Formula 409 or 409 is an American brand of home and industrial cleaning products well known in the United States, but virtually unknown in other places. It includes Formula 409 All-Purpose Cleaner, Formula 409 Glass and Surface Cleaner, Formula 409 Carpet Cleaner, and many others. The brand is currently owned by
Clorox
The Clorox Company (formerly Clorox Chemical Company) is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products. As of 2024, the Oakland, California-based company had approximately 8,000 employees worldwide. N ...
.
The
flagship product was invented in 1957 by Morris D. Rouff, whose
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
company manufactured industrial cleaning supplies.
Formula 409’s original application was as a commercial solvent and degreaser for industries that struggled with particularly difficult cleaning problems.
The inventor's son has stated that it was named for the birthday of the inventor's wife, Ruth, on April 9th (409).
The company, however, claims that it was named as the 409th compound tested by the two young inventors. Other claimed origins for the name include 409 being the
telephone area code
A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reach ...
where it was invented (
area code 409, which serves southeastern
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 ...
, was not introduced until 1983); the birthday of some other person, such as the inventor's daughter; or a reference to a powerful
Chevrolet car engine used in the 1960s.
In 1960, Rouff sold Formula 409 to Chemzol, a New York firm, for an amount in the low six-figure range. In the mid-1960s,
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones.
An entreprene ...
Wilson Harrell, along with longtime friend David Woodcock and television personality
Art Linkletter, bought Formula 409. Harrell, Woodcock & Linkletter bought it for $30,000 and took it national. Linkletter also promoted the product in television commercials. The company eventually took Formula 409 to a 55 percent share of the spray-cleaner market, and six years later, Harrell, Woodcock & Linkletter sold the company to Clorox for $7 million.
In early 2020 Formula 409 became impossible to find in stores and disappeared from the "products" listing at the Clorox website. Some websites say Clorox has discontinued the product. There has been no announcement or news release, and the website www.formula409.com is still active. Formula 409 is currently (November 7, 2024) sold at Walmart, Target, grocery and numerous other stores. The packaging has been changed.
Advertising
During the period when Art Linkletter was a part-owner of the Formula 409 brand, he was the commercial spokesperson.
Throughout the early 1970s, commercials featured
Betty Boop.
In the late 1990s to the early 2000s, a cover of
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
' 1962 song (surfin' safari) "
409" was used. The song's title refers to the name of the
Chevrolet engine.
One commercial from 2005 shows a fictional Formula 410. As a character hits the trigger, electricity shoots out instead of spray. The announcer says, "Because the world is not ready for Formula 410, there's Formula 409".
In popular culture
Detroit
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
rock group
Electric Six
Electric Six is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Detroit in 1996. They are known for combining elements of Rock music, rock, disco, garage rock, Heavy metal music, metal, New wave music, new wave, and punk rock. Since achieving wide ...
released a song named for the product on their 2008 album
''Flashy''. The song references how the product might be used to "clean your kitchen". The music video features band members using spray bottles of Formula 409 Glass and Surface Cleaner to clean the windows of the
Lafayette Coney Island restaurant in downtown Detroit. The band
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie (commonly abbreviated to DCFC or Death Cab) is an American rock music, rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington, in 1997. Death Cab for Cutie's music has been classified as indie rock, indie pop, and alternative rock. The ...
's song 'What Sarah Said' mentions the product.
In the season 5 episode ''
Mind's Eye'' of the TV-show
The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to Ma ...
from 1998, a detective claims that Marty Glen (played by guest star
Lili Taylor), a suspect and the
Villain of the week
"Villain of the week" (or, depending on genre, "monster of the week", "freak of the week", "alien of the week", or "dinosaur of the week") is an antagonist that only appears in one episode of a multi-episode work of fiction, commonly British, Ame ...
of the episode, had been found "at the scene doing a Formula 409.", i.e. cleaning a bathroom that had been the crime scene of a murder. It is also the title of
Green Day
Green Day is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Rodeo, California, in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, with drummer Tré Cool joining in 1990. In 1994, their majo ...
's song "409 in Your Coffeemaker", appearing on their 1990 EP
Slappy.
References
External links
Official site
{{Clorox
Cleaning products
Clorox brands
Products introduced in 1957