The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational
consumer goods
A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike an intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good.
W ...
corporation
A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the State (polity), state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as ...
headquartered in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
, Ohio.
It was founded in 1837 by
William Procter and
James Gamble.
It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer health,
personal care
Personal care products are consumer products which are applied on various external parts of the body such as skin, hair, nails, lips, external genital and anal areas, as well as teeth and mucous membrane of the oral cavity, in order to make ...
and hygiene products; these products are organized into several segments including beauty; grooming; health care; fabric and home care; and baby, feminine, and family care. Before the sale of
Pringles and
Duracell to
Kellogg's
Kellanova, formerly known as the Kellogg Company and commonly known as Kellogg's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, US. Kellanova produces and markets con ...
and
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...
, respectively, its product portfolio also included
food
Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
,
snacks,
beverages
A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothie ...
, and
batteries. P&G is incorporated in
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
.
In 2014, P&G recorded $83.1 billion in sales. On August 1, 2014, P&G announced it was streamlining the company, dropping and selling off around 100 brands from its product portfolio in order to focus on the remaining 65 brands,
which produced 95% of the company's profits.
A.G. Lafley, the company's chairman and CEO until October 2015, said the future P&G would be "a much simpler, much less complex company of leading brands that's easier to manage and operate".
In 2023, the company was ranked 55th in the
''Forbes'' Global 2000.
Jon R. Moeller is the chairman, president and CEO of P&G since 2021.
History
Origins
Candlemaker
William Procter, born in England, and soap maker
James Gamble, born in
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, both emigrated to the US from the United Kingdom. They initially settled in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
, Ohio, and met when they married sisters Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. Alexander Norris, their father-in-law, persuaded them to become business partners, and in 1837, Procter & Gamble was created.
From 1858 to 1859, sales reached $1 million. By that point, about 80 employees worked for Procter & Gamble. During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, the company won contracts to supply the
Union Army with soap and candles. In addition to the increased profits experienced during the war, the military contracts introduced soldiers from all over the country to Procter & Gamble's products.
In the 1880s, Procter & Gamble began to market a new product, an inexpensive soap that floated in water.
The company called the soap
Ivory.
William Arnett Procter, William Procter's grandson, began a
profit-sharing program for the company's
workforce
In macroeconomics, the workforce or labour force is the sum of people either working (i.e., the employed) or looking for work (i.e., the unemployed):
\text = \text + \text
Those neither working in the marketplace nor looking for work are out ...
in 1887. By giving the workers a stake in the company, he correctly assumed that they would be less likely to go on strike.
The company began to build factories in other locations in the United States because the demand for products had outgrown the capacity of the Cincinnati facilities. The company's leaders began to diversify its products as well, and in 1911 the company began producing
Crisco, a
shortening made of
vegetable oils rather than
animal fats.
Beginning in the 1880s, P&G advertised its wares in full-page advertisements in many general-interest magazines. By 1921, it had become a major international corporation with a diversified line of soaps, toiletries, and food products; in that year, its annual advertising budget reached $1 million. In the 1920s, P&G advertised its products on the new medium of radio and, from 1932 forward, was one of the biggest sponsors of daytime serials, which soon acquired the nickname of ''
soap opera
A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
s''. In the television era, P&G sponsored and produced some twenty soap operas across six decades; the division went on a hiatus after the end of ''
As the World Turns'' in 2010 before ''
The Gates'' launched on CBS in 2025 as a co-production with P&G.
International expansion
The company moved into other countries, both in terms of manufacturing and product sales, becoming an international corporation with its 1930 acquisition of the
Thomas Hedley Co.,
based in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
, England. After this acquisition, Procter & Gamble had their UK Headquarters at Hedley House in Newcastle upon Tyne, until quite recently, when they moved to The Heights,
Brooklands. Numerous new products and brand names were introduced over time, and Procter & Gamble began branching out into new areas. The company introduced
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables ...
laundry
detergent in 1946,
Prell shampoo in 1947 and Joy, the first liquid synthetic detergent in 1949.
In 1955, Procter & Gamble began selling the first toothpaste to contain
fluoride
Fluoride (). According to this source, is a possible pronunciation in British English. is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic, Monatomic ion, monatomic Ion#Anions and cations, anion of fluorine, with the chemical formula (also written ), whose ...
, known as
Crest.
