Pepsodent

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Pepsodent tooth powder

Pepsodent is a toothpaste and dental product brand that has existed since 1915 and goes back to a US company.

Pepsodent is one of the world's most famous dental care brands. The toothpaste available in many countries is one of the ten best-selling. But it also has historical significance, firstly because the advertising campaign for Pepsodent in the USA made a great contribution to introducing tooth brushing as a daily ritual and thereby improving dental health, and secondly because the extensive advertising campaign itself was a prime example of successful advertising and applies to the formation of habits .

Pepsodent has been part of Unilever since 1944 . Exceptions are the USA and Canada; there the brand has belonged to the US company Church & Dwight since 2003 .

The Pepsodent toothpaste sold in the United States today has a mint-like taste that is derived from sassafras .

Historical

Pepsodent was registered in December 1915 as a trademark of "The Pepsodent Company" in Chicago . The company was founded by Douglas Smith (born December 9, 1861, † November 7, 1927), who had previously traded in medicine. He had bought the recipe for the toothpaste from a dentist and remained CEO of Pepsodent until his death. He died a millionaire and benefactor, whereupon his son Kenneth Gladstone Smith (1892-1945) became president of the company.

The suffix “dent” in the product name - which is used in many dental products - means “tooth”. The prefix “Pepso” originally stood for the enzyme pepsin , which was contained in toothpaste and, thanks to its ability to break down proteins , was supposed to loosen food residues or the dental plaque ( plaque film) from the teeth. The brand and company name were retained even afterwards, although the toothpaste no longer contained pepsin by 1936 at the latest. In this regard, Pepsodent is similar to Pepsi-Cola, which was invented a little earlier : This lemonade was also advertised with the allegedly beneficial effects of pepsin, which in this case should support digestion. But as with Pepsodent, the eponymous pepsin was soon removed from the ingredients of Pepsi-Cola. Pepsin only develops its enzyme effect in an acidic environment at a pH of 5 or less. A toothpaste should not have a pH value less than about 5.2, otherwise it is so acidic that it attacks the tooth enamel itself. Plaque is therefore better removed by brushing than by pepsin.

In 1944, Pepsodent was taken over by Unilever .

Pepsodent maintained a research laboratory in Chicago in 1946, which included 15 chemists, a bacteriologist and a dentist. The advertised ingredients of the toothpaste include "IMP", an abbreviation for "Insoluble Meta-Phosphate" (insoluble metaphosphate ). Since this is translucent, magnesium salts such as magnesium carbonate or magnesium phosphate were added in order to obtain the desired white color and better flow behavior. Another advertised ingredient was "Irium", a proprietary name for the foaming surfactant sodium lauryl sulfate .

After the Second World War, toothpaste - together with hair shampoo - was Unilever's main business area. From the 1950s to the beginning of the 1970s, Pepsodent was also sold in Germany via the Elida-Gibbs company in Hamburg, which belongs to Unilever; it achieved a good market share. From 1972 Pepsodent was manufactured in the newly built Elida Gibbs factory in Buxtehude . Unilever had a 20% share of the European dental care market in the 1960s and early 1970s, second only to Colgate. Overall, Pepsodent was very successful until the mid-1950s. With its manufacturers reluctant to add fluoride , sales plummeted.

Pepsodent has been marketed in India since 1993.

The American company Church & Dwight took over the dental care division of Unilever in the United States and Canada in 2003, with the brand names Pepsodent and Mentadent also being taken over.

advertising

From November 1916, the advertising agency headed by Albert Lasker (1880–1952), the “founding father of modern advertising”, was responsible for Pepsodent advertising. He and his employee, the advertising specialist Claude C. Hopkins (1866-1932), received Pepsodent shares in exchange for the advertising campaign they had started. Hopkins wrote in his biography that he made millions from this greatest success of his advertising career. The newspaper advertisements are among the most influential of the time. Lasker's rule of thumb for the product price was one third for manufacturing costs, one third for advertising, and one third for profit.

From 1929 Pepsodent sponsored a radio show for the National Broadcasting Company NBC. The advertising associated with the sponsorship made Pepsodent very successful. In 1938, radio advertising was expanded again through sponsorship by launching the radio show "The Pepsodent Show". The thirty minute program aired every Tuesday on NBC for ten years from 1938; the main role was prominently cast with Bob Hope . In addition, z. B. the singer Frances Langford and the musician Skinnay Ennis . The show was so popular that it was among the programs with the most listeners, especially in 1942/43. Famous Hollywood stars have made guest appearances including Cary Grant , Orson Welles , Judy Garland , Bette Davis , Humphrey Bogart , Paulette Goddard , Dorothy Lamour , Rita Hayworth , Penny Singleton , Arthur Lake , Basil Rathbone , Gary Cooper , Veronica Lake , Ginger Rogers , Edward G Robinson and Hedda Hopper . The advertising slogan “You'll wonder where the yellow went / when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!” (“You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brushed your teeth with Pepsodent!”) Became very popular (and also often faked).

