"You'll see the difference for yourself...for a whi
(Drift line from a 1950's Cheer singing commercial to the tune of "There'll Be Some Changes Made.")
The reason Cheer was "new!" and "blue!" was a marketing gimmick. The original Cheer formula, I have read, was white but actually made better suds in hard water than the original Tide formula.
A P & G marketer came up with the idea of coloring the granules blue...and with a little fluorescent dye, voila! "Blue-Magic Whitener!"
I always preferred Cheer to Tide because I liked the fragrance better...even when Cheer decided to add the green granules to the "All Temp-a-Cheer" formula. Guess if P & G could add green bleaching Crystals to Oxydol, they could add them to Cheer...and remember that the old Bold formula contained "white, green and blue power granules!"
I recall they removed the coloring because, according to P & G, the coloring actually caused staining on some fabrics...
Truth is, P & G would like nothing better than have everyone buy Tide, since they've sold off Oxydol, and seem to be focusing on Gain and Cheer as the runner-up brands...