Ivory (soap) - Cultural References

Cultural References

• Parodying Ivory's slogan, John Frankenheimer titled his 1974 film 99 and 44/100% Dead.
• "99 and 44/100% Pure" are the words spoken by Willy Wonka on opening the safe / factory door in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
• Port Ivory, Staten Island, a New York City neighborhood, was renamed because of the P&G factory that was a landmark there from 1907-1991.
• Porn star Marilyn Chambers once appeared on Ivory Snow packaging. The producers of the hardcore Behind the Green Door used the Ivory Snow "99 and 44/100 percent pure" slogan to advertise Chambers' presence. The controversy helped to boost tickets sales for the film.
• Ivory soap exhibits a peculiar foaming phenomenon when exposed to microwave radiation. This experiment is commonly performed to demonstrate Ivory soap's unique properties.
• This soap powder was used by many people at Christmas time after World War II to create a fake snow to put on live Christmas trees. A box of Ivory Snow combined with boiling water, mixed and whipped up with an electric mixer, produced a "mock snow". It was applied by hand wearing rubber gloves and rubbing the mixture all over the tree. It dried to a firm consistency and dripped down, looking like real snow. Mica flakes or white glitter were then sprinkled on top of the snowy mixture. The tree sat for about an hour before the garland and ornaments were added. Commercial aerosol cans of fake faux snow replaced this method starting in the 1960s.
• An episode of Tales from the Crypt was titled "99 & 44/100% Pure Horror" and centered around the rich owner of a soap company and his wife.
• Country singer Ronnie Milsap referenced the Ivory soap slogan in his 1974 hit song "Pure Love" written by Eddie Rabbitt.
• Ice-T refers to Ivory Soap in his 1988 track "I'm Your Pusher", boasting that he doesn't sanitize the content of his records : "I don't clean'em up with no Ivory soap - I leave'em hard and pure, hope that you can cope".
• In Neal Shusterman's Unwind (novel), the law states that 99.44% of the organic material of 'unwinds' who are harvested for organs must be saved for transplant.