From 1928 to 1933, a large Pepsodent neon sign hung in Times Square , New York on West 47th Street. The changing neon lights showed a rocking girl. This billboard was recreated for the 2005 film King Kong . All of the advertising for Pepsodent made it the best-selling toothpaste, and Lasker one of its largest shareholders.

variants

Pepsodent is closely related to the Signal brands, which are also part of the Unilever Group (always as striped toothpaste in Germany) and mentadent: the toothpaste currently sold in Austria as mentadent is sold in other countries as Signal, Pepsodent, P / S and Zhong Hua. The product sold as a signal in Germany is called Pepsodent in Argentina , Bangladesh , Bolivia , India , Pakistan and South Africa, and in the Philippines .

Pepsodent is also sold in India, Chile, Sweden and Finland.

Classification in the US market

According to a survey-based estimate, more than six million consumers used Pepsodent annually in the United States from 2013 to 2016. This made it among the ten most used brands, but far behind the market leaders Colgate and Crest, which were each used by more than 100 million customers.

References to Pepsodent

Pepsodent has been occasionally referred to in songs, musicals, and in films, e.g. B. in the song "You're the top" by Cole Porter in 1934 or in the musical South Pacific by the composers Rodgers and Hammerstein from 1949. In the musical Annie , the Pepsodent-inspired fantasy name "Oxydent" is used for a toothpaste for the one in the plot radio advertising is also made.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Top 10 Best Toothpaste Brands in The World. In: http://www.trendingtopmost.com . http://www.trendingtopmost.com , 2016, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  2. ↑ allan: 10 Most Trusted Brands Toothpaste. In: Dental Tips. St. Lawrence Dentistry, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Charles Duhigg: The Power of Habit . why we do what we do. 1st edition. Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-8270-0957-9 (Original title: The Power of Habit . 2012. Translated by Thorsten Schmidt).
  4. ↑ Subba Rao Chaganti: The Ad That Created A Habit! In: buildingpharmabrands. May 27, 2013, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b Zvi Eiref: Church & Dwight Agrees to Purchase Unilever's oral care brands in the US and Canada; Transaction Will Strengthen Company's 'Strategically Important Oral Care Business'. (No longer available online.) In: Investors: News & Events: News Release. Church & Dwight Co., Inc., September 10, 2003, archived from the original on November 10, 2007 ; accessed on January 1, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / investor.churchdwight.com
  6. ↑ Sarah Metzker Erdemir: Ingredients in Pepsodent. In: Oral Health Conditions - Teeth Care Products. livestrong.com, August 16, 2013, accessed December 29, 2016 .
  7. ↑ PEPSODENT Trademark Information. In: Trademarkia.com. LegalForce, Inc., a Delaware Software Automation Company, accessed January 9, 2017 : "This is a brand page for the PEPSODENT trademark by PEPSODENT COMPANY, THE in CHICAGO"
  8. ^ A b Douglas Smith, Philanthropist, Dies in Hospital . In: Chicago Tribune . November 8, 1927, p. 22 ( chicagotribune.com ).
  9. ↑ Kerry Segrave: America Brushes Up . The Use and Marketing of Toothpaste and Toothbrushes in the Twentieth Century. McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London 2010, ISBN 978-0-7864-4754-1 , pp. 36 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ↑ Green Hills Stones Calling: Kenneth Gladstone Smith. In: Find a Grave. Find a Grave, June 26, 2013, accessed January 14, 2017 .
  11. ↑ The Errors Made in Tooth Pastes. Pepsodent 1918. In: Pepsodent. brand-history.com, accessed January 9, 2017 .
  12. ↑ PEPSODENT CO. v. COMFORT MFG. CO. In: Court of Customs and Patent Appeals. Casetext, Inc., 1936, accessed January 9, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Pepsi Cola: There's a Difference - Ask Your Doctor . In: Henderson gold leaf . December 28, 1911, p. 3 ( loc.gov ): "It is an absolutely pure combination of pepsin (for the digestion), acid phosphate and the jucies of fresh fruits."
  14. ↑ DW Piper, Barbara H. Fenton: pH stability and activity curves of pepsin with special reference to their clinical importance. In: Good . tape 6 , no. 5 , October 1, 1965, ISSN  0017-5749 , p. 506-508 , PMID 4158734 , PMC 1552331 (free full text).
  15. ↑ Mary Sedarous, Gregory S. Hiltz: The pH of Tooth-Whitening Products. In: J. Canadian Dental Association 66 421-426. Canadian Dental Association, September 2000, accessed January 8, 2017 .
