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Clorox Company

150px
Type	Public
Traded as	NYSE: CLX S&P 500 Component
Industry	Food, Chemicals
Founded	1913
Headquarters	Oakland, California, U.S.
Products	Food, cleaners
Revenue	US$5.45 Billion (FY 2009)[1]
Operating income	US$998 Million (FY 2009)[1]
Net income	US$537 Million (FY 2009)[1]
Total assets	US$4.58 Billion (FY 2009)[2]
Total equity	US$-175 Million (FY 2009)[2]
Employees	7,600 [3]
Website	www.thecloroxcompany.com

The Clorox Building, Clorox's diamond-shaped headquarters in Oakland

The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) is a US-based manufacturer of various food and chemical products based in Oakland, California, which is best known for its bleach product, Clorox.

History[link]

The product and the company date to May 3, 1913, when five entrepreneurs, Archibald Taft, a banker; Edward Hughes, a purveyor of wood and coal; Charles Husband, a bookkeeper; Rufus Myers, a lawyer; and William Hussey, a miner, invested $100 apiece to set up the first commercial-scale liquid bleach factory in the United States, on the east side of San Francisco Bay.^[4] The firm was first called the Electro-Alkaline Company.^[4] The name of its original bleach product, Clorox, was coined as a portmanteau of chlorine and sodium hydroxide, the two main ingredients. The original Clorox packaging featured a diamond-shaped logo, and the diamond shape has persisted in one form or another in Clorox branding to the present. In 1917, the company developed a less concentrated version for household, rather than industrial, use, and sales took off.

In 1928, the company went public on the San Francisco stock exchange and changed its name to the Clorox Chemical Company. "Butch," an animated Clorox liquid bleach bottle, was used in advertising and became well-known, even surviving the 1941 transition from rubber-stoppered bottles to ones with screw-off caps.^[5]

During World War II, when chlorine gas shortages forced many bleach manufacturers to reduce the concentration of sodium hypochlorite in their products, Clorox elected to sell fewer units of a full-strength product, establishing a reputation for quality.^[5]

In 1957, Clorox was bought by Procter & Gamble, a purchase that was challenged by the Federal Trade Commission, which feared it would stifle competition in the household products market. The FTC won, and in 1969, Clorox again was made independent.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Clorox pursued an aggressive expansion program in which it attempted to establish itself as a major diversified consumer products conglomerate, like P&G. During that period, Clorox experimented with many different types of products, including detergent (Clorox Super Detergent), bottled water (Deer Park), paint (Lucite), wood stains (Olympia), cereal (Cream of Rice), canned mushrooms (Country Kitchen Foods), frozen food (Moore's and Domani's), bar soap (Satine), and restaurant equipment (Prince Castle). For a while it even owned a small restaurant chain (Emil Villa's). However, all these enterprises did not pan out and were eventually sold or spun off. The brands which did prove profitable and were retained in Clorox's portfolio are listed below.

In 1991, Clorox hired Ketchum Public Relations in order to put in place a public relations crisis management plan.^[6]

In 1998, Clorox acquired First Brands, the former consumer products division of Union Carbide. Acquired brands included Glad and STP.

In September 2010, Clorox announced that it was selling the ArmorAll and STP brands to Avista Capital Partners.

Brands[link]

The Clorox Company currently owns a number of other well-known household and professional brands across a wide variety of products, among them:

• Brita water filtration systems (only North and South America)
• Burt's Bees natural cosmetics and Personal Care products
• Fresh Step, Scoop Away and Ever Clean cat litters
• Formula 409 hard surface cleaners
• Glad storage bags, trash bags, Press'n Seal, and GladWare containers (joint venture with P&G as 20% minority shareholder)
• Green Works natural cleaners
• Hidden Valley Ranch, Kitchen Bouquet, and KC Masterpiece salad dressings and sauces
• Kingsford charcoal
• Liquid-Plumr drain cleaner
• Pine-Sol, Tilex, and S.O.S cleaning products
• The iRobot Scooba floor-cleaning robot's standard cleaning solution is manufactured by Clorox

For historical reasons, in some markets the company's namesake bleach products are currently sold under regional brands. Clorox acquired the Javex line of bleach products sold in Canada, and similar product lines in parts of Latin and South America, from Colgate-Palmolive in late 2006.^[7] In Canada, where Clorox-branded products were not previously available, the acquired products have since been known as "Javex by Clorox".

