Web Page No 2660

14th February 2020

1st Picture. Irium Advert

 2nd Picture. 1950’s advertising

 3rd Picture. The Bob Hope Radio Show

4th Picture. Peposodent today

You’ll Wonder where the Yellow went when you brush your teeth with Peposdent

This is how the TV commercial ran in 1957 BUT what, what was/is Peposodent it is no longer a leading brand on the supermarket shelves?

Pepsodent is an American brand of toothpaste with the minty flavour derived from sassafras. It has been owned by Unilever since 1942, except in the United States and Canada, where since 2003, it has been owned by Church & Dwight.

Pepsodent toothpaste was introduced in the United States in 1915 by the Pepsodent Company of Chicago. The original formula for the tooth paste contained pepsin, a digestive agent designed to break down and digest any food deposits left on the teeth, hence the brand and company name.

From 1930 to late 1933 a massive animated neon advertising sign, featuring a young girl on a swing, hung on West 47th Street in Times Square in New York City. (This ad was re-created for the climax of the 2005 film King Kong and was featured in the original film in a establishing shot of Times Square itself.)

Following the acquisition of the Pepsodent Company by Unilever in 1944, sales of Pepsodent in the UK increased rapidly, more than doubling between 1944 and 1950. The company outgrew its original factory in Park Royal, and the manufacture of the product was moved to the factory of another Unilever-owned toiletry manufacturer, Joseph Watson and Sons of Whitehall Road, Leeds, in 1951.

Pepsodent was a very popular brand before the mid-1950s, but its makers were slow to add fluoride to its formula to counter the rise of other highly promoted brands such as Crest and Gleem toothpaste by Procter & Gamble, and Colgate's eponymous stripy product from then on the sales of Pepsodent plummeted.

Today Pepsodent is a “value brand” marketed primarily in discount stores and retails for roughly half the price of similarly sized tubes of Crest or of Colgate. Its best-known slogan was “You'll wonder where the yellow went / when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent!”.

The product was discontinued in South Africa in 1974 but was revived in 1976 with a new ad slogan "Gets Your Teeth Their Whitest" featuring celebrity endorsers Rita Moreno, Steve Lawrence, and others. The popular slogan was also changed in South Africa to "You'll wonder where the dullness went / when you polish your teeth with Pepsodent".

Pepsodent is still sold as a Unilever property in all markets except the United States and Canada. In Vietnam, Pepsodent is called P/S. In 2013, Pepsodent was ranked 201st among India's most trusted brands according to the Brand Trust Report 2013 India study, a research conducted by Trust Research Advisory. According to the Brand trust Report 2014, Pepsodent moved up to 71st position among India's most trusted brands.

Pepsodent was advertised for its purported properties for fighting tooth decay, attributed in advertisements to the supposed ingredient Irium. In a 1994 speech, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Reed Hundt, claimed that the "Irium" mentioned in Pepsodent advertisements "didn't exist". "Irium" was being used as another name for sodium lauryl sulfate, an ionic surfactant. Another ingredient, "I.M.P.", which stood for "Insoluble Meta-Phosphate", was purported to whiten teeth.

Radio programme

In the United States Pepsodent sponsored a radio program, The Pepsodent Show Starring Bob Hope that began airing in 1938 and ran for approximately 10 years on NBC. The show featured Bob Hope and his cast of regular characters. Famous Hollywood guest stars such as 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, Hedda Hopper, and many more would be on hand to trade comedic barbs with Bob Hope. The show was the first radio program to broadcast live from the Hollywood Canteen on October 13^th 1942, and soon the show was playing live to U.S. troops during World War II, even including some of the soldiers in the show.

In Rodgers and Hammerstein  South Pacific, in the song "Bloody Mary", a few lines refer to Pepsodent:

Bloody Mary's chewing betel nuts.
She is always chewing betel nuts.
Bloody Mary's chewing betel nuts,
And she don't use Pepsodent.

Everyone take note as you will want a gleaming smile for Valentines Day!

Stay in touch

Peter

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News and Views:

On this day 14^th February 1960-1965

On 14/02/1960 the number one single was Why - Anthony Newley and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was not listed and the box office smash was Some Like It Hot. A pound of today's money was worth £14.68 and Burnley were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was French test first atomic bomb in Sahara desert.

On 14/02/1961 the number one single was Are you Lonesome Tonight? - Elvis Presley and the number one album was GI Blues - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £14.25 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/02/1962 the number one single was The Young Ones - Cliff Richard & the Shadows and the number one album was Blue Hawaii - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/02/1963 the number one single was Diamonds - Jet Harris & Tony Meehan and the number one album was Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & the Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was Liz Taylor films Cleopatra.

On 14/02/1964 the number one single was Needles & Pins - Searchers and the number one album was With the Beatles - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Steptoe & Son (BBC) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 14/02/1965 the number one single was You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' - Righteous Brothers and the number one album was Rolling Stones Number 2 - The Rolling Stones. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.