The Pear's soap advert uses cleansing as a metaphor for bringing the benefits of Western civilization to supposedly inferior races. Many white people at the time the commercial was printed would've endorsed Kipling's belief, as presented in his poem "The White Man's Burden" that the West had a solemn duty to bring the benefits of its civilization to the poor, benighted "savages" of what we would now call the developing world.

Just as someone with dirt all over their face urgently needs a good wash, so, by implication, do the people of colonial territories need to scrub off centuries of superstition, savagery, and ignorance with the soap suds of Western civilization. In this case a soap manufacturer is openly colluding with the notion, so beloved of white colonialists, that indigenous peoples need to be cleansed/civilized.

In this reading, personal hygiene is equated with racial hygiene. To be clean means to be either white or to behave like white people. Whereas to be dirty equates with the perceived backwardness and superstition of dark-skinned natives. The Pear's commercial further implies that once the benefits of civilization—including Pear's soap, of course—have been brought to the four corners of the globe then colonial subjects will at long last be able to emulate the cultural habits of their colonial overlords and improve themselves.

The Pear's Soap advertisement is likening the whiteness, cleanliness, and purity of their soap to racial whiteness, cleanliness, and purity—and, hence, cultural superiority.

Kipling's poem argues that the culturally superior and noble "white man" takes over other, non-Western countries (like the Philippines) not for his own material gain, but at great sacrifice to himself, in order to bring the light of civilization to so-called savage peoples. By invoking the poem, the soap company appeals to snobbery, stating that Pears is held in the highest regard by the "cultured" across the globe, the bearers of society's burdens, the leaders. The implication is, as well, that not only will using Pears spread physical cleanliness, but moral cleanliness, suggested by words like "virtues" and "ideal." Using Pears soap is a social and moral good—it will make life easier for the culturally superior whites by spreading the value of cleanliness.

The advertisement thus catapults cleanliness to a symbol of whiteness and culture (class) at a time when more established white Americans were increasingly worried about both assimilating and differentiating themselves from increased numbers of "darker skinned" immigrants (albeit mostly Eastern and Southern European) entering the country. The soap will scrub some of the dirt (darkness) from the immigrant, and reassure the buyer that he or she is a member of the most elite cultural group.

This advertisement makes an allusion to Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem entitled "The White Man's Burden: The United States and the Philippine Islands." The creators of the advertisement are trying to appeal to the perceived ideals of imperialism that had taken hold among the white audience that had the potential of purchasing the soap for their own domestic use. More specifically, the ad prominently features Admiral George Dewey, hero of the Battle at Manila Bay just one year before. In 1898, Dewey defeated the Spanish Fleet, helping to ensure the conquest of the Philippines. By the time Kipling's poem was published, Dewey was a national hero. Thus the creators of the ad are attempting to sell their product by showing the endorsement of Dewey, whom the audience would consider one of the greatest white men who had taken on the "burden." In the advertisement, Dewey is seen freshening up, presumably using Pears' Soap, before continuing about his daily "heroic" exploits. Much like Nike and Gatorade wish to equate the use of their products with talent such as Lebron James, Pears' Soap was attempting to make their audience believe that their product would help the everyday white person "fight the good fight" in a way similar to Admiral Dewey.

Further, the lower right corner of the advertisement shows a light-skinned missionary standing over and presenting a bar of the soap to a much more darkly-complected native man of some sort. This, along with the majority of the text in the advertisement, creates a literal example of the phrase "cleanliness is next to godliness." Cleanliness—more specifically, Pears' Soap-level cleanliness—is equated with the heroic admiral and those who will be introducing Western culture to the native populace, "brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilisation advances."

The white man's burden was a phrase that Rudyard Kipling coined in his poem of that title.  It referred to the burden that he said white people took on when they tried to civilize the other people of the world.  The copy below the picture in this ad is using that idea to try to sell Pear's soap.

What the copy means is that Pear's soap could be used help to civilize the other people of the world.  As the non-white people learn to keep themselves clean, they will be taking a step towards being more civilized.  Pear's soap was trying to portray itself as something so powerful that it could help to civilize the uncivilized while still being good for people in the most "cultured" nations.

The Pear's soap people were trying to associate their brand with the wave of imperialism that was sweeping America.  They felt it would help the image of their brand and allow them to sell more soap.

What does the "white man's burden" Pears' Soap advertisment mean?

In his poem “The White Man’s Burden,” author Rudyard Kipling writes,

Take up the White Man’s burden—

Send forth the best ye breed—

Go send your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need...