Clorox's Net Sales by Geographic Regions from 2005 to 2007^[8]

The Clorox brand started on May 3, 1913, when five entrepreneurs, Archibald Taft, Edward Hughes, Charles Husband, Rufus Myers, and William Hussey each invested $100 a piece to set up the first commercial scale liquid bleach factory in the United States, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. Bleach is a chemically combined substance that is used to remove or lighten color usually by oxidation. Many ingredients make up Clorox bleach but the main ingredients are water, sodium hypochlorite (used to whiten and kill bacteria), sodium chloride(also known as salt), Sodium carbonate (removes alcohol and grease stains), sodium hydroxide (removes soils that are fatty, oily, or acidic), and sodium polyacrylate.

Controversy[link]

Clorox has received criticism for several of its advertisements.

Allegations of sexism[link]

One commercial which showed several generations of women doing laundry, included the words "Your mother, your grandmother, her mother, they all did the laundry, maybe even a man or two". The commercial received criticism from feminists on the grounds it insinuates laundry is a women's job only.^[9][10]

Clorox have also received criticism for their slogan, "Mama's got the magic of Clorox", on similar grounds.^[11]

Clorox also received complaints of sexism for an advertisement that featured a man's white, lipstick-stained dress shirt with the caption, "Clorox. Getting ad guys out of hot water for generations."^[12]

Dubious product claims[link]

The National Advertising Division told Clorox to either discontinue or modify their advertisements for Clorox Green Works, on the grounds the cleaners actually do not work as well as traditional cleaners, as Clorox had claimed.^[13]

Clorox received further criticism for their Clorox Green Works line, in regards to their claims the products are environmentally friendly.^[14] Several Clorox Green Works products contain ethanol, which environmental groups state is neither cost-effective nor eco-friendly.^[14] Many products contain sodium lauryl sulfate, a known skin irritant.^[14] Environmentalists have also questioned whether or not the Clorox Green Works line is greenwashing, as Clorox's 'Green' products are far outnumbered by their traditional products.^[15] Environmentalists have asked "Why sell one set of products that have hazardous ingredients and others that don't?"^[15]

References[link]

External links[link]

	San Francisco Bay Area portal
	Companies portal

• The Clorox Company
• Clorox (consumer products portal)

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Sherri Shepherd
Sherri Shepherd, May 27, 2010
Born	Sherri Evonne Shepherd (1967-04-22) April 22, 1967 (age 45) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actress Comedienne Television personality
Years active	1995–present
Known for	Co-hosting on The View
Spouse	Jeff Tarpley (m. 2001–2009 divorced) 1 child Lamar 'Sal' Sally (m. 2011–present)
Website
www.sherrishepherd.com

Sherri Evonne Shepherd (born April 22, 1967) is an American comedienne, actress, and television personality. She is one of five co-hosts on the ABC daytime talkshow, The View, as well as being the current host of the Newlywed Game and having a recurring role as Angie Jordan on the NBC series 30 Rock. As an actress, she has starred in the sitcom Less than Perfect and her own sitcom Sherri on Lifetime.

Early life[link]

Shepherd was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Lawrence A. Shepherd (b. 1943) and LaVerne Shepherd (1941–1991),^[1] as the eldest of three sisters. When she was 11, her family moved to Hoffman Estates, a Chicago northwest suburb. She attended Winston Churchill Elementary School and Eisenhower Junior High School of Community Consolidated School District 54 and Hoffman Estates High School of District 211.

Career[link]

Acting[link]

Shepherd worked a day job as a legal secretary while doing stand-up comedy at night. Her first TV role was on the show, Cleghorne!, starring former Saturday Night Live cast member Ellen Cleghorne. Three years later, Shepherd pursued acting and stand-up comedy full-time, working again as a legal secretary for a day job. She had guest and recurring roles on Everybody Loves Raymond and Living Single as well as regular roles on Suddenly Susan and The Jamie Foxx Show. Perhaps her most successful role prior to The View was playing the main character of Ramona Platt (2002–2006) on the comedy Less than Perfect. She is currently starring in Lifetime Television's Sherri, a sitcom about Shepherd's life.

Shepherd has branched out to film, with roles in Guess Who, Beauty Shop, Cellular, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Academy Award winning film Precious. Her most recent film role is as Lula in One for the Money starring Katherine Heigl. She still performs stand-up comedy at Los Angeles area clubs like the Comedy Store and the Laugh Factory, although she lives in New York. She has also been a frequent and popular guest on Ellen DeGeneres's syndicated daytime talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, for which she holds a record for being on the show the greatest number of times. She currently has a recurring role on 30 Rock as Angie Jordan, as well appears as a special guest host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

On February 28, Shepherd was announced as part of the Dancing With The Stars Season 14 cast. She was paired with Val Chmerkovskiy. They were eliminated on April 10, 2012 from the competition placing 10th.

