What Gives Dawn Dish Soap Detergent Its Super Powers?

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Dawn Dish Soap

Say the brand name and you know the product: Kleenex, Band-aid, Q-tip, Pampers, and—of course—Dawn. To many, Dawn dish soap detergent is the go-to soap to cut through the grease and grime on even your dirtiest dishes. Enthusiasts’ testimonies may point to its unbeatable sudsy quality or its heart-warming story about literally saving animals’ lives. But… why are the suds so super? After some digging by a non-scientist, there are a couple of theories as to why Dawn dish soap is the soap of all soaps for not only doing dishes but also protecting your plants, treating laundry, and unclogging your toilet. It’s so popular, there’s even a Dawn powerwash and other Dawn products to help clean other products around the house.

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The Scientific Difference

Unless you spend your days as a chemist (cool!), the actual science behind Dawn dish detergent gets a little complex for the layman DIYer. But, put simply, there is a secret ingredient. While the complete “recipe” is inaccessible for the masses, a Dawn spokeswoman has pointed the magic to uniquely powerful surfuctants—or, the chemical compounds that reduce the surface tension of a liquid when it’s dissolved, aka the stuff that cuts the grease. One of those super special surfuctants? A small amount of petroleum. Beyond this truth, there is unfortunately little research out there to satiate our curiosities about the heroic nature of Dawn dish soap.

The Marketing Genius

Dawn earned its crown as the strongest and gentlest soap for wildlife in the 1970s and has reigned supreme since then. When Proctor & Gamble donated massive amounts of suds after the 1988 Exxon Valdez oil spill, they began a cause campaign that has carried them into the present. And let’s be honest, this campaign works. When you pass the Dawn dish detergent bottles in stores, maybe you see the fuzzy duck on the bottle and recall the commercials where Dawn heroically transforms a sad and oil-covered chick to an adorably happy and floofy chickling. P&G masterfully appeals to logic (I need the strongest soap that can do its job) and emotion (if it’s gentle enough for animals, then it has to be gentle enough for my family). By connecting to everyone’s emotional decision centers, they stand out from the dish soap crowd.

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