Pears (soap) had so much success that Pears purchased the copyright to produce copies as advertisements for their soap products. They were made for shop counter displays in terracotta, plaster and metal. From the late 19th century, Pears soap was famous for its marketing, masterminded by Barratt. Its campaign using John Everett Millais's painting "Bubbles" continued over many decades. As with many other brands at the time, at the beginning of the 20th century Pears also used their product as a sign of the prevailing European concept of the "civilizing mission" of empire and trade, in which the soap stands for progress.
John Everett Millais John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, (; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest student to enter the Royal Academy Schools. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street (now number 7). Millais became the most famous exponent of the style, his painting "Christ in the House of His Parents" (1850) generating considerable controversy, and painting perhaps the embodiment of the school, "Ophelia",