In 1837, William Procter and James Gamble joined forces to form a soap company, Procter & Gamble (P&G). Originally based in Cincinnati, Ohio, today the company is regarded as one of the world’s leading consumer goods conglomerates. It is the name behind a wide range of household brands, such as Pampers, Tide, Ariel and Wella.

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From the 1860s, Procter & Gamble sported a logo that comprised of 13 stars to represent the original American colonies. In an era when many people could not read, the mark became a valuable identifier of P&G products. In 1882, when the trademark was officially registered with the U.S. Patent Office, a line drawing of the popular Man in the Moon motif was added. In 1932, the illustration was modified to include flowing white hair and a beard (which curled off to a point in each direction).

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However, by the early 1980s, P&G started receiving complaints about the presence of satanic symbols in their enigmatic logo. Apparently, a ram can be found at the tip of the figure’s beard; and a mirror image of the number 666 (or the reflected number of the beast) is inscribed by three small curls directly under his chin. 

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P&G publicly announced that the rumours were totally false and successfully prosecuted those responsible for spreading them – usually small rival household product manufacturers based in America’s Bible Belt states. As the absurd accusations of P&G’s connections to Satanism continued, the company commissioned a restyle of their beleaguered trademark in 1991. This streamlined version, by Lipson Alport Glass & Associates, purged the offensive curls and ram-horns – but failed to quell the persistent stories.

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According to the late Alan Fletcher: “A vivid imagination could just about conjure up a ram, but linking the stars and curls to form a mirror image of the unholy digits requires a dedicated sense of fantasy. Anyway the rumours crossed the Atlantic and slips of paper were circulated at Baptist meetings with the improbable suggestion that Satan is ‘creeping into your kitchen’.”

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In the mid-1990s, the Moon and Stars symbol was quietly sacrificed; and replaced with a neutral typographic treatment of Procter & Gamble’s initials (by Peterson & Blyth). The new logo is intentionally bland and quite unlikely to stir up fantastical images. It performs better as a branded-pluralistic identity, and doesn’t compete with the individual identities of P&G’s products.