Brands that have died in Britain live on elsewhere
BRITONS were fond of A.1. sauce until the 1950s, when it stopped being widely
sold in the country that created it. But like other products the natives have
wearied of, A.1. is still avidly consumed elsewhere. American omnivores prize it
as a complement to steak.
There are many commercial expatriates, brands born in Britain but now more
at home abroad. Rinso is the top detergent in Indonesia. Italian bambini grow up
on Mellin, the distant descendant of a Victorian producer of concentrated milk.
Peardrax and Cydrax, fruit-based fizzy drinks sold in Britain until the 1980s,
are still popular in Trinidad & Tobago.
The ultimate expatriate power brand is Lifebuoy. William Lever concocted the
soap in 1894 and sold it as a means to combat cholera. By the 1930s Lifebuoy
marketers had turned their guns on British body odour. It “knocks out B.O.”, the
packages promised. Lifebuoy eventually lost its allure in Britain, perhaps
because buying it came to be seen as an admission of smelliness. Now Unilever,
Lever’s corporate heir, uses it to fight diarrhoea, a menace that kills 1.5m
children a year.
