Ajax laundry detergent was found here also, now here ajax goes strong for all sorts of cleanser for hard surfaces but no laundry stuff except a laundry bar made with compressed powder like stuff, but it's full of soda now, it's all carbonate and surfactans...nobody buys it as it leaves laundry hard and stiff and whites chalky..
In Italy they had the same advertising jingle and song... the white knight that makes stains go away etc....and everyone old enough remembers these notes.
Though most people when thinking about Ajax now just think about hard surface stuff not for laundry, ajax was known mostly for that, most of adverts here promoted more the house-care side than laundry, infact everyone remember Ajax white tornado also...the line of cleaners...popular in the US too with the same advert "white tornado"..
I loved the old american adverts of the Ajax laundry detergents featuring different towns and how every town had their different kind of dirt, you had an oiltown where the knight comes across the mobile homes to bring the oil workers husbands' shirts clean again etc....
Steel towns...etc...
And also the others always featuring the various dirts depending on the job, you had the lady with the Diner's kitchen aprons etc...
Now I don't know if the old formula was so good, I just personally know about later Ajax, as others have said is still made now both in liquid and powder in the US, IIRC the liquid is now made by PB, while the powder is still made by CP up in NY.
The liquid totally sucks, and the powder...well....it's a basic powder but not too bad.. it misses enzymes and good bleaches in it, I purchased a newer box while in NYC and I also found an almost vintage one that seems coming from the early 90s.... and in the same store also a box of Rinso from P&G..
Anyway..... for now I just tried the newer...
It was good considering the basic formulation, but there're best stuff around , IIRC I heard good things of the old Ajax powder when it was sold here though....not sure about the american old one of it was different than modern, even though I am almost totally sure it was certainly better, it looked to be a marginal brand even back then but surely more known than today, today...well today is an almost forgotten brand, and I really couldn't find the powder anywhere else than NY area, in NYC many shops and supermarkets still carry the thing, I've seen it in many stores in the Queens and Brooklyn , the liquid looks like it's more spreaded around and can be found in some convenience stores throughout the country also...but it's rare as well, I suppose PB purchased the license to use the brand for liquids only, as powders can still be found being made from CP...and again powder is anyway rare to be found country-wide....
P.S
It's funny to note how here initially the brand was written with an "I" today it was substituited with it's original J.
"Ajax più forte dello sporco"- "Ajax stronger than dirt" Same motto worldwide!
[this post was last edited: 1/5/2015-17:52]
