What is "oxydol"

Oxydol is the name of a laundry detergent sold in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It was created in 1914 by Thomas Hedley Co. of Newcastle upon Tyne and purchased by Procter & Gamble in 1927; it was P&G's first laundry soap. In the 1930s, Oxydol was the sponsor of the Ma Perkins radio show, considered the first soap opera, as Oxydol sponsorship put the soap in "soap opera". In the mid 1950s the soap was suffering declining sales, due in large part to P&G's introduction of its popular detergent Tide. As a result, the soap formula was discontinued and Oxydol was transformed to a detergent product, with color safe bleach. In detergent form, Oxydol was one of P&G's best sellers for years until, ironically, in the late 1980s P&G introduced Tide with Bleach, which cut into the sales of Oxydol. P&G sold the brand in 2000 to Redox Brands, a marketing company founded by former Procter & Gamble employees. Redox Brands was merged into CR Brands in 2006.