 | |
| Product type | Household Cleaning |
|---|---|
| Owner | Unilever |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Introduced | 1929; 96 years ago (1929) |
| Related brands | Domex (India, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka) Glorix (Netherlands) Promax (Thailand) Vim (Brazil, Argentina and Vietnam) Domesto (Japan) |
| Markets | Worldwide |
Domestos is a British brand of household cleaning range which containsbleach (primarilysodium hypochlorite, NaOCl). It is manufactured byUnilever. Domestos (and Chlorox, essentially a 10–25% solution of sodium hypochlorite[1]) contains 100,000 ppm (10%) of the active component, availablechlorine; many other bleaches contain 50,000 or less.[2]
Domestos was first produced in 1929 by Wilfred Handley, an industrial chemist, and sold door-to-door by salesmen who refilled stoneware jars bought by the customers.[3] In 1961 the company was acquired byLever Brothers.[4]
The most famous advertising slogan for Domestos in the UK is"Kills all known germs. Dead." An earlier advertising slogan had been"Domestos kills 99% of all household germs."
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Unilever ran a new TV campaign which featured a pastiche of the songBig Bad John, in which a Domestos bottle moved around a bathroom in the style of a cowboy. In the UK version of the campaign, the chorus was changed toBig Bad Dom[5] while in Germany, it was changed toUnser Dom[6] ("Our Dom").
In 2002, a short-lived campaign featured formerBig Brother contestant Alex Sibley, who appeared in an advert lampooning his own obsession with cleanliness. It included an incident in the house, where Alex mimed to the song "That's the Way (I Like It)" byKC and the Sunshine Band. In the advert, Alex was seen cleaning theBig Brother toilet with Domestos whilst miming to the same song. Domestos was hoping the popularity ofBig Brother would help sell their product.[7] However, by 2003, Domestos were in trouble and looking for other ways, to improve their marketing campaign.[8]
In 2005, variousadverts for different Domestos brands were shown on television and cinemas, withcomputer generatedgerm-like creatures made to representSalmonella,E. coli andStaphylococcus. Each germ asserted its plans to inflict suffering, sometimes in parody of well-known films such asThe 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" for5× Longer Domestos.[9]
The5× Longer Domestos advert showed 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:
The commercial ended with a voiceover of the slogan, read by famous British actorPatrick Stewart.[10] The staple of CGI germs has remained in Domestos adverts until 2018 and was replaced by "Unstoppable" in some countries.
Domestos is known as Domex inBangladesh,India, thePhilippines, andSri Lanka 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 Domesto (ドメスト,Domesuto) is known as a popular toilet cleaner. In theNetherlands, Domestos is sold under the name "Glorix", while inVietnam,Argentina andBrazil it is known as "Vim", and in other countries as "Klinex",[11] inRussia,Greece,Bulgaria andKazakhstan it was sold there as Domestos (Дoместос), Glorix (Глорикс) and Klinex (Клинекс).[12]
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