Thomas J. Barratt to be a well known catch phrase well into the twentieth century. Barratt was awarded a Guinness World Record in 2014 for being considered the world's first brand manager, a job he held for A&F Pears from 1865. Barratt was keen to equate Pears with quality and high culture through his campaign methods. He acquired works of art to use in the advertisements, most famously John Everett Millais' painting "Bubbles", which he turned into an advertisement by adding a bar of Pears soap in the foreground. Millais was said to be unhappy about the alteration, but he could do nothing,
Autumn Leaves (painting) on Millais' sisters-in-law Alice and Sophy Gray, are portrayed in middle-class clothing of the era; the two on the right are in rougher, working class clothing. The painting has been seen as one of the earliest influences on the development of the aesthetic movement. The painting has typically been interpreted as a representation of the transience of youth and beauty, a common theme in Millais' art. Malcolm Warner argues that Millais was influenced by the poetry of Tennyson, at whose house he had once helped to rake together autumn leaves. Warner suggests that lines from Tennyson's song "Tears, Idle Tears"