Vicks
 | |
| Product type | Over-the-counter medicines |
|---|---|
| Owner | Procter & Gamble |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1890 |
| Previous owners | Richardson-Vicks, Inc. |
| Tagline | "Breathe Life In" |
| Website |
www |
Vicks is an American brand of over-the-counter medications owned by the American company Procter & Gamble. Vicks manufactures NyQuil and its morning sister medication, DayQuil. The Vicks brand also produces Formula 44 cough medicines, cough drops, Vicks VapoRub, and a number of inhaled breathing treatments. For much of its history, Vicks products were manufactured by the family-owned company Richardson-Vicks, Inc., based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Richardson-Vicks, Inc., was eventually sold to Procter & Gamble in 1985.
In Japan, the product is distributed by Taisho Pharmaceutical, but is manufactured by P&G in India. In Belgium, the product is imported by Procter & Gamble and is called "Vicks".
In German-speaking countries, the brand name Vicks is changed to Wick in order to avoid possible sexual connotations linked to either Vicks or Vick. In Latin America, the brand name is simply Vick.
History
In 1890, pharmacist Lunsford Richardson of Selma, North Carolina, took over the retail drug business of his brother-in-law Dr. Joshua Vick, of Greensboro, North Carolina.[1] After Dr. Joshua Vick saw an ad for Vick's Seeds, Lunsford Richardson began marketing Vick’s Family Remedies.[1] The basic ingredients of the range included castor oil, liniment, 'dead shot' vermifuge.[1] The most popular remedy was Croup and Pneumonia Salve, which was first compounded in 1891, in Greensboro. It was introduced in 1905 with the name Vick's Magic Croup Salve and rebranded as VapoRub in 1912 at the instigation of H. Smith Richardson, Lunsford's oldest son;[1] Smith had gained valuable sales and marketing experience while working for a period in New York and Massachusetts after attending college. Smith Richardson assumed the presidency of the company in 1919 upon his father's death.
The flu epidemic of 1918 increased sales of VapoRub from $900,000 to $2.9 million in just one year. In 1948, Edward Mabry became president of Vicks (the first outside the Richardson family), then known as the Vick Chemical Company. In November of 1967 Dale R. Leonard began a career with the Vicks Manufacturing Company, Hatboro, Pennsylvania. In 1985, it was sold to Procter & Gamble and Procter & Gamble has since marketed the product as "The only thing more powerful than a mother's touch."
The company archives (including related personal records of the Richardson family) from at least about 1920 or so, up to the 1985 sale to Procter & Gamble, are housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Product list
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Vicks History". vicks.com. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
External links
- Vicks brand website
- Vicks brand website - Canada
- Finding Aid for the Richardson-Vicks, Inc., Records #4468, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Wick (in German)