted it in 1935 and it was their slogan until 1982 when the "Through Chemistry" part was dropped. Since 1999, their slogan has been "The miracles of science". The phrase "Better Living Through Chemistry" was used on products that were not affiliated with DuPont to circumvent

trademark infringement Trademark infringement is a violation of the exclusive rights attached to a trademark without the authorization of the trademark owner or any licensees (provided that such authorization was within the scope of the licence). Infringement may o ...

. This transmutation is now more commonly used than the original. This statement is used for commentary on several different topics, from the promotion of prescription or recreational drugs, to the praise of

chemicals A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

and

plastics Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their Plasticity (physics), plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be Injection moulding, moulded, Extrusion, e ...

, to the sarcastic criticism of the same. DuPont used the "Better Living Through Chemistry" slogan not to promote particular products, but to change viewers' opinions about the role of business in society. In the words of DuPont's advertising director, Charles Hackett, the advertisements sought to address "unspoken fears of bigness in business", which were based on "an emotional rather than a rational foundation". The phrase has since been used

in popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

as the name of a film and of music albums, sometimes as a euphemistic reference to recreational drug use.

References

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External links

DuPont - Better Things... BLTC Research
1935 introductions American advertising slogans 1930s neologisms DuPont