Cif


Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the British-Dutch company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries.

History

Launched in France in 1965, it was marketed in competition against scouring powders such as Vim as a creamy and hence protective, but powerful domestic cleaner.

Name

The Cif product is sold under the names Jif, Vim, Viss and Handy Andy, depending on which of the 51 countries it is sold in.
In Sweden, the United Kingdom and South Africa, the products were sold under the name Vim before this was changed to Jif, the launch name in Ireland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong. In January 2001, the name in most of these countries was changed to Cif, in order to harmonise marketing and product inventories across the continent. Despite this, many in the United Kingdom, and most in Ireland, continue to call the product Jif.
The name change from Jif to Cif was confirmed in December 2000.
In Belgium, Finland and Portugal, the product was known as Vim for quite some time, after which it became Cif. In Canada and India, it is still called Vim. Recently advertisements for Cif surface grease cleaner have started to appear in India, while the Vim name is still used for the kitchen dish cleaning product. In Germany, the cleaner's name is Viss. In Norway, the product is still today traded as Jif. It is also still traded in Iraq as Jif, with local Arabic and English writing.

Products