14 famous brands that, in Brazil, have become synonymous with product names (Part II)

Brazilians have a unique way of being and dealing with things, so when a product stands out, people end up making the brand name a reference forever. Who has never made a market shopping list and wrote things like: 1 Bombril, 1 Super Bonder, 2 boxes of Cotton Swabs, 2 Danones and 10 Chewing Gum? This adaptation is more common in Brazil than you might think.

We, from awesome.club, we love to bring trivia to amuse your readers. Therefore, we have selected 14 brands, known more by the name of the manufacturer than by their real name. In addition, we brought curiosities about who invented a sales champion and how the product arrived in the country.

According to information from the brand, this glue, which many probably have on the refrigerator door, was discovered by chance. In the 1940s, chemist Harry Coover was trying to develop a transparent plastic and ended up discovering an extremely adherent glue. Today, this cyanoacrylate-based adhesive substance is even being tested for use in various surgeries.

Johnson & Johnson’s flexible stem appeared in tupiniquin lands in the mid-60s and became famous. So much so that today it is already the best known name for this product, created by the Polish inventor Leo Gersternzang, who was looking for something to help his daughter’s hygiene. The company modernized the design to make it safer, as well as adding a germicidal composition.

The invention initially arose from the need to paint some brands of cars with two different colors. In 1925, engineer Richard Drew developed an adhesive paper tape to be used in refrigerated chambers. A few years later, the same engineer came up with the idea of ​​putting glue in cellophane. The name “Durex” ended up being applied to adhesive tapes, precisely because that was the name of the company that manufactured the product in the country.

The company Reckitt launched a product in Brazil that promised practicality and efficiency in domestic cleaning. Today, this product “lives” in the pantry of most homes in the country and has been in the lead for a few decades. The brand launched a limited edition of the product with all proceeds reverted to a campaign that financially helps maids who have lost their jobs.

Widely used by children and teenagers when released in the second half of the last century, the Kichute was a curious mixture of cleats and sneakers. It was a national sales success in the 70s and 80s, as a result of Alpargatas, its manufacturer, taking advantage of the Brazilian passion for football in the year that the country was three times champion in the World Cup, in Mexico.

In the 1930s, the first sanitary pad manufactured in Brazil, under the Johnson & Johnson brand, began to be sold. The company focused on promoting the product in women’s magazines and, in the following decade, started to offer free samples of the product, with explanatory leaflets. In the beginning, they weren’t adhesive and it was necessary to use a “Modess Belt” so they wouldn’t move. The product was sold until 2008.

At the beginning of the last century (1919), the Greek Isaac Carasso noticed that there was an impressive number of children with digestive problems. Therefore, he decided to industrially manufacture a recipe with lactic ferments, a product already well known in southeastern Europe. The name was the nickname of the son of its creator, Danon (Daniel), who later became Danone.

Studies confirm that in excavations in Finland, scholars discovered a birch bark gum that appeared to have been chewed by a human being, because the plant has an antiseptic function. In the late 1940s, John Curtis created the first chewing gum for sale, made from spruce resin and later they used paraffin wax. John also had the idea of ​​adding flavor to the product, something he didn’t have before.

The cloth with a multipurpose function hit the market about 30 years ago to replace that cleaning flannel. It is made of polyester and viscose fibers, with holes that promise to “grab” the dirt. Some brands ended up imitating the product and started to manufacture it in other colors (the original was blue), so that the consumer would not confuse the cloth in the sink with the one in the bathroom and cause the so-called cross-contamination.

Instant noodles were developed by Taiwanese Momofuku Ando who had the idea of ​​creating a delicious, cheap and easy to prepare product. The Japanese company “Nissin Food” launched chicken ramen in the 1950s. However, it was only in 1965 that the Taiwanese Ko Kim Pyo decided to manufacture the product here in Brazil, opening a company registered as “Myojo”, and the name ended up catching.

The best-known brand of pens in the country was created by Marcel Bich, who had the idea of ​​improving the ballpoint pen created by László Biró. In 1950, the BIC Cristal appears, a better and cheaper model. Six years later, the product reached the hands of Brazilians and, in 1960, the brand had its first factory in São Paulo, also the first in South America.

More than a century ago, the immigrant couple Mário and Isaíra Silvestrini left Italy for Brazil, specifically for Minas Gerais. There, they used a family recipe to make the most famous curd cheese in the country. In 1911, the two inaugurated the Laticínios Catupiry factory, where they made a creamy cheese in an artisanal way, wrapped in cellophane and packed in a handmade wooden box.

A food loved by children, sold in a package with only 8 wafer cookies, it was the sensation in Brazilian lunchboxes from the 70s to the 90s, but it left the scene in 2001. Years later, PepsiCO bought the brand and in 2011 it returned to to manufacture the snack, as a strategy to conquer the child consumer.

In 1948, Roberto Sampaio Ferreira had the idea of ​​making steel wool, already manufactured in the USA, and founded Abrasivos Bombril Ltda. The product came in a cardboard box with a drawing of a person giving a “Good Shine” to the pans, and the name ended up sticking. The poster boy was inspired by the shy and clumsy Josué from the telenovela Gabriela, played by Marco Nanini, that had conquered the hearts of Brazilian television viewers.

Like to know more about the brands we hear about all the time? Is there anything else you’re curious to know about how it started and it’s not on the list? Tell us in the comments!