DukeStreetKing
DIS Veteran
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CINCINNATI - Procter & Gamble Co. is setting the record straight: It turns out Ivory soap's ability to float wasn't an accident.
Ivory's buoyancy has been used in marketing since the soap went on sale in the 1800s. While the company acknowledged that the soap floats because P&G whips air into it, it long has attributed that to a production mistake.
But company archivist Ed Rider said he has discovered that a P&G chemist, James N. Gamble, had previously studied with another chemist who already knew how to make soap float. Gamble was son of company co-founder James Gamble.
Rider said he has discovered a notebook entry from 1863 in which Gamble wrote: "I made floating soap today. I think we'll make all of our stock that way."
The company's early leadership realized that the floating capacity could have marketing appeal, Rider said.
So the earliest P&G advertising for the product emphasized that, along with Ivory's usefulness as both a laundry and bathing soap and the long-standing claim that it is "99 and 44/100ths percent pure."
P&G is disclosing the new information in a book on the history of P&G, the consumer products giant also known for Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste. Called "Rising Tide," the book is due in bookstores on July 8, Rider said.
The company on Tuesday also rolled out a new, green soap bar called Ivory Aloe. It goes on the market in July exactly 125 years after the first recorded sale of Ivory.
The green bar also floats.
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So do witches!! Burn her!! Burn her!!
.02 to Monty Python.
Ivory's buoyancy has been used in marketing since the soap went on sale in the 1800s. While the company acknowledged that the soap floats because P&G whips air into it, it long has attributed that to a production mistake.
But company archivist Ed Rider said he has discovered that a P&G chemist, James N. Gamble, had previously studied with another chemist who already knew how to make soap float. Gamble was son of company co-founder James Gamble.
Rider said he has discovered a notebook entry from 1863 in which Gamble wrote: "I made floating soap today. I think we'll make all of our stock that way."
The company's early leadership realized that the floating capacity could have marketing appeal, Rider said.
So the earliest P&G advertising for the product emphasized that, along with Ivory's usefulness as both a laundry and bathing soap and the long-standing claim that it is "99 and 44/100ths percent pure."
P&G is disclosing the new information in a book on the history of P&G, the consumer products giant also known for Tide detergent and Crest toothpaste. Called "Rising Tide," the book is due in bookstores on July 8, Rider said.
The company on Tuesday also rolled out a new, green soap bar called Ivory Aloe. It goes on the market in July exactly 125 years after the first recorded sale of Ivory.
The green bar also floats.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So do witches!! Burn her!! Burn her!!
.02 to Monty Python.
