WHERE DID THE PHRASE COME FROM?
Indeed, nowadays, most uses of the “when it rains, it pours” tend to be negative.
But the most famous use of the phrase, the original use that popularized it, was designed to be positive.
It dates back to 1911, when the Morton Salt Company developed a new breakthrough in table salt technology.
Up until then, most table salt was sold in a raw, coarse-grained form that clumped and caked in humid weather.
The Morton food scientists solved this problem by reducing the grain size and adding a small amount of magnesium carbonate, an anti-caking agent.
As a result, the salt didn’t cake and clump. It could be poured or shaken out as nicely as dry sand regardless of the humidity.
The Morton execs asked their ad agency – the renowned N.W. Ayer & Son firm – to create a catchy ad slogan for this new and improved salt.
Morton rejected a couple of initial slogan ideas, but the Ayer admen eventually came up with a winner: “When it rains, it pours.” It put a witty, positive twist on the old English proverb “It never rains but it pours.”
As expected, American consumers of that era – who previously had to put up with inconveniently clumpy salt when the humidity was high – knew exactly what the slogan meant. It meant that Morton Salt would stay dry and come out of the box or shaker perfectly, even when it was raining outside and humid inside.
It was a good thing (unlike the way the phrase is used today).
But the most famous use of the phrase, the original use that popularized it, was designed to be positive.
It dates back to 1911, when the Morton Salt Company developed a new breakthrough in table salt technology.
Up until then, most table salt was sold in a raw, coarse-grained form that clumped and caked in humid weather.
The Morton food scientists solved this problem by reducing the grain size and adding a small amount of magnesium carbonate, an anti-caking agent.
As a result, the salt didn’t cake and clump. It could be poured or shaken out as nicely as dry sand regardless of the humidity.
The Morton execs asked their ad agency – the renowned N.W. Ayer & Son firm – to create a catchy ad slogan for this new and improved salt.
Morton rejected a couple of initial slogan ideas, but the Ayer admen eventually came up with a winner: “When it rains, it pours.” It put a witty, positive twist on the old English proverb “It never rains but it pours.”
As expected, American consumers of that era – who previously had to put up with inconveniently clumpy salt when the humidity was high – knew exactly what the slogan meant. It meant that Morton Salt would stay dry and come out of the box or shaker perfectly, even when it was raining outside and humid inside.
It was a good thing (unlike the way the phrase is used today).
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