| in Did You Know Facts
One of the most effective marketing campaigns in history began with a blunder.
Procter & Gamble, an American corporation, was one of the most active participants in the aggressive soap advertising campaigns that characterized the twentieth century. It all began in 1879 when a worker accidentally mixed too much air into a batch of the "white soap" that P&G had begun manufacturing a year before in order to compete with the popular castle soaps of the time. Despite the error, the soap was shipped, which resulted in widespread demand. To help provide some distinguishing brand characteristics and avoid banality, the label was quickly changed from "white soap" to "ivory soap," and a staggering $11,000, a frankly colossal sum for the time, was com