Branching out once again in 1957, the company purchased
paper mills from
Charmin and began manufacturing
toilet paper
Toilet paper (sometimes called toilet/bath/bathroom tissue, or toilet roll) is a tissue paper product primarily used to clean the human anus, anus and surrounding region of Human feces, feces (after defecation), and to clean the external gen ...
and other
tissue paper
Tissue paper, or simply tissue, is a lightweight paper or light crêpe paper. Tissue can be made from recycled pulp (paper), paper pulp on a paper machine.
Tissue paper is very versatile, and different kinds are made to best serve these purposes ...
products. Once again focusing on laundry, Both SC Johnson began making
Downy-branded
fabric softener in 1960, P&G began making Bounce fabric softener sheets in 1972. From 1957 to 1968, Procter & Gamble owned
Clorox, the leading American manufacturer of liquid bleach; however, the
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...
challenged the acquisition, and the U.S. Supreme Court decided against P&G in April 1967.
One of the most revolutionary products to come out on the market was the company's disposable
Pampers diaper, first test-marketed in 1961, the same year Procter & Gamble came out with
Head & Shoulders
Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti- dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble.
The active anti-fungal ingredient in Head & Shoulders is piroctone olamine or zinc pyrithione, with some "cl ...
. Prior to this point,
disposable diapers were not popular, although
Johnson & Johnson had developed a product called Chux. Babies always wore cloth diapers, which were leaky and labor-intensive to wash. Pampers provided a convenient alternative, albeit at the environmental cost of more waste requiring
landfill
A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...
ing. Amid the recent concerns parents have voiced on the ingredients in diapers, Pampers launched Pampers Pure collection in 2018, which is a "natural" diaper alternative.
Further developments
Procter & Gamble acquired a number of other companies that diversified its product line and significantly increased profits. These acquisitions included
Folgers Coffee, Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals (the makers of
Pepto-Bismol), Richardson-Vicks, Noxell (
Noxzema), Shulton's
Old Spice,
Max Factor, the
Iams Company, and
Pantene, among others. In 1994, the company made headlines for big losses resulting from leveraged positions in
interest rate derivatives, and subsequently sued
Bankers Trust for fraud; this placed their management in the unusual position of testifying in court that they had entered into transactions that they were not capable of understanding. In 1996, P&G again made headlines when the
Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...
approved a new product developed by the company,
Olestra
Olestra (also known by its brand name Olean) is a fat substitute food additive that adds no metabolizable calories to products. It has been used in the preparation of otherwise high-fat foods, thereby lowering or eliminating their fat content. ...
. Also known by its brand name 'Olean', Olestra is a lower-calorie substitute for fat in cooking
potato chip
Potato chips (North American English and Australian English; often just chip) or crisp (British English and Hiberno-English) are thin slices of potato (or a thin deposit of potato paste) that has been deep frying, deep fried, baking, baked, ...
s and other snacks.
In January 2005, P&G announced the acquisition of
Gillette, forming the largest consumer goods company and placing
Unilever
Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...
into second place. This added brands such as Gillette razors,
Duracell,
Braun, and
Oral-B to their stable. The acquisition was approved by the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
and the
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...
, with conditions to a spinoff of certain overlapping brands. P&G agreed to sell its SpinBrush battery-operated
electric toothbrush business to
Church & Dwight, and Gillette's
Rembrandt toothpaste line to
Johnson & Johnson. The
deodorant brands
Right Guard, Soft and Dri, and Dry Idea were sold to
Dial Corporation. In 2001,
Liquid Paper and Gillette's stationery division,
Paper Mate, were sold to
Newell Rubbermaid. The companies officially merged on October 1, 2005. In 2008, P&G branched into the record business with its sponsorship of Tag Records, as an endorsement for
TAG Body Spray.
P&G's dominance in many categories of consumer products makes its
brand management
In marketing, brand management refers to the process of controlling how a brand is perceived in the market (economics), market. Tangible elements of brand management include the look, price, and packaging of the product itself; intangible element ...
decisions worthy of study. For example, P&G's corporate strategists must account for the likelihood of one of their products
cannibalizing the sales of another.
On August 25, 2009, the Ireland-based pharmaceutical company
Warner Chilcott announced they had bought P&G's prescription-drug business for $3.1 billion.