  16. ^ Geoffrey Jones: Renewing Unilever . Transformation and tradition. 1st edition. Oxford University Press, UK 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-926943-3 , pp. 32 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  17. ↑ Callie Hull, Mary Timms, Lois Wilson, National Research Council, National Academy of Sciences (Eds.): Industrial Research Laboratories of the United States . Including Consulting Research Laboratories. 8th edition. Washington DC 1946, p. 191 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  18. ↑ 1955 newspaper advertisement for Pepsodent in Life magazine . For whiter teeth change to Pepsodent. In: Time Inc. (Ed.): Life . tape 39 , no. 8 , 22 August 1955, ISSN  0024-3019 , p. 1 (English, limited preview in Google book search [accessed January 1, 2017]): “most effective tooth-cleaning ingredient. It is “IMP”. . . Insoluble Meta-Phosphate ”
  19. ↑ Patent US2216821 : Dentrifrice. Applicant: Pepsodent Co. Chicago, Inventor: Homer D. Long. ‌
  20. ^ A b Geoffrey Jones: Renewing Unilever . Transformation and tradition. 1st edition. Oxford University Press, UK 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-926943-3 , pp. 33 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  21. ↑ Martin Weck: "Pepsodent makes your teeth shiny white". Award letter from 1958 (June 28, 2010). In: Old and beautiful - packaging / advertising / signs. June 28, 2010, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  22. ^ Fabian Schindler: Unilever plant celebrates anniversary thanks to Ax and Dove. In: Region - Stade. Hamburger Abendblatt, May 11, 2012, accessed on January 14, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Dave Fidlin: The History of Pepsodent Toothpaste. In: Health Dental Health Teeth Cleaning. eHow Leaf Group Ltd., accessed December 30, 2016 .
  24. ↑ Hitesh Bhasin: Marketing mix of Pepsodent - The 4 P's of Pepsodent. In: Marketing mix articles. Marketing91, July 24, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016 : "In India the company," Unilever "owns the brand and launched it in the year 1993"
  25. ^ Claude C. Hopkins: My Life in Advertising . Harper & Brothers, New York and London 1927 ( limited preview in the Google book search): “The greatest success of my career so far has been made on Pepsodent Tooth Paste. [...] I made myself a million dollars on Pepsodent— on a proposition which at first I refused to undertake. "
  26. ^ Julian Lewis Watkins: The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958 . Who Wrote Them and What They Did. 1st edition. Dover Publications Inc./Courier Corporation, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-486-20540-3 , pp. 94–95 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  27. ↑ Kerry Segrave: America Brushes Up . The Use and Marketing of Toothpaste and Toothbrushes in the Twentieth Century. McFarland, Jefferson, North Carolina, and London 2010, ISBN 978-0-7864-4754-1 , pp. 39 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  28. ^ Danny Goodwin: A Success Story… .. From Near Extinction To Top Selling Brand. In: Old Time Radio (OTR), OTR Commercials Selling Stuff During the Golden Age of Radio. Louis V. Genco, accessed December 23, 2016 .
  29. ^ Pepsodent sign in Times Square at night. Getty Images, 1928, accessed January 1, 2017 .
  30. ^ Pepsodent Times Square At Night, 1932. The Dunne Archives, accessed January 1, 2017 .
  31. ↑ Eno Darson: Iklan Pepsodent di film King Kong, 2005. November 13, 2016, accessed on January 1, 2017 .
  32. ^ Albert Lasker Ad Samples. In: American National Business Hall of Fame - The ANBHF Laureates. American National Business Hall of Fame, archived from the original on March 12, 2012 ; accessed on January 8, 2017 (English): "Pepsodent became the best selling toothpaste in the industry."
  33. ↑ mentadent. In: Overview of our brands - Austria - Mentadent. Unilever Germany, Austria, Switzerland, accessed on January 1, 2017 : "mentadent is available in 48 countries and also as Signal, Pepsodent"
  34. ↑ https://www.unilever.com/brands/?brand=412957-410037 Unilever Our brands - Signal
  35. ^ Website Pepsodent India
  36. ↑ Website Pepsodent Chile
  37. ^ Website Pepsodent Sweden
  38. ↑ Website Pepsodent Finland
  39. ↑ US population: Most used brands of toothpaste from 2013 to 2016. In: Consumer Goods & FMCG ›Cosmetics & Personal Care› Brands of toothpaste in the US 2013–2016. Statista GmbH - The Statistics Portal, Hamburg, 2016, accessed on December 23, 2016 .
  40. ↑ Cole Porter (Susan Spangler): Lyrics to “You're the Top!” (1934) by Cole Porter. In: Lesson Plan - You're the Top! Pop Culture Then and Now. ReadWriteThink, International Literacy Association Newark, Delaware, 1934, accessed December 30, 2016 (2005).