The History of Dawn Dish Soap

Dawn was first introduced in the 1950s as a bar soap. Specifically, it was marketed as a beauty bar for consumers to use to remove oil and grease from their facial skin. In 1972, Dawn launched a liquid detergent in a bottle — an early version of the Dawn dish soap we are familiar with today. Dawn dish soap, which is currently owned by Procter & Gamble, has gone through several minor changes in the time since, but today's standard Dawn dish liquid is relatively similar to the formula first released in the 1970s. Notably, Dawn has also gained a reputation as being a very effective but gentle degreaser and has famously been used to clean birds and other wildlife affected by oil spills. In 1998, it was even used to clean animal fat from a highway in Cincinnati after a truck carrying large amounts of it spilled. In response to changing dishwashing norms in the U.S., Dawn released a new sister product called Dawn Powerwash circa 2020; unlike the traditional liquid dish soap, the new product comes in spray form. Notably, this new product has not replaced the traditional formulation, which is still extremely popular, but rather is an additional offering in Dawn's dishwashing lineup. Today, Dawn dish soap remains one of the best-known dishwashing products on the market and is sold in most stores across the country.