P&G exited the food business in 2012 when it sold its
Pringles snack food business to
Kellogg's
Kellanova, formerly known as the Kellogg Company and commonly known as Kellogg's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, US. Kellanova produces and markets con ...
for $2.75 billion after the $2.35 billion deal with former suitor
Diamond Foods fell short. The company had previously sold
Jif peanut butter, Crisco shortening and oils, and
Folgers coffee in separate transactions to fellow Ohio-based company
Smucker's.
In April 2014, the company sold its
Iams pet food business in all markets excluding Europe to
Mars, Inc. for $2.9 billion. It sold the European Iams business to
Spectrum Brands in December 2014.
Restructuring
In August 2014, P&G announced it was streamlining the company, dropping around 100 brands and concentrating on the remaining 65, which were producing 95% of the company's profits.
In March 2015, the company divested its
Vicks VapoSteam U.S. liquid inhalant business to
Helen of Troy
Helen (), also known as Helen of Troy, or Helen of Sparta, and in Latin as Helena, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda (mythology), ...
, part of a brand-restructuring operation. This deal was the first health-related divestiture under the brand-restructuring operation. The deal included a fully paid-up license to the Vicks VapoSteam trademarks and the U.S. license of P&G's Vicks VapoPad trademarks for scent pads. Most Vicks VapoSteam and VapoPads are used in Vicks humidifiers, vaporizers and other health care devices already marketed by Helen of Troy.
Later that same year in July, the company announced the sale of 43 of its beauty brands to
Coty, a beauty-product manufacturer, in a US$13 billion deal. It cited sluggish growth of its beauty division as the reason for the divestiture. The sale was completed on October 3, 2016.
In February 2016, P&G completed the transfer of
Duracell to
Berkshire Hathaway
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...
through an exchange of shares.
In December 2018, Procter & Gamble completed the acquisition of the consumer health division of
Merck Group (known as EMD Serono in North America) for €3.4 billion ($4.2 billion) and renamed it as Procter & Gamble Health Limited in May 2019.
In November 2018, P&G unveiled a simpler corporate structure with six business units that will be effective from July 2019.
In 2023, the company began optimizing its product offering. As part of this strategy, it plans to eliminate the bottom 25% of
SKUs, which contribute very little to absolute retail sales. According to other comparable companies, a similar share of SKUs represents between 2% and 2.5% of its turnover at a global level.
Finances
For the fiscal year 2018, Procter & Gamble reported earnings of US$9.750 billion, with an annual revenue of US$66.832 billion, an increase of 2.7% over the previous fiscal cycle. The company's shares traded at over $86 per share in 2017, and its
market capitalization was valued at over US$221.5 billion in October 2018. The company ranked No. 42 on the 2018
''Fortune'' 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Operations
, the company structure has been categorized into ten categories and six selling and market organizations.
Management and staff
Board of directors
the board of directors of Procter & Gamble has 14 members:
Previous members of the board include:
*
W. James McNerney, Jr.
*
Nelson Peltz
Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Partners, an alternative investment management fund based in New York. He i ...
*
Scott Cook
*
Angela Braly
*
Frank Blake
*
Meg Whitman
In May 2011, ''
Fortune'' editor-at-large Patricia Sellers praised P&G's board diversity, as five of the company's 11 directors were female and had all been on ''Fortune''
's annual Most Powerful Women list.
In March 2011,
Rajat Gupta resigned from the board after an
SEC accusation of
Galleon Group insider trading.
In May 2013,
Robert A. McDonald announced his retirement and was replaced by
A.G. Lafley, who returned as chairman, president, and CEO.
Procter & Gamble is a member of the
U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, a Washington, DC–based coalition of over 400 major companies and NGOs that advocates for a larger international affairs budget, which funds American diplomatic and development efforts abroad.
Senior executives
* Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer
Jon R. Moeller
* Chief Operating Officer
Shailesh G. Jejurikar
Employer recognition
''Fortune'' magazine awarded P&G a top spot on its list of "Global Top Companies for Leaders", and ranked the company at 15th place of the "World's Most Admired Companies" list. ''Chief Executive'' magazine named P&G the best overall company for leadership development in its list of the "40 Best Companies for Leaders".
In October 2008, P&G was named one of "
Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc. and was featured in ''
Maclean's''
newsmagazine. Later that month, P&G was also named one of
Greater Toronto's Top Employers, which was announced by the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'' newspaper.
