Cillit Bang

Cillit Bang?

Product range and ingredients

Bum spray

Cillit Bang Grime and Lime Spray (known in some countries as Easy off Bang/Bam Power Grime and Lime Cleaner Trigger) product contains two acids: sulfamic acid and phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid (also known as orthophosphoric acid or phosphoric (V) acid) is a weak mineral acid with the chemical formula Template:Hydrogen₃Template:PhosphorusTemplate:Oxygen₄ and applied to rusted iron or steel tools or surfaces to convert iron (III) oxide (rust) to a water-soluble phosphate compound.

This cleaner can be used on glass, acrylic plastic, ceramics (washbasins, toilet bowls, etc.), wall and floor tiles, PVC floor coating, copper, chrome and kitchen tops.

It should not be used on any acid sensitive material, such as marble or enamel, aluminium, stone, zinc-plated metals, kitchen worktops, linoleum, varnished, waxed or oiled wood floors, rubber, textiles or carpets.

Cillit Bang Power Crystal

Cillit Bang Power Crystal (known outside the UK as Easy-Off Bang/Bam Power Cleaning Crystal) is a liquid for cleaning heavily stained surfaces. It contains not more than 5% of anionic surfactants, nonionic surfactants, 15-30% of sodium carbonate, sodium percarbonate (the bleaching compound), and a perfume formula containing limonene. It is a skin irritant and can cause allergic reactions in some people, so the company now advises the use of gloves during prolonged exposure.

Advertising campaign

UK advertisements are presented by "Barry Scott", a brashly enthusiastic character played by Neil Burgess, who claims that Cillit Bang can remove limescale, rust and ground-in dirt, and places a copper-plated one penny coin in Cillit Bang to demonstrate the product's cleaning ability. In another version of the advert, Barry is joined by a stereotypical housewife character, Jill, who remarks of his penny-cleaning demonstration, "You love that one, Barry!". (The back of the container originally listed copper as a substance on which one should not use Cillit Bang; however, it has since been amended.)

In the original adverts Barry used a five-cent euro coin for this demonstration. It was soon replaced by the British one penny coin.

Outside the United Kingdom and Germany

It is sold as Easy-Off BAM (a brand extension of Reckitt Benckiser's popular oven cleaner) in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Mexico, and as "Easy-Off BANG" in South Africa and Korea, with similar packaging and spray bottle design.

These versions of the advert use different presenters, known as Martin Grellis in Australia and New Zealand, and Dan Dolan in North America, although recent spots feature Barry Scott. Dan demonstrates the cleaning methods seen in the Cillit Bang adverts and also cleans oil spills. The North American versions of the advertisement use the appropriate one-cent coin (a Lincoln cent in the U.S., a 1953–1964 one cent coin in Canada).

The Canadian version also features a disclaimer: "The Royal Canadian Mint neither endorses the product nor the method shown for the cleaning of coins."

Industrial use

In August 2009 it was revealed that household cleaners such as Cillit Bang and Mr. Muscle have been used to clean plutonium stains at the defunct Dounreay nuclear power station in Caithness, Scotland.

External links

• Official web site (contains videos of the advertisements)
• Easy-Off BAM official web site
• Reckitt Benckiser Product Information
• The Official Barry Scott weblog
• Barry Scott leaves marketing comments on plasticbag.org
• BBC News reports on the Barry Scott marketing mess
• The Guardian: Cleaner caught playing dirty on the net
• The Daily Mail: The day my house went Cillit bang!