[edit] Co-host on The View

The View's panel (left–right Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Sherri Shepherd and Elisabeth Hasselbeck) interview United States President Barack Obama on July 29, 2010.

In 2006, Sherri Shepherd became a frequent guest co-host on ABC's, The View. Shepherd eventually became a permanent co-host on Monday September 10, 2007. Shepherd co-hosted the 35th Daytime Emmy Awards on June 20, 2008. Her fellow co-host was All My Children star Cameron Mathison. Shepherd was nominated for her first Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

On May 14, 2009, she was nominated again for her second Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host, when nominations for 36th Daytime Emmy Awards were announced on the Today Show. Shepherd won her first Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host that year.

Criticized statements[link]

Shepherd was criticized heavily after the September 18, 2007 broadcast of The View,^[2] in which she stated that she didn't "believe in evolution. Period." Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked her, "Is the world flat?" She first responded, "I don't know", and expanded that she "never thought about it." Shepherd continued that it was more important to her that she thought about how she was "going to feed [her] child." Barbara Walters replied by pointing out, "You can do both." However, Shepherd then went on to quote scripture.^[3] Shepherd later referred to her statement as a "brain fart" brought on by nerves, and said that she still is not sure the earth is round.^[4][5]

Similar criticism erupted after the December 4, 2007 broadcast of The View when, during a discussion initiated by Joy Behar about Epicurus, Shepherd attempted to assert that Christians existed in classical Greece, and that the Greeks threw them to the lions. When confronted on this point, she further claimed that "Jesus came first" (before Greeks and Romans) and stated, "I don't think anything predated Christians", to which Joy Behar responded "The Jews".^[6][7]

Shepherd garnered ridicule after admitting to never voting partly due to her upbringing as a strict Jehovah's Witness. She was quoted as saying that she just "never knew the dates or anything"; she stated, "I've never voted for anything in my life."^[8] In January 2008, Sherri referred to R&B/gospel singer Shirley Caesar as "the black Patti LaBelle." LaBelle, like Caesar, is black.^[9]

Book[link]

Shepherd authored the book: Permission Slips: Every Woman's Guide to Giving Herself a Break, published in October 2009.^[10]

Personal life[link]

In 2001, Shepherd married comedian Jeff Tarpley (also referred to as Jeff T. Aware). Their only child was born in April 2005.^[1] Previously, Shepherd had announced that she had expected to have fraternal twins (one boy, one girl), but miscarried her daughter, and instead gave birth three months prematurely.^[11][12] The couple separated in 2006 and divorced in 2009 after she discovered he was having an affair, an event that inspired her sitcom Sherri.^{[4][dead link]}

Shepherd got engaged on December 26, 2010, to TV writer Lamar Sally, whom she had been seeing for over a year. They were wed on August 13, 2011 at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.^[13][14] Shepherd's eight bridesmaids included The View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, comedian, actress and star of reality T.V. show "Leave It To Niecy" on TLC and "Let's Talk About Love," on Yahoo! Niecy Nash, Community's Yvette Nicole Brown, and comedian, actress Kym Whitley. Shepherd's son Jeffrey Tarpley (from her previous marriage) walked her down the aisle.

A devout Christian, she has stated about the role God has played in her life and career: "If I didn't have God, I would have been dead."^[15]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Broadway[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Daytime Emmy Award

• 2008 Nomination for Outstanding Talk Show Host(s) (The View)
• 2009 Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host(s) (The View)
• 2010 Nomination for Outstanding Talk Show Host(s) (The View)
• 2011 Nomination for Outstanding Talk Show Host(s) (The View)

Screen Actors Guild Awards

• 2010 Nomination for Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards

• 2009 Nomination for Best Ensemble, Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

• 2009 Award for Best Ensemble Cast (Precious)

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

• 2010 Nomination for Best Acting Ensemble, Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

Black Reel Awards

• 2010 Nomination for Best Ensemble Cast, Precious (Shared with rest of cast)

BET Comedy Awards

• 2005 Nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series (Less than Perfect)

NAACP Image Awards

• 2009 Award for Outstanding Talk Series (The View)
• 2010 Nomination for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (Sherri)
• 2010 Nomination for Outstanding Talk Series (The View)
• 2011 Award for Outstanding Talk Series (The View)

Gracie Awards

• 2010 Award for Leading Actress in a Comedy Series (Sherri)

Braveheart Awards

• 2010 Powerful Women in Hollywood

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sherri Shepherd

External links[link]

• Official site
• Sherri Shepherd at the Internet Movie Database