Where did the 'soap' come from in the term 'soap opera'?

Arpeggionist

Soap operas were traditionally considered to be daytime programming, geared at an audience made up mostly of women who were stuck in the house while their husbands were out working. During the shows the commercials - also geared at the women - were mostly for cooking and cleaning supplies, with soaps and detergents the most popular items for advertising. Hence "soap opera" is so called because of what the commercial breaks were like. Mar 06 06, 1:35 PM

kaylofgorons

I remember hearing that it started with radio programs, daytime programming as Arpeggionist said, that were sponsered by soap companies for publicity. (Compare this to the popular Christmas film in which Ralphie's cowboy serial was sponsered by Ovaltine.) The trend probably continued through to televisions. Mar 06 06, 2:57 PM

xfacilitatorx

Definately because of sponsorship. Mar 06 06, 3:21 PM

ElDoradoRiches

from soap commercials Mar 06 06, 4:09 PM

lindarandell

Originally in the break the adverts which were aimed at housewive would mostly be for washing powder or soap powder, because of this the programmes were then nickname soaps. Mar 22 06, 8:18 AM