In October 2013, the company was named the fourth-most in-demand employer in the world according to analytic data sourced by LinkedIn.
In August 2013, P&G was named the 14th-hardest company to interview for by Glassdoor. In November 2013, Glassdoor also named them as a top 25 company for career opportunities. In February 2014, Glassdoor placed P&G 34th on their annual Best Places to Work list.
In November 2014, P&G came out publicly in support of same-sex marriage in a statement made by William Gipson, P&G's chief global diversity officer.
In November 2015, P&G was named the Careers in Africa Employer of Choice 2015 following a survey of over 13,000 African professionals from across the globe. P&G was also recognized as the most desirable FMCG business to work for in Africa.
P&G was recognized as one of ''
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' World's Most Reputable Companies in 2016, 2017, and 2023.
Brands
As of 2015, 21 of P&G's brands have more than a billion dollars in net annual sales. Most of these brandsincluding Bounty, Crest,
Always, and Tideare global products available on several continents. In 2005, Procter & Gamble made a $57 billion deal to buy Gillette, which combined some of the world's top brands including, signature razors, Duracell batteries, Braun, and Oral-B brands. P&G's products are available in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
In 2018, P&G's
fabric
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, and different types of fabric. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is no ...
and home care division accounted for 32% of the company's total net sales, the highest of all its divisions. The division includes
Gain,
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another.
Tide tables ...
,
Febreze, and
Dawn.
According to ''
Advertising Age'', Procter & Gamble spent $4.3 billion advertising their various brands in the United States in 2015, making it the top advertiser in the country.
Manufacturing operations are based in these countries:
*
*
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*
*
*
*
*
*
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*
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Competitive innovation
In the 2024 review of
WIPO's annual
World Intellectual Property Indicators Procter & Gamble ranked 2nd in the world, with 525 designs in industrial design registrations being published under the
Hague System during 2023.
Radio and television production
Procter & Gamble produced and sponsored the first radio serial dramas in the 1930s. As the company was known for Ivory soap, the serials became known as "
soap opera
A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...
s". With the rise of television in the 1950s and 1960s, most of the new serials were sponsored, produced and owned (20 series) by the company (including ''
The Guiding Light'', which had begun as a radio serial, and made the transition to television lasting 72 years).
The end of ''
As the World Turns'' in 2010
resulted in the company’s absence from the soap opera genre for almost fifteen years, which lasted until ''
Beyond the Gates'' (a co-production with
CBS Studios and the
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
) premiered on CBS in 2025. ''
The Young and the Restless
''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in the fictional Genoa City (named after the real-life Genoa City, Wiscon ...
'', produced by
Sony Pictures Television and also broadcast on CBS, is also partially sponsored by Procter & Gamble.
These past serials were produced by Procter & Gamble:
* ''
Another World''
* ''
As the World Turns''
* ''
The Brighter Day''
* ''
The Catlins''
* ''
The Edge of Night''
* ''
The First Hundred Years''
* ''
From These Roots''
* ''
Guiding Light''
* ''
Lovers and Friends'' / ''For Richer, for Poorer''
* ''
Our Private World''
* ''
Search for Tomorrow''
* ''
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
''
* ''
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
''
* ''
Young Doctor Malone''
Procter & Gamble also was the first company to produce and sponsor a prime-time serial, a 1965 spin-off of ''As the World Turns'' called ''Our Private World''. In 1979, PGP produced ''Shirley'', a prime-time
NBC series starring
Shirley Jones
Shirley Mae Jones (born March 31, 1934) is an American actress and singer. In her six decades in show business, she has starred as wholesome characters in a number of musical films, such as ''Oklahoma! (film), Oklahoma!'' (1955), ''Carousel (fi ...
, which lasted 13 episodes. They also produced
TBS' first original comedy series, ''
Down to Earth'', which ran from 1984 to 1987 (110 episodes were produced). They also distributed the syndicated comedy series ''
Throb''. In 1985, they produced a game-show pilot called ''The Buck Stops Here'' with
Taft Entertainment Television in 1985, hosted by
Jim Peck; it was not picked up. Procter & Gamble Productions originally co-produced ''
Dawson's Creek
''Dawson's Creek'' is an American teen drama television series about the lives of a close-knit group of friends in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, beginning in high school and continuing into college. It aired from January 20, 19 ...
