DDT Is Good For Me-e-e! 1945 Baseball T-Shirt

First synthesized in 1874 by the Austrian chemist Othmar Zeidler, DDT was developed as an insecticide. In 1945, DDT was made available for sale in the United States, and although it was promoted for use as an agricultural and household pesticide, there were also concerns about its use from the beginning. As a result, marketing campaigns to counter the concerns were launched, including "DDT Is Good For Me-e-e!" from Pennsalt Chemicals, which included print ads and radio spots with a cast of characters singing about how wonderful DDT was. The EPA began regulatory actions in the late '50s and '60s to prohibit many of DDT's uses because of mounting evidence of environmental and toxicological effects, leading to a ban in 1972.