362. MORE AMUSING BRAND NAMES YOU WON'T BELIEVE WERE USED IN THE PHILIPPINES, Part II

Part II of some of the most amusing, unusual, and sometimes, weird-sounding names ever coined for real products, that were available in the Philippines –from the 1930s to the 1960s.

***********

BARRY’S TRICOPHEROUS, Brand name for:  Hair Tonic against baldness, thinning hair and dandruff

BARRY’S TRICOPHEROUS was introduced in the late 1840s by "professor" and former New York wig-maker, Alexander C. Barry. The term “tricopherous” alone  conjures many images—either a serious, incurable disease or the name of an extinct dinosaur. But despite its name, the product did surprisingly well.  Barry exhorted his customers: “Stimulate the skin to healthful action with the Tricopherous, and the torpid vessels, recovering their activity, will annihilate the disease.” Apparently, that worked for many satisfied men. The product contains 97% alcohol, 1.5% castor oil, and 1% tincture of cantharides (Spanish fly), which supposedly help stimulate the scalp’s blood supply.  BARRY’S TRICOPHEROUS is still being produced and sold today by Lanman & Kemp-Barclay & Co.

GALISATUM: Brand Name for: Skin Ointment

GALISATUM Lunas Galis was a skin ointment developed by Dr. Carlos Jahrling of Botica Sta. Cruz in the 1930s. Dr. Jahrling was a German pharmacist from Offenbach who opened his own business in Manila.“Galis” was an all-encompassing local  term for any skin conditions. “-Atum” was a suffix that was  commonly used in pharmaceutical products  like “mentholatum”and “petrolatum”.  GALISATUM with Lunas Galis sounds more like an incantation or a Latin spell to improve skin condition, especially when you say it thrice.  But it does relieves prickly heat, chafing, pimples, mange, eczema, dandruff and  maladies with mysterious names like Dhobie’s Itch (another term for Jock’s Itch) and Hongkong Foot (a slang for athlete’s foot), as this ad from 1936 claims.

GAYTOP: Brand Name for: Concentrated Hairdressing and Conditioner

Before gay language became more elaborate, it was okay to for Helene Curtis to dub its latest hair conditioner product.  GAYTOP. Nothing wrong with that--in the late 1950s. Today, GAYTOP sounds so suggestive with its homo-erotic undertones;  it seems to reveal  one’s orientation and preferred sexual role—especially when talked about in a beauty parlor! Indeed, if this product were around today, it will be a “brand that dares not speak its name”.

JAGGING JAGGING: Brand Name for:  Face Powder and Pomade

There really is no reason why a  cosmetic product guaranteed to make you “lovely to look at” be named JAGGING JAGGING. It is nonsensical, unfeminine and the sound is far from mellifluous. But  Chun Huat Pomade Factory, the manufacturer, did just that, making it hard to believe that Jagging Jagging  is indeed,  a “girls’ favorite”. Ad from 1934. 

KULSO-ALIS: Brand Name For:  Anti-diarrhea, anti-dysentery

Another product coming from Dr. Jahrling’s Botica St. Cruz is  KULSO-ALIS, a concoction with a brand name that comes from “Kulso” (diarrhea, loose bowel movement) and “Alis” (to be free from, begone). It was a common way to coin brand names for products this way, bewildering the Pilipino name may be to a foreigner. Perhaps this anti-LBM medicine was really meant to target local market only.It is interesting that Kulso-Alis lists  opium as one of its ingredients. Ad from 1937

 (This article originally appeared in the online magazine Esquire Philippines www.esquiremag.ph, on 11 Feb. 2019, under the title "Funniest Filipino Brand names in the 20th Century", commissioned from the author, Alex del Rosario-Castro)