'' with
Columbia TriStar Television
Columbia TriStar Television, Inc. (abbreviated as CTT) was an American television production and distribution company, which was active from 1994 until its reincorporation as Sony Pictures Television in 2002. It was the third iteration of what ...
but withdrew before the series premiere due to early press reviews. They also produced the 1991 TV movie ''A Triumph of the Heart: The Ricky Bell Story'', which was co-produced by
The Landsburg Company, and they continued to produce the
People's Choice Awards
The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show, recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the fans and general public. The show has been held annually since 1975, with the winners originally determined using Gallup Polls un ...
until the show was sold to E! channel in April 2017. In 2007, PGP teamed up with the now-defunct
Cookie Jar Group to produce the Flash-animated children's series ''
Will and Dewitt'', which featured the character Dewitt, the mascot for the Pampers baby product line's former sub-brand, Kandoo.
With Walmart, PGP sponsored
Family Movie Night on broadcast networks in 2010–2011 and Walden Family Theater on the
Hallmark Channel in 2013.
In 2013, PGP rebranded itself as Procter & Gamble Entertainment (PGE) with a new logo and an emphasis on multiple-platform entertainment production.
P&G funded a six-episode series, ''Activate'', on National Geographic in 2019 focusing on extreme poverty, inequality and sustainability in conjunction with not-for-profit Global Citizen and production company Radical Media. The company agreed to a longform series deal with Stone Village Television in January 2020. In February 2020, P&G joined Imagine Documentaries' five project slate including ''Mars 2080'', the project closest to production.
Sponsorships
In addition to its self-produced items through PGE, Procter & Gamble also supports many Spanish-language novellas through advertising on all networks:
Azteca América,
Estrella TV,
Galavisión,
Telemundo,
UniMás
UniMás (, stylized as ''UNIMÁS'', and originally known as TeleFutura from its launch on January 14, 2002, to January 6, 2013) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. ...
and
Univisión
Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...
. P&G was one of the first mainstream advertisers on Spanish-language TV during the mid-1980s. By the late 1990s, P&G was established as the largest advertiser on Spanish-language media.
In 2008, P&G expanded into music sponsorship when it joined Island Def Jam to create Tag Records, named after a body spray that P&G acquired from Gillette. In 2010, after the cancellation of ''As the World Turns'', PGP announced they were phasing out soap opera production and expanding into more family-appropriate programming.
Procter & Gamble also gave a $100,000 contract to the winners of Cycles 1 through 3 of ''
Canada's Next Top Model'', wherein
Andrea Muizelaar, Rebecca Hardy, and
Meaghan Waller won the prize.
Procter & Gamble has been a major sponsor of the
Summer Olympics since 2012. It sponsored 150 athletes at the London games that year. They have also sponsored the
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...
since
2014
The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
. It will do so at the
2028 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles, CA,
USA besides the
2026 Winter Olympics in
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (; , ; historical ) sometimes abbreviated to simply Cortina, is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomites, Dolomitic) Alps in the province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the ...
/
Milan, Italy. The company's sponsorship includes television ads in which Olympic athletes are portrayed as children to convey the sense that the mothers of these athletes still remember them as infants; other ads stress how Olympic mothers stood by their children through years of training all the way through to Olympic success. 2016's ad for the Rio Games notes upheavals as youths by an American gymnast, Chinese swimmer, Brazilian volleyballer, and German distance runner. The ads all make prominent use of the
Ludovico Einaudi orchestral track "
Divenire" and related such instrumentals.
The company has actively developed or sponsored numerous
online communities,
e.g.
BeingGirl.com (launched in 2000)
and Women.com.
, the company had 72 "highly stylized destination sites".
Carbon footprint
Procter & Gamble reported total
CO2e emissions (
Scope 1 and Scope 2) for the twelve months ending December 31, 2020, at 2,619
kilotonnes(kt), a decrease of 1,441kt or 35.5% from the previous year.
[Alt URL]
/ref> In September 2021, P&G set a new ambition to achieve net zero emissions across its operations and supply chain by 2040.
Corporate diversity
In January 2019, CEO David Taylor said in Switzerland: "The world would be a better place if my board of directors on down is represented by 50% of the women. We sell our products to more than 50% of the women." Also in January 2019, ''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' noted the company's board of directors had more than twice as many men as it does women. As of mid-2020, the board of P&G consisted of an equal number of men and women.
