Head & Shoulders

Head & Shoulders (H&S) is an American brand of anti-dandruff and non-dandruff shampoo produced by parent company Procter & Gamble.

The active anti-fungal ingredient in Head & Shoulders is piroctone olamine or zinc pyrithione, with some "clinical strength" varieties also containing selenium disulfide.[2][3]

History

Head & Shoulders was introduced in the United States on 1 January 1961 based in Manhattan and used the slogan "THE AMERICA AND WORLD's NO. 1 SHAMPOO".[4] It was patented in January 1962.[5]

It was referred to as "The America and World's Number One Anti-Dandruff and Non-Dandruff Shampoo Brand" of shampoo, and it was noted that "no one hair care brand gets so many ad dollars as Head & Shoulders, a twenty year old brand, and no other brand matches its sales", despite it being a "medicated" shampoo.[6]

Marketing

The brand has long been marketed under the tagline "You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression", which has been identified as an example of "anxiety marketing" commonly used by Procter & Gamble to drive sales by inducing fears of social consequences associated with the condition that the product claims to address.[7]

References

  1. Davis, Dyer. Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter and Gamble Harvard Business Press, May 1, 2004^
  2. OUR ACTIVE INGREDIENTS retrieved 16 November 2019^
  3. Anti-Dandruff Active Ingredients retrieved 6 November 2024^
  4. Davis, Dyer. Rising Tide: Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter and Gamble Harvard Business Press, May 1, 2004^
  5. Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office 1962^
  6. Marketing & Decisions (1982), Volume 17, Issues 8-13, page 186.^
  7. Thomas O'Guinn, Chris Allen, Richard J. Semenik, Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion (2014), p. 210: "When Head & Shoulders dandruff shampoo is advertised with the theme "You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression", the audience realizes that Head & Shoulders could spare them the embarrassment of having dandruff".^