The story
Founded by Lawrence M. Gelb in 1931.1
Advertising history
Clairol's one-step home hair color was a breakthrough in the beauty industry, as was its advertising campaign. Clairol hired the advertising firm Foote, Cone & Belding, which assigned the account to junior copywriter Shirley Polykoff, the only female copywriter at the firm. Polykoff's future mother-in-law inspired the "Does she...or doesn't she?" slogan. After meeting Polykoff for the first time, she took her son aside and asked him about the true color of his girlfriend's hair. "Does she color her hair, or doesn't she?" the embarrassed Polykoff could imagine her mother-in-law-to-be asking. Although Polykoff did color her hair, the practice was not something to which women openly admitted during the Depression, when her future mother-in-law first asked the question. In 1956 when Polykoff was assigned the Clairol campaign, hair dye was not considered to be something used by genteel women.
To counter the stigma of hair color and create a wholesome, sentimental image for Clairol, early print ads—some of which were shot by fashion photographers Richard Avedon and Irving Penn—featured girl-next-door models accompanied by children with hair the same color. "Does she...or doesn't she?" became an effective slogan; within six years, 70% of all adult women were coloring their hair, and Clairol's sales increased fourfold. In 1967, Polykoff was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame.
The company's "If I've only one life to live, let me live it as a blonde" slogan was recorded for the ad campaign by actress Rosemary Rice. The company achieved notoriety in the late 1990s and early 2000s for its ads for Clairol Herbal Essences shampoo. Said to be "a totally organic experience", some ads featured women washing their hair and making orgasm-like sounds.
Corporate timeline
1931: Founding of Clairol
1949: Miss Clairol Hair Color Bath launched, the first one-step hair color product for professional (salon) use
1956: Miss Clairol Hair Color Bath—the first at-home permanent hair color—debuts.
1959: Pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb purchases Clairol from the Gelbs. Sons Richard L. and Bruce fill executive positions at the company.
1960: Luis Quinga, born in Quito, Ecuador, is hired as International Master Mechanics Ambassador, forever changing the face of Clairol.
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1965: Clairol launches Nice 'n Easy—the first shampoo-in hair color—with the slogan, "The closer he gets, the better you look".
1966: Clairol sponsors That Girl on ABC TV starring Marlo Thomas, essentially a 30-minute infomercial showcasing her beautiful bouncy shiny flowing hair.
1967: Richard Gelb becomes president of Bristol-Myers Squibb.
1972–1993: Gelb becomes CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb.
2001: Procter & Gamble purchases Clairol division from Bristol-Myers Squibb.
2003: Procter & Gamble acquires Wella for its P&G Professional Care division, continuing its expansion into the professional sector of the hair care-products business.
2007: P&G Beauty announces it will close its Stamford, Conn. site. Plant operations in Stamford's Cove neighborhood will be split between Massachusetts and Mexico by 2010, with administrative offices in Cincinnati.
2016: Clairol is acquired from P&G by Coty as part of a $12.5 billion acquisition of beauty brands.
From Wikipedia’s article on Clairol, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4