Colgate-Palmolive: Shared Toothpaste Jars, Soap Operas and Palm Oil Scores

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In 1806 English immigrant William Colgate opened a shop on Dutch Street in New York City, boiling animal fats with lye to make starch, soap and candles. A heart attack in 1833 briefly halted sales, and after his death in 1857 his reluctant son Samuel took over out of duty. The company sold soap in uniform-weight cakes in the 1840s, launched perfumed Cashmere Bouquet soap in 1872, sold toothpaste in shared glass jars in 1873, and in 1896 introduced Colgate Ribbon Dental Cream, the first toothpaste in a squeezable tube, using an invention by dentist Washington Sheffield. That same year Martin Ittner founded one of the world's first applied research labs for the company. In Milwaukee, B.J. Johnson's 1898 palm and olive oil soap became the world's best seller, the firm renamed itself Palmolive in 1917, merged with the Peet Brothers in 1926, and joined Colgate in 1928 as Colgate-Palmolive-Peet.

After World War II, Procter & Gamble's Tide synthetic detergent gutted Colgate's laundry business and Crest's stannous fluoride took the top toothpaste spot for a time. Colgate sponsored the daytime drama The Doctors from 1963 to 1982 but left soap operas to P&G. CEO George Henry Lesch restructured the firm in the 1960s and 70s, and in 2005 it sold Fab, Dynamo and other laundry brands to Phoenix Brands to focus on oral care, personal care and Hill's Pet Nutrition. It bought 84 percent of Tom's of Maine for $100 million in 2006 and Hello Products in 2020. Watchdogs have been harsh: Ethical Consumer gave it worst-possible ratings in 2024 on climate, plastic, palm oil and supply chain human rights, while praising its avoidance of toxic chemicals.

• The ABC network blocked Colgate from sponsoring Agnes Nixon's new soap opera All My Children.
• The hand on the Palmolive dish soap label belongs to Ford agency hand model Elizabeth Barber, photographed in 1985.
• Colgate announced in 2012 that it would cut 6 percent of its global workforce, more than 2,300 jobs.
• In 2011 the company kept triclosan in Total toothpaste under an old FDA gingivitis approval while withdrawing it from its soaps.
• Global Witness tied Colgate suppliers in 2021 to bribery and child labor in Papua New Guinea, and the company is named among parties responsible at the Chemsol Superfund site in New Jersey.