Scrubbing Bubbles is the brand name of a
bathroom cleaner produced by
S. C. Johnson & Son. The product was originally named Dow Bathroom Cleaner after the
Dow Chemical Company
The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. The company was among the three largest chemical producers in the world in 2021. It is the operating subsidiary of Dow Inc., ...
, its manufacturer at the time. After some consumer product lines were sold to S.C. Johnson in 1997, the product had to be
rebranded
Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investors ...
and took the name of the product's longtime "Scrubbing Bubbles"
mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...
s (smiling
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...
soap bubble
A soap bubble (commonly referred to as simply a bubble) is an extremely thin soap film, film of soap or detergent and water enclosing air that forms a hollow sphere with an iridescent surface. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few seconds b ...
s with
brush
A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped during u ...
bristles on their undersides creating a mass of
suds).
History
In the 1970s, the voice of the leader of the Scrubbing Bubbles in popular commercials for the product was
Paul Winchell
Paul Winchell (''Birth name, né'' Wilchinsky; December 21, 1922 – June 24, 2005) was an American ventriloquist, comedian, actor, humanitarian, and inventor whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. From 1950 to 1954, he hosted ''The Pa ...
(best known as the voice of
Tigger in
Winnie the Pooh cartoons). The bubble leader returned with the name "Scrubby" in future commercials. The animation for the commercials was done by
Tissa David, a female pioneer in animation. The
ad campaign
An advertising campaign or marketing campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ide ...
was created by the
advertising agency
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...
of
Della Femina Travisano and Partners.
In 1995, pranksters at
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
placed 3D replicas of the Scrubbing Bubbles characters
on the outside of the windows of the school's
Media Lab building to celebrate the lab's tenth anniversary.
References
External links
Official website Official website (Japan)
Advertising characters
Cleaning product brands
S. C. Johnson & Son brands
{{product-stub
Products introduced in 1968
Mascots introduced in 1968