Mennen

Mennen

Mennen's Borated Talcum Toilet Powder, 1898 advertisement.
Owner	Colgate-Palmolive
Country	United States
Markets	worldwide
Previous owners	1878 - Mennen Company 1992 - Colgate

Mennen is a brand owned in most parts of the world by the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Its most notable product, Mennen Speed Stick, with its fougère perfume and green wide stick, was the market leader among deodorants and antiperspirants for men for many years. It was also noted for its Teen Spirit deodorant, which was the leader in teenage girls' deodorants during the early 1990s.

In France, the Mennen branding is owned by L'Oréal through its Mennen-LASCAD subsidiary, for a line of men's grooming products.

The Mennen Company was founded in 1878 by Gerhard Heinrich Mennen, an immigrant from Germany. His first product was talcum-based powder, an innovation at the time. The company was originally located in Newark, New Jersey, moving to Morristown, New Jersey in 1953, where it manufactured and sold over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and personal products such as the Skin Bracer, Speed Stick, and Baby Magic products. Lady Speed Stick was a foray into the women's market, and was a huge success due to its shape, which fit a woman's hand, and fragrances. His grandson, G. Mennen Williams, served as Governor of Michigan from 1949-1961 and as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs under President Lyndon Baines Johnson from 1961-1966.

By Mennen was a successful marketing slogan considering its simplicity. The slogan was created by Richard J. Mercer. The associated jingle, written by Doug Katsaros, contained just three notes, and ended each television commercial for Mennen products.