Product type Insecticide Country United States Tagline "Kills bugs dead" | Owner S. C. Johnson & Son Introduced 1956 (1956) | |
Markets North America, UK, Australia, Saudi Arabia | ||
Raid is the brand name of a line of insecticide products produced by S. C. Johnson & Son, first launched in 1956.
Contents
The initial active ingredient was the first synthetic pyrethroid, allethrin. Raid derivatives aimed at particular invertebrate species can contain other active agents such as the more toxic cyfluthrin, another synthetic pyrethroid. Currently Raid Ant & Roach Killer contains pyrethroids, piperonyl butoxide, and permethrin; other products contain tetramethrin, cypermethrin and imiprothrin as active ingredients. Raid Flying Insect Killer, a spray, uses prallethrin and D-phenothrin.
Effectiveness
"Raid Kills Bugs Dead" slogan
The product's advertising tagline, "Raid Kills Bugs Dead," was created by the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding. The phrase itself is often attributed to the poet Lew Welch, who worked for the agency at the time.
The line was first used in commerce in 1966 and was trademarked in 1986. Noted animation director Tex Avery was the producer of the first "Kills Bugs Dead" commercials. Artist Don Pegler developed the bug characters used in the US and continued animating them for forty years. Pegler "codified the look, feel and animation" of the weird insects that run in fear of Raid, according to Steve Schildwachter, executive vice-president at Draftfcb.
The slogan has been part of a successful, long-running advertising campaign. Conjuring up images of an Eliot Ness-style raid on an illegal bar during Prohibition, the television spots have featured the cartoon bugs (voiced by Mel Blanc) plotting some silly scheme like invading a kitchen, only to be foiled by the magical appearance of the product which swiftly dispatched the bugs to various giddily horrible deaths. The bugs would scream the brand's name ("RAAAIIIID!!"), and then a huge cartoon-style explosion would occur, presumably precipitating their demise.
Similar campaigns have been run in other countries, either by dubbing the US cartoons or by producing local versions, including those for Baygon, another S.C. Johnson brand of insecticides.