Controversies
Toxic shock syndrome and tampons
Toxic shock syndrome
Toxic shock syndrome (TSS) is a condition caused by Exotoxin, bacterial toxins. Symptoms may include fever, rash, skin peeling, and low blood pressure. There may also be symptoms related to the specific underlying infection such as mastitis, ...
(TSS) is a disease caused by strains of the bacteria ''Staphylococcus aureus
''Staphylococcus aureus'' is a Gram-positive spherically shaped bacterium, a member of the Bacillota, and is a usual member of the microbiota of the body, frequently found in the upper respiratory tract and on the skin. It is often posi ...
''. Most people have these bacteria living in their bodies as harmless commensals in places such as the nose, skin, and vagina. The disease can strike anyone, not only women, but the disease is often associated with tampons. In 1980, 814 menstrual-related TSS cases were reported; 38 deaths resulted from the disease. The majority of women in these cases were documented as using super-absorbent synthetic tampons, particularly the Rely tampon created by Procter & Gamble. Unlike other tampons made of cotton and rayon, Rely used carboxymethylcellulose and compressed beads of polyester for absorption.
In the summer of 1980, the Centers for Disease Control released a report explaining how these bacterial mechanisms were leading to TSS. They also stated that the Rely tampon was associated with TSS more than any other brand of tampon. In September 1980, Procter & Gamble voluntarily recalled its Rely brand of tampons from the market. Since the 1980s, reported cases of TSS have dramatically decreased.
Other products
In 2002, P&G was sued for its ads falsely suggesting to the consumers that the drug Prilosec could cure heartburn in a day. In December 2005, the Pharmaceutical division of P&G was involved in a dispute over research involving its osteoporosis drug Actonel. The case was discussed in the media.
Animal testing
Procter & Gamble has received criticism from animal advocacy group PETA for the practice of testing on animals.
On June 30, 1999, Procter & Gamble announced that it would limit its animal testing practices to its food and drug products which represented less than 20% of its product portfolio. The company invested more than $275 million in the development of alternative testing methods.
Price fixing
In April 2011, P&G was fined €211.2 million by the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
for establishing a price-fixing cartel
A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...
for washing powder in Europe along with Unilever
Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...
, which was fined €104 million, and Henkel. Though the fine was set higher at first, it was discounted by 10% after P&G and Unilever admitted running the cartel. As the provider of the tip-off leading to investigations, Henkel was not fined.
Child labor and forced labor
According to a 2016 report by Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
, palm oil provider Wilmar International, the world's biggest palm oil grower in 2016 and supplier of raw materials to Procter & Gamble, profited from 8 to 14-year-old child labor and forced labor. Some workers were extorted, threatened, or not paid for work. Some workers also suffered severe injuries from toxic banned chemicals.
Logo myth and Satanism accusations
P&G's former logo originated in 1851 as a crude cross that barge workers on the Ohio River
The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
painted on cases of P&G star candles to identify them. P&G later changed this symbol into a trademark that showed a man in the Moon overlooking 13 stars, said to commemorate the original Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were the British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America which broke away from the British Crown in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), and joined to form the United States of America.
The Thirteen C ...
.
The company received unwanted media publicity in the 1980s due to rumors, spread largely by Amway distributors, that the Moon-and-stars logo was a satanic symbol. The accusation was 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, the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars." P&G's logo consisted of a man's face on the Moon surrounded by 13 stars. Some claimed that the logo was a mockery of the heavenly symbol alluded to in the aforementioned verse, thus construing the logo to be satanic. Where the flowing beard meets the surrounding circle, three abstracted curls were said to be a mirror image of the number '' 666'', or the number of the beast
The number of the beast (, ) is associated with the The Beast (Revelation), Beast of Revelation in chapter 13, verse 18 of the Book of Revelation. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of ...
. At the top and bottom, the hair curls in on itself and was said to be the horns like those of a ram. In 1991, details of the logo were simplified, and the moon-and-stars logo was completely replaced by a text-only logo in 1995 in a failed attempt to quash the conspiracy theory, though in 2013 it unveiled a new logo with a hint of a crescent moon behind the text.
