Ariel (laundry)
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Ariel is family of laundry detergents made by Procter & Gamble. It is the flagship brand in Procter & Gamble's UK portfolio.
The available range includes:
- Ariel Biological: available in twin-tub (high-suds) powder form; automatic (low suds) powder, liquid, tablets, and liquitab pouches.
- Ariel Colour and Style: automatic powder, tablets, liquid and liquitab formats.
- Ariel Sensitive (formerly known as "non-biological"): automatic powder, tablets, liquid and liquitabs
- Ariel Stain Pen: a stain pre-treatment product.
- Ariel Handwash: twin-tub powder; also refers to a high-suds version of liquid sold in smaller bottles - was sold as "Travel Wash": a product to take on holiday, to launder small quantities of clothes.
Ariel is available in powder, tablet, liquid and liquitab form.
Ariel first appeared on the UK market circa 1969, and was from the outset, a detergent with stain-removing enzymes. It was a high-sudsing powder designed for twin-tub and top-loading washing machines.
With the rise in popularity of automatic front-loading washing machines, a suitable low-suds variant was launched in the early 1980's.
The mid-eighties saw the range expanding to encompass liquid detergent and compact powder.
The compact powder was originally known as "Ariel Ultra"; and was subsequently reformulated into the nineties as "Ariel Futur" ("Future", dropping the "e"). This was possibly in response to Unilever's launch of the ultimately doomed "Persil Power", which was seen to damage clothes.
Apparently, compact powders were never very popular in the UK; so much so that when the tablet variant appeared in July 1999, the compact version disappeared.
In 2003, Ariel brought out its quickwash action to its detergents, to allow consumers to be able to do their laundry on a quickwash cycle and still get brilliantly clean clothes.
In 2006, Ariel started its "turn to 30" campaign to inspire consumers to wash in cool water so that energy can be saved.
