Pepsodent is an American brand of toothpaste with the minty flavor 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.[1]

History
Pepsodent toothpaste was introduced in the United States in 1915 by the Pepsodent Company
of Chicago. The original formula for the paste contained pepsin, a digestive agent designed to break
down and digest food deposits 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 Crestand Gleem toothpaste by Procter & Gamble, and Colgate's eponymous product; 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's parent company Hindustan Unilever was ranked
47th in the Trust Report 2014.

Advertising[edit]

Early US Pepsodent TV advertisement

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".[3] "Irium" was being used as another name for sodium lauryl
sulfate, an ionic surfactant.[4]
Another ingredient, "I.M.P.", which stood for "Insoluble Meta-Phosphate",[5] was purported to whiten
teeth.

Radio program
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 such as Jerry Colonna, Barbara Jo Allen as Vera Vague, Frances Langford,
and Skinnay Ennis.
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 Hope. The
show was the first radio program to broadcast live from the Hollywood Canteen on October 13,
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