Kleenex has been a familiar, iconic household brand for close to a century. When it made its first appearance on American shelves way back in 1924, it was the very first facial tissue, as we now understand the term, to be introduced in a western country – facial issue has a considerably longer history in Japan.
Kleenex was devised by the International Cellucotton Products Company of Wisconsin, and initially marketed solely as a disposable, easy-to-use way to remove cold cream – and by extension, make-up.
The company’s original trademark unambiguously describes Kleenex as “absorbent pads or sheets for removing cold cream”. Previously women used face towels and cotton wool for this purpose.
The first advertisements, dating back to 1925, promoted Kleenex as “the new secret of keeping a pretty skin as used by famous movie stars…”
From Cold Cream To Colds
It wasn’t until several years had passed that the idea of promoting Kleenex as a disposable handkerchief occurred to anyone at Cellucotton – this idea was another novelty and the company was initially very cautious about the concept. But the idea took off, quickly overtaking the removal of cold cream as the product’s primary purpose. By the 1930s billboards were urging passers-by to abandon reusable cotton handkerchiefs with the forthright slogan ‘Don’t carry a cold in your pocket’! By that point Kleenex had become a firmly established and increasingly familiar brand.
Brand Dominance
In 1955 ownership of Kleenex products was transferred to the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, also of Wisconsin, and they remain the brand owner to this day
As the decades passed, the Kleenex brand has spread from facial tissue to a wide variety of other hygiene products: everything from hand cleaner to toilet rolls. So familiar has the name become that it has joined that select circle of brands which are frequently used generically in casual conversation, even while remaining fully copyrighted trademarks. Just as ‘hoover’ can mean ‘any vacuum cleaner’, ‘Kleenex’ can ‘any facial tissues’ and some dictionaries now recognise this fact in their definitions of the word. The Kimberly-Clark Corporation may chafe against this but it is a sure sign that Kleenex products have become part of everyday life for many of their customers.
