Domestos

Domestos
Product type Household Cleaning
Owner Unilever
Country United Kingdom (England)
Introduced 1929
Markets Worldwide

Domestos is a household cleaning range which contains bleach (primarily sodium hypochlorite NaOCl) and is manufactured by Unilever. Domestos (and Chloros, essentially a 10-25% solution of sodium hypochlorite[1]) contains 100,000 ppm (10%) of the active component, available chlorine; many other bleaches contain 50,000 or less.[2]

History

Domestos was first produced in 1929 by Wilfred Handley, an industrial chemist from Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England, and sold door-to-door by salesmen who refilled stoneware jars bought by the customers.[3] In 1961 the company was acquired by Lever Brothers.[4]

Product range

Marketing

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Domestos marketing campaign featured a mock of a scene from Big Bad John, in which a Domestos bottle moved slowly around a bathroom in the style of a cowboy, as nearby loo brushes and ornaments hid nervously. The bottle went under the name of "Big Bad Dom". The advert was produced using CGI. The advertising slogan for this campaign claimed that Domestos "Kills all known germs. Dead."

In 2002, a short lived campaign featured former Big Brother contestant Alex Sibley appeared in an advert, lampooning his own obsession of cleanliness. It included an incident in the house, where Alex mimes to the tune That's the Way (I Like It) by KC and the Sunshine Band. In the advert, Alex is seen cleaning the Big Brother toilet with Domestos whilst miming to the same song. Domestos was hoping the popularity of Big Brother would help sell their product.[6] However, by 2003, Domestos were in trouble and looking for other ways, to improve their marketing campaign.[7]

In 2005, various adverts for different Domestos brands were shown on television, with computer generated germs made to represent Salmonella, E.Coli & Staphylococcus. Each germ asserted their plans to inflict suffering, sometimes in parody of well known films such as The Godfather, before being wiped out by a specific brand of Domestos. The advertising slogans for this campaign were "Domestos - Millions of Germs Will Die" for Standard Domestos, and "Domestos - Millions More Germs Will Die" for 5x Longer Domestos.[8]

The 5x Longer Domestos advert shows a germ cheerfully skipping and singing a song in a very deep American voice, reminiscent of narration in horror movie trailers.

Sung to the tune of "London Bridge Is Falling Down", the lyrics were:

"I'm going to make some people vom,
People vom, people vom.
Spew their guts and cry to mom,
Ain't that pretty?

I'm going to give them diarrhoea, diarrhoea, diarrhoea..."

The commercial ends with a voiceover of the slogan, read by famous British actor Patrick Stewart.[9] The staple of CGI germs remains in Domestos adverts since then, and each advert is used to promote specific Domestos products.

In other countries

Domestos is known as Domex in India and the Philippines and is marketed with the claim of a "one-stop solution" to a household's cleaning requirements instead of using a different cleaner for kitchen surface, floor and bathroom. In Japan, the brand name Domesuto (ドメスト) is known as a popular toilet cleaner. In the Netherlands, Domestos is sold under the name "Glorix", while in Vietnam, Argentina and Brazil it is known as "Vim", and in other countries as "Klinex",[10] on territory of Russia and Kazakhstan it was sold there as Domestos, Glorix (Глорикс) and Klinex (Клинекс).[11]

References and notes

  1. ↑ Univar, sodium hypochlorite safety sheet
  2. ↑ "Part 2 Biological safety" (PDF). University of St Andrews, Environmental, Health and Safety Services. June 2011. Retrieved 2013-06-21.
  3. ↑ "Chemistry Trail". www.ncl.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-12-20.
  4. ↑ http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/history-newcastle-north-east/remember-when/2008/12/03/world-famous-brands-with-north-east-connections-72703-22389485/
  5. ↑ "Domestos – Unilever Global". www.unilever.com. Retrieved 2010-10-31.
  6. ↑ Mike Reich. "Big Bruv's Alex cleans up". Retrieved 2007-01-14.
  7. ↑ "How marketing stopped Domestos from going down the toilet..." (PDF). Marketing Society. Retrieved 2007-01-14.
  8. ↑ "Domestos Marketing Campaign homepage". Retrieved 2007-01-14.
  9. ↑ "Patrick Heard in New UK Television Commercial". Patrick Stewart Network. 2005-08-07. Retrieved 2007-01-14.
  10. ↑ http://www.unilever.com.vn/brands/homecarebrands/vim/index.aspx
  11. ↑ http://www.unilever.ru/brands-in-action/detail/Glorix/296666/

External links

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