Pine-Sol
| Product type | Cleanser |
|---|---|
| Owner | The Clorox Company |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1929 |
| Markets | Worldwide |
| Previous owners | Harry A. Cole |
| Ambassador(s) | Katie the Cleaning Lady, Diane Amos, Yvette Nicole Brown |
| Website | pinesol.com |
Pine-Sol is a registered trade name of Clorox for a line of household cleaning products, used to clean grease and heavy soil stains. Pine-Sol was based on pine oil when it was created in 1929 and during its rise to national popularity in the 1950s. However, as of 2016, Pine-Sol products sold in stores no longer contain pine oil due to increased cost of the commodity.
Pine-Sol detergent was invented by Harry A. Cole of Jackson, Mississippi in 1929.
In 1948, entrepreneur Robert Earnest "Dumas" Milner acquired Magnolia Chemical, the Jackson, Mississippi supplier of Pine-Sol. Milner put Howard S. Cohoon in charge of the firm which had 6 employees, three salesmen and three that produced the product. In the following five years Cohoon turned the company into a multi-million dollar operation selling 20 million bottles throughout the US and 11 other nations. Cohoon modernized the operation from manual bottling and labeling to full automation. According to Cohoon, at that time pine oil was produced from old yellow pine tree stumps which were previously regarded as worthless. After Pine-Sol went national, Milner Company began a national radio advertising campaign starting with the Robert Q. Lewis show in 1952. By 1955 the Milner company had purchased Perma-Starch, of Illiopolis, Illinois and by 1959 Milner had a grown to a $1.5 million daytime TV advertising package and a $100,000 radio buy shared between Pine-Sol and Perma-Starch.
In January 1956, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Milner Company to cease and desist an advertising campaign that related to the false claims regarding the effectiveness of Pine-Sol compared to other pine oil containing products. Milner Company had previously agreed to cease and desist several other false claims about germicidal and bactericidal properties of Pine-Sol in March 1951. In February 1963, the Dumas Milner Company, including Pine-Sol facilities in Jackson, MS and Perma-Starch plant in Illiopolis, IL, was taken over by Wayne, New Jersey based American Cyanamid for stock valued at $17 million. Howard S. Cohoon was to remain in charge of the division.
The Pine-Sol brand was acquired by Clorox from American Cyanamid's Shulton Group in 1990. The 2005 version of the original 8% to 10% pine oil based cleaner was acidic (pH 3 – 4) and could be used to remove bacteria from household surfaces. However, some of the products now contain bases (pH 10 – 11).
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