the product's name is discreetly added as lettering on millais bar of soap, but it was the titling type to which the soap bubble seemed to attach that placed the image squarely on a commercial frame. some of millais contemporaries thought he had degraded himself through this association. competing advertisers were keen to find images that would promote the same recognition for their own products. so, a tension arose over the distinction between fine art and graphic art. it was argued that a moral or spiritual purpose belonged to the former, while crass commercial motives drove the latter. this sentimental use of the image of a child making fragile soap bubbles linked pears' to purity, innocence and gentleness, which appealed to females consumers.