P&G corners market for hygiene sites

Internet surfers suffering from bad breath, diarrhoea, pimples or dandruff may soon find Procter & Gamble their first point of on-line contact for advice.

Staff at the multinational’s Cincinnati headquarters have been busy, claiming ownership of a host of topic names dealing with matters of personal hygiene – or lack of it – on the Internet.

Among the Internet addresses now exclusively reserved for P&G are: toiletpaper.com; pimples.com; germs.com; bacteria.com; dandruff.com; underarm.com; badbreath.com; and diarrhoea.com.

The move appears to have caught other manufacturers and retailers of cosmetics and personal grooming products by surprise.

A Body Shop spokesman exp-ressed concern that medical resear-chers attempting to get information on diarrhoea or dandruff may find themselves channelled to a P&G site. “It would be good if P&G used these sites to make clear its position on animal testing,” he says.