Procter & Gamble
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Procter & Gamble Co. (P&G) Template:Nyse is a global $50 billion (sales per year) consumer goods corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio that manufactures a wide range of consumer products. The company has approximately 106,000 employees.
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History
Procter & Gamble was started in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble as a family-owned company in Cincinnati that manufactured soap and candles. William Alexander Procter, William Procter's son, served as president of the company from 1890 to 1907. William Cooper Procter, William Procter's grandson, lead the company from 1907 to 1930.
In January 2005 Procter & Gamble proposed acquiring The Gillette Company for an estimated 57 billion US dollars. According to the New York Times of June 5, 2005, Gillette's CEO James M. Kilts stood to make $165 million from the merger while 17,000 Gillette employees were to receive pink slips as a result of it. "That payout was so large," wrote the Times, "that Joseph F. Turley, the company's former president, and Joseph E. Mullaney, a former vice chairman of Gillette's board, deplored the merger in an open letter to Gillette's directors. 'Thousands of Gillette's employees will soon receive pink slips,' they wrote. 'Their "leader" will receive $170 million.'" Template:Sect-stub
Operations
Effective July 1, 2004, the company's operations are:
- Health, baby, and family care
- Household care
- Beauty care
- Chemicals
- Global operations
Brands
- see also List of Procter & Gamble brands
Thirteen of P&G's brands have more than a billion dollars in sales: Pampers†, Tide (known in Brazil as Ace), Ariel, Always†, Pantene, Charmin, Bounty†, Iams, Crest, Folgers, Pringles, Head & Shoulders, Febreze† and Downy. Other well known P&G brands include Ivory Soap, Oil of Olay, Max Factor, Bold, Daz, Flash, Hugo Boss, Zest, Fairy, Wella and Lacoste.
- † See "Brand details" for more information
Brand details
included here are brands that do not have their own articles
- Always is a brand of feminine hygiene products, including maxi pads, pantiliners, and feminine wipes, produced by Procter & Gamble. --See also Brand homepage (http://www.always.com); Category:Hygiene
- Related Trademarks1: Ultra Thins; Flexi-Wing; Maxis; Alldays; CleanWeave
- Bounty is a brand of paper towel sold in the United States and manufactured by Procter & Gamble. Its well-known advertising slogan is "The Quilted Quicker Picker-Upper...Bounty!" Procter & Gamble claims that the brand is more absorbent and larger than other brands of paper towel on the market. --See also Brand homepage (http://www.quickerpickerupper.com/)
- Febreze is a household fabric odor freshener manufactured by Procter & Gamble, sold in North America, Japan and Europe. First introduced in test markets in 1996, the product has been sold in the United States since June 1998. Since its introduction, the brand has grown to include air fresheners in addition to fabric refreshers. --See also Brand homepage (http://www.homemadesimple.com/febreze/); Category:Cleaning products
- Pampers is a brand of disposable diaper marketed by Procter & Gamble worldwide. The main competitor in the United States is the Huggies brand. Also marketed under the Pampers brand is a disposable training pant bearing the sub-brand Easy Ups. Pampers introduced a mascot called "Pampa" ("Bang Bang" in China), an elephant, in several markets. --See also Brand homepage (http://www.pampers.com)
- Tampax is a brand of tampon produced by Procter & Gamble. --See also Brand homepage (http://www.tampax.com); Category:Hygiene
1 Trademarks listed here have not been verified by consultation with a trademark registration agency.
Historic brands
Brands owned by Procter & Gamble in the past, but since divested:
- Crisco (vegetable oil and shortening) and Jif (peanut butter) - divested by Procter and Gamble in a spinoff to their stockholders, followed by an immediate merger with The J. M. Smucker Co. in 2002.
- Lava soap, sold to WD-40 in 1999.
Criticism
Proctor and Gamble have been criticized by a number of animal rights organizations, notably PETA, the BUAV and In Defense of Animals, for the animal testing that they carry out, for a wide range of their products.
As well as testing of cosmetics and household products, much of this criticism has focused on animal tests for the Iams pet food brand, which was acquired by Proctor & Gamble in 1999.
Financials
Financial information for the prior organization of the company follows:
| Net sales (US$M) | Net income (US$M) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 2001 | 2002 | 2001 | |
| Baby, Feminine and Family Care | 11,877 | 11,991 | 1,170 | 1,052 |
| Beauty Care | 8,079 | 7,257 | 1,177 | 967 |
| Fabric and Home Care | 11,618 | 11,660 | 1,831 | 1,643 |
| Health Care | 4,979 | 4,353 | 521 | 390 |
| Food & Beverage | 3,801 | 4,139 | 384 | 332 |
| Corporate | (116) | (156) | (1,462) | (570) |
| Total (US$M) | 40,238 | 39,244 | 4,352 | 2,922 |
Television
Pgproductions.jpg
P&G produced and sponsored the first radio soap operas in the 1930s. When the medium switched to television in the 1950s and 1960s, most of the new serials were sponsored and produced by the Company. Two of their serials, As the World Turns and Guiding Light, still are on the air today.
List of past serials produced by P&G:
Procter and Gamble also was the first company to produce and sponsor a prime-time show, Shirley, starring Shirley Jones, in 1979; it lasted 13 episodes.
Diversity
Procter & Gamble was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine. Template:Sect-stub
Logo controversy
P&glogo.jpg
The company received unwanted media publicity in the 1980s when an unfounded rumor spread that their previous corporate logo was a satanic symbol. The accusation is apparently based on a particular passage in the Bible, specifically Revelation 12:1, which states: "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Since P&G's logo consists of a man's face on a moon surrounded by 13 stars, some have claimed that the logo is a mockery of the heavenly symbol alluded to in the aforementioned Biblical verse, and hence the logo is satanic. But the charge has been denied by company officials, and no evidence linking the company to the Church of Satan or any other occult organization has ever been presented.
External links
- PG.com: Procter & Gamble Web site (http://www.pg.com)
- Yahoo profile (http://biz.yahoo.com/p/p/pg.html)
- Straight Dope entry on the old logo controversy (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_283.html)
Criticism
- PGinfo.net (http://www.pginfo.net/index2.html), leads to iamscruelty.com
- PG.com: Animal Alternatives (http://www.pg.com/animalalternatives/) (broken) apparently in response to PGinfo.net; see next link
- Battle of the Web Sites: PETA vs. Procter & Gamble (http://www.computerbytesman.com/privacy/peta.htm)
- McSpotLight.org: Procter & Gamble in the McSpotlight (http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/companies/proctor.html) also critical
- Boycotting Procter & Gamble (http://www.uncaged.co.uk/pg.htm) Against the animal testing by Procter & Gamble.
Print Sources
Soap opera: the inside story of Procter & Gamble, by Alecia Swasy. Publisher: New York : Times Books, c1993. ISBN 0812920600. LCC: HD9999 Edition: $24.00 ($31.50 Canada)bg:Procter & Gamble de:Procter & Gamble ja:プロクター・アンド・ギャンブル no:Procter & Gamble pt:Procter&Gamble zh:宝洁公司