These interpretations have been denied by company officials and no evidence linking the company to the Church of Satan or any occult organization has ever been presented. The company unsuccessfully sued Amway from 1995 to 2003 over rumors forwarded through a company voice-mail system in 1995. In 2007, the company successfully sued individual Amway distributors for reviving and propagating the false rumors. The Church of Satan denies being supported by Procter & Gamble.
Reverse domain name hijacking
In March 2013, P&G was found by a World Intellectual Property Organization panel to have engaged in reverse domain hijacking in an attempt to obtain the domain name "swash.com" from Marchex in a Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy proceeding. P&G originally stated it had generated more than $40 million in sales of its Swash laundry products over four years, a figure it later revised to $60,000. After losing the case P&G purchased the domain name from Marchex. In 2013 attorney John Berryhill suggested that P&G did not intend to use the swash.com domain to market its existing range, as it had said, but rather a new product described in a 2011 trademark application as "An appliance for domestic use in the nature of a garment steamer for the purpose of removing wrinkles and odors from clothing and linen". Berryhill's theory was shown to be accurate after swash.com went live in June 2014.
"The Talk"
In 2017, as part of the "My Black is Beautiful" platform, P&G released an advertisement called "The Talk". It showed African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
mothers throughout the decades giving their children " the talk" about racism
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...
. The advertisement garnered controversy for several different reasons. Some criticized it for not showing any fathers giving "the talk", while others accused it of being anti-white. One scene depicted a mother warning her daughter about being pulled over by the police. The daughter responds by saying that she is a good driver so her mother doesn't need to worry about her getting a ticket. The mother then implies that she might experience police brutality by being racially profiled and killed. Several police officers and groups accused that part of the advertisement of being anti-cop.
"The Talk" was accused by Michelle Malkin of ''National Review
''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...
'' of being "liberal advertising". Malkin also called the ad "Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
propaganda" and accused it of pandering and using identity politics
Identity politics is politics based on a particular identity, such as ethnicity, Race (human categorization), race, nationality, religion, Religious denomination, denomination, gender, sexual orientation, Socioeconomic status, social background ...
. Despite the criticism, the advertisement also received a lot of positive reception and praise with some calling it "powerful" and "thought-provoking". The advertisement has also won several awards including the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Grand Prix and the 2018 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Commercial during the 70th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Gillette advertisement
On January 14, 2019, P&G subsidiary Gillette released a controversial advertisement called "The Best Men Can Be", ostensibly to address negative behavior among men, including bullying, sexism, sexual misconduct, and toxic masculinity. The ad was the subject of controversy
Controversy (, ) is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin '' controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an op ...
and was received negatively by various online commentators, becoming one of the most disliked videos on YouTube.
The ad led to calls for boycott
A boycott is an act of nonviolent resistance, nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organisation, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for Morality, moral, society, social, politics, political, or Environmenta ...
of Gillette and Procter & Gamble. Later in the year, its Gillette shaving business took an $8 billion write-down in value, although the company and analysts pointed to accumulated currency fluctuations, the entrance of strong rivals and decline in the demand for shaving products since the division's previous valuation in 2005, rather than fallout from the ad.
Trade in Russia amid Ukraine war
The Ukrainian National Agency for Prevention of Corruption (NACP) placed P&G on the list of International Sponsors of War
International Sponsors of War () was a publicly-available list of companies and individuals maintained by the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) in connection with the Russo-Ukrainian War, particularly the Russian invasion of ...
for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
. P&G has two factories operating in Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
(the Gillette razor manufacturing plant in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
and a toiletries manufacturing plant in Tula Oblast), thus contributing to the Russian federal budget and financing Russian war crimes according to the NACP. It was placed on the list alongside Bacardi and Unilever
Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...
. In 2022, the company's revenue amounted to 108 billion rubles.
References
Further reading
* Kominicki, John, "James Gamble's Candles and Soap Lit Up Profit: Do It Right: He Helped Put P&G on an Ethical Path to Top", Los Angeles: '' Investor's Business Daily'', March 6, 2015, p. A3.
* McGuigan, Lee
"Procter & Gamble, Mass Media, and the Making of American Life"
''Media, Culture, and Society'' 37 (September 2015), pp. 887–903. .
* Davey, KS & Sanders, TJ,
Serial Strategic Innovation and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A Longitudinal Case Study of Proctor and Gamble
, ''Journal of Case Research in Business and Economics'' 4 (July 2012), pp. 1–20.
External links
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