The original Bon Ami formula was developed in 1886 by the J.T. Robertson Soap Company as a gentler alternative to quartz-based scouring powders available on store shelves. In those days, scouring powder was made from tallow and finely ground quartz. When quartz was mined, it was entwined with a mineral called feldspar, and the two had to be separated by hand. The feldspar was discarded until Robertson discovered that this soft mineral could be combined with soap to create a less-abrasive product that would clean without scratching, resulting in the Bon Ami product. By 1896, Bon Ami was a common product in northeastern United States households. The chick and slogan "Hasn't Scratched Yet!" are textbook examples of an early American trademark. Consumers in the late 1800s understood that a newborn chick doesn't scratch the ground for three days; thus the correlation to the non-scratching benefits of Bon Ami. In the early 1900s, A.W. Erickson, founder of McCann Erickson Advertising, revived the brand with full-color pages in leading women's magazines. Noted artist Ben Austrian gained worldwide appeal for his painting of chicks for Bon Ami, and Ben's wife served as the model for the ads. In 1971, Bon Ami was purchased by the Faultless Starch Company, which later changed the corporation name to Faultless Starch/Bon Ami Company to help reintroduce Bon Ami to the market. In 1980, the company again revived the brand with a magazine campaign featuring the headline "Never underestimate the cleaning power of a 94-year-old chick with a French name". During the first 6 months of the campaign, Bon Ami sales rose 12%. It remains one of the top selling powdered cleansers in the United States today.
In 2011 the Bon Ami company celebrated its 125th anniversary by re-releasing the original cleaning cake for purchase. Limited supplies were offered both with and without a commemorative tin, celebrating the original formula's popularity.
In the film comedy "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken", whenever people are discussing a particularly gory murder at an old mansion, Bon Ami's cleaning effectiveness is given quite the testimonial. The murder was so gory that blood was found everywhere - even on the organ keys. Despite the efforts to clean the keys, the blood remained to this very day - "and they used Bon Ami!" In the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel Tender is the Night, first published in 1934, Fitzgerald notes the routine of the character Dick Diver in cleaning up his workroom at his home outside Cannes: "He swept up, for no servants were allowed in there, treated his washroom sketchily with Bon Ami, repaired a screen and sent off an order to a publishing house in Zurich".