Thus, Kipling believes that the well-educated ("the best ye breed") Europeans have a moral obligation to conquer and colonize peoples of other, less economically developed countries in order to bring them European cultures, ideas, and customs. He refers to the conquered people, who generally were darker skinned than the European conquerors, as “Half devil and half child.” It is up to “the White Man” to patiently endure “the threat of terror” and “the hate of those [they] guard“ to expand their European values.

Kipling believes that it is incumbent on Great Britain, the United States, and other more developed countries to bring their culture to less developed nations to help “civilize” them. In the late 1800s, Pears' Soap used the same concept in its advertising campaigns, presenting the soap and its cleaning power as a tool for the "white man's burden" to spread civilization to conquered lands. The ad also implies that, unlike the more civilized Europeans (or Americans), the colonial lands were populated by peoples who were unclean and uncivilized and therefore needed to be cleaned by Pears' Soap and, in turn, civilized.

The Pears’ Soap ad is not at all subtle in conveying this message. It says:

The first step towards lightening The White Man’s Burden is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness. Pears’ Soap is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilization advances while amongst the cultured of all nations it holds the highest place—it is the ideal toilet soap.

The need to brighten the dark corners of the earth has a dual meaning. On the one hand, it means civilize the less developed countries, as noted. In addition, it also refers to the racial differences between the two peoples, presenting the European, light-skinned conquerors as clean and the dark-skinned people of the “dark corners” in the conquered lands as unclean. The use of the words "lightening" and "brightening" also have extremely racial connotations in this ad.

What does the "white man's burden" Pears' Soap advertisment mean?

The White Man's Burden, a term coined by Rudyard Kipling in a poem of the same name, described the sacrifice the white person allegedly made to try to civilize, enlighten, and care for the darker skinned persons of the earth, most of whom were living in countries colonized by Western Europe and the United States.

Pears is openly aligning the purity and whiteness of their soap with the whiteness of Europeans. It is associating being of European descent with being clean and being of other descent with being dirty.

It is appealing to its audience's desire to be associated with upper-class whites. It says that it holds the "highest place" among "cultured" nations as a soap. It is the soap you want to use if you aspire to move up in the world and differentiate yourself from the dark, unwashed masses who are a "burden" to the rest of society. It will ensure you look clean and white.

What does the "white man's burden" Pears' Soap advertisment mean?

Let's take a closer look at what this advertisement actually said:

The first step to lightening the White Man’s Burden is through teaching the virtues of cleanliness. Pear’s Soap is a potent factor in brightening the dark corners of the earth as civilisation advances, while amongst the cultured of all nations it holds the highest place – it is the ideal toilet soap.

This association between colonialization and "cleansing" is one that is seen frequently in advertisements and political cartoons from around this time period. In this ad, the connection is used as a vehicle to sell a product, but it points to an insidious type of racism which was prevalent in society, particularly among those who were in favor of American expansion and the annexation of the Philippines. The "White Man's Burden" is a reference to Rudyard Kipling's poem of the same name, in which he describes this "burden" as the obligation of Western societies to "bind your sons to exile / To serve your captives' need." According to Kipling, the "burden" of the colonialist was that they were obliged to send their sons into less advanced civilizations in order to feed, clothe, educate and otherwise bring them from their "bondage," only to be rewarded by "the hate of those ye guard."

The use of this reference in the Pears' Soap advertisement, then, underlines the fact that those in favor of colonial expansion believed that it was their moral obligation to "cleanse" these cultures in order to bring them more in line with Western morality and belief systems. They felt that it was, in a way, more of a burden to the colonizer than to the colonized to exert power in this way and that the colonized nations simply didn't, or couldn't, understand that they were being helped. They were, after all, according to the poem, seen as "half-devil and half-child," "savages" who could not possibly be expected to understand the difficulties faced by their colonizers.

What does the "white man's burden" Pears' Soap advertisment mean?

I assume that you are asking about the advertisement for Pear's Soap that features Admiral Dewey.

If so, the meaning of this ad is that white people had a duty to go out and civilize the other people of the world.  Pear's is trying to use that idea (and the celebrity of Admiral Dewey due to the Spanish-American War) to sell their product.  The term "white man's burden" refers to this duty.  It comes from a poem by Rudyard Kipling.

This ad, then, is an example of how Americans in the early 1900s felt that they were superior to people of other races.  It represents the idea that their superiority makes it right for them to go and conquer other races of people.