Hooameye

"it was an Italianisation of - well Chief: a word people had heard in films etc."

When it was announced in the press, the reason given was that some European countries inhabitants can't pronounce "J".

flanneruk

"some European countries inhabitants can't pronounce "J"."

That's why the product called Jif in Britain and Cif in most of Continental Europe adopted the Continental name. It doesn't explain why them Continentals chose an apparently meaningless name in the first place: jif means something in English, but cif means nothing anywhere.

My memory (which is vague on this, because we never got the business anywhere anyway) is that Cif was around on the Continent before Jif was around here. Bizarrely Jif still seems to be going in Sweden (www.jif.se/brands/homecarebrands/)

julia_t

And we still have Jif Lemon Juice in England...

Did you remember your pancakes on Jif Lemon Day?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jif_(lemon_juice)

I never got confused between Jif lemon juice and Jif sink and bath cleaner.

As for the cashmere-bog-roll, well I remember good old Bronco in the school loos, but frankly I can't be bothered to try it unless it's on some sort of silly-stupid offer. Good old Andrex is best value at Waitrose at the moment, at £1.50 for a 4-pack, buy 3 and it's cheaper than a buy-9-get-3-rolls-free pack.

Hooameye

The other "greaseproof paper" type of bog roll was Izal Medicated, I think you had to be on medication to use it,
very painful.

julia_t

We used to use it for tracing paper LOL! And if you folded it round a comb it made a sort of poor-kid's harmonica!