181. It’s Here! America’s Newest Washing Discovery! BREEZE: The First Philippine Ads, 1962-1968

THE LAUNCH AD OF BREEZE 'Washes Doubly Clean". Magazine double-page spread. 1962

Philippine Refining Company (PRC), started as an oil milling business in the country as early as 1916, but it was only in 1927 that it was incorporated until it was acquired by Unilever Goup. 

1966 box

By the start of the 1960s, PRC had become a worthy competitor to Philippine Manufacturing Co. P&G, with a portfolio that included margarines, beauty soaps (Ever, Lux), shortening/cooking oils (White Band, Camia) and detergent bars, specifically the very popular Wheel. As one can see, all these products had competitive counterparts from PMC.

But when PMC launched the highly successful powdered detergent TIDE in 1957, PRC  was caught flat-footed and it took 5 years for the company to respond. But when it did, the product touted as America’s newest washing discovery—BREEZE—also took off and became a major player in the powdered laundry detergent segment.

BREEZE was actually launched in the U.S. market by the Lever Bros. in 1947 as a soapless, cleaning product. It was heavily supported with promotions and advertising, and became an established brand by the mid 1950s, so it was the perfect product to match to TIDE which had a hold on the powdered detergent market. The first ad appeared in 1962, which referred to the product as "America's newest washing discovery", in an age of colonial mentality.  TIDE, of course, was touted as "a sensational new washing discovery.")

 

BREEZE SUSTAINING AD, 1963

BREEZE was initially sold in pouches, and then in boxes. With its unique benefit—“BREEZE washes doubly clean—clean all over, clean all through”—the detergent’s dual promise, with a value-for-money undertone proved very appealing to Filipino housewives, and by 1963, it was drawing converts and new users by the thousands.

 

BREEZE "BANDWAGON" SUSTAINING AD, 1963

It is  accurate to say that TIDE and BREEZE grew the powdered detergent category in the Philippines, and both brands helped in popularizing a new detergent form that was looked at as more modern, more advanced, than detergent bars. It was one of the first brands to use music marketing; on radio, local singer Ruben Tagalog was hired to sing kundiman paeans to the art of  the wash.

 

DOUBLY CLEAN BREEZE AD, 1964

BREEZE consistently stuck to its “double clean” benefit, and further fortified this promise with the claim--“one soaping…one rinsing..no bleaching”.

 

THE ICONIC  HOUSEWIFE SNUGGLING TO BREEZE-WASHED SHEETS, 1965

In 1965, BREEZE ads began featuring an iconic outdoor shot of a woman with windblown hair, snuggled close to a bundle of clean, white sheets in her arms. The shot was meant to visualize “the fresh-air cleanness of clothes washed with BREEZE”.

 

NEW BREEZE, WITH INSTANT WASHING POWER, 1965

This picture would be used on the front panels of BREEZE boxes, as well as in its first relaunch since 1962. In 1966, BREEZE with New Instant Washing Power, was introduced. The new, improved BREEZE had quick-acting, power-packed suds that instantly work at once on stubborn stains and dirt. The results are clothese “so clean, you can even smell the freshness”.

 

FRESH-AIR CLEANNESS! 1966

This messaging would be used for the next two years, 1967-68. As a new decade dawned, PRC would go easy on BREEZE advertising, as by 1967, it was kept busy introducing its second laundry powdered detergent brand, the short-lived “RINSO”.

 

SMELL THE FRESHNESS. 1967

BREEZE would survive the rise of syndet (synthetic detergent) bars in the 1980s; today, BREEZE, (like its staunch competitor, TIDE), remains available in the Philippines, in powder and in the new liquid form, powered with ActiveBleach. The brand also continues to be advertised.

THE REAL TEST OF CLEANNESS. 1968

SOURCES:

Various Sunday Times Magazine issues

Breeze detergent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeze_detergent

Unilever Ph, website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever_Philippines

Then and Now, Magazine 1961, Philippine Refining Company, p. 27