Ajax
Pixies - Three
energetic pixies who cavorted about kitchens and bathrooms cleaning dirty
surfaces with Ajax Cleanser. Created by the Sherman & Marguette
Advertising Agency for the Colgate-Palmolive Company, these three
pointy-eared personalities were TV's first animated commercial mascots.
Their Ajax Cleanser commercial also introduced TVs first jingle "You'll
stop paying the elbow tax, when you start cleaning with Ajax." The pixies
(a fat, a thin and a tall pixie all under three-inches in height)
interacted with live-action shots and piped such scripted lines as "Foams
as it cleans," "Cuts grease fast" and "Floats the dirt right
down the drain." The commercials were accompanied by a bouncy "Bum,
Bum, Bum, Bum Bum" musical score written by Joe Rines. Ajax "the foaming
Cleanser" debuted on television with its three animated pixie mascots in
1948 and continued through the 1950s.
