There were some iconic brands in the consumables category in Bombay during Nehru's socialist era. Not all of them were indigenous, but even despite foreign goods being banned, a very few because of their popularity, continued to be imported in limited quantities.
Polson's butter, Waterbury's compound, Eno's Fruit Salts, Cadbury's chocolates, and Rose's Lime Juice Cordial (a great mix for gin) were a few of these popular brands. Some like Polson fell by the wayside to local competition, others set up Indian plants allowed to use the parent name and still others like Rose's Syrups managed to retain their import license due to a very select market. Butter in those days was a middle-class urban luxury. Most Christian homes had butter on the table for the obligatory toast and the butter in most cases was Polson. Amul, an Indian brand from a Gujarat cooperative had entered the market but had not made inroads. Amul was the superior butter but Polsons was the tastier. Amul poured in big money to advertise but Polson gave out their dinky coupons as part of the wrapper and every housewife collected them. Coupons would take a few pice, later paise off the next purchase and that had the lady of the house hooked with the new concept. It's funny how taste can override goodness in a consumable product. Tinned Kraft cheese for example is not real cheese, just a salty processed product, but even today diehards used to it will opt to buy it over the more natural and healthy cheddar slabs. Polson did not make cheese, it just made butter unlike