Church and Dwight, an American manufacturer of household products, owns the trademark Arm & Hammer. This brand’s logo is a muscular arm holding a hammer. Originally associated with baking soda, the company began to expand the brand to other products that use baking soda as a deodorizing ingredient in the 1970s, including toothpaste, laundry detergent, underarm deodorant, and cat litter. The Arm & Hammer trademark is one of the oldest and most well-known in the United States. But do you know who tried to buy the Arm & Hammer Brand?
Armand Hammer, Armie Hammer’s great-grandfather, attempted to purchase Arm & Hammer because he was tired of being asked about it.
The Baking Soda Mogul
John Dwight and Company was founded in 1846 when John Dwight and Austin Church used sodium bicarbonate in their kitchen. Previously, they used the Cow Brand trademark on their baking soda. Austin retired in 1886, and his two sons succeeded in selling Arm and Hammer Baking Soda under the name Church and Co as a competitor to the John Dwight Company, which continued to sell Cow Brand baking soda. When the two companies merged, the Church & Dwight Company was born. (Source: Arm & Hammer)
Introducing the Odor Control
The Arm & Hammer logo was first used in the 1860s. Dr. Austin Church’s son, James A. Church, ran Vulcan Spice Mills, a spice company. According to the company, the Arm and Hammer logo represents Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking.
Arm & Hammer launched an advertising campaign in 1972 promoting the idea that a box of baking soda in the refrigerator could control odors.[4] The campaign is considered a marketing classic, with more than half of American refrigerators containing a box of baking soda within a year. This claim has been made numerous times since then. There is, however, little evidence that it works in this application. Arm & Hammer further claims that the box must be replaced monthly.
The brand name is frequently attributed to tycoon Armand Hammer; however, the Arm & Hammer brand was used 31 years before Hammer was born. Hammer was so frequently asked about the Church & Dwight brand that he attempted to purchase it. Despite his failure, Hammer’s Occidental Petroleum purchased enough stock to allow him to join the Church & Dwight board of directors in 1986. Hammer remained an Arm & Hammer shareholder until his death in 1990. (Source: Arm & Hammer)
History Behind the Name and Logo
Arm & Hammer launched an advertising campaign in 1972 promoting the idea that a box of baking soda in the refrigerator could control odors. The campaign is considered a marketing classic, with more than half of American refrigerators containing a box of baking soda within a year. This claim has been made numerous times since then. There is, however, little evidence that it works in this application. Arm & Hammer also claims that the box must be replaced every month. (Source: Arm & Hammer)
The Arm and Hammer Milk
John Dwight and Company later adopted the Cow Brand as a trademark for Dwight’s Saleratus in 1876. Saleratus is Latin for aerated salt, another term for baking soda. Lady Maud, a prize-winning Jersey cow at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, was chosen as the product’s icon due to the popularity of baking with saleratus and sour milk.
For many years, the Cow Brand and the Arm and Hammer brands have been sold concurrently. Both brands were equally popular, each with its devoted fan base. (Source: Arm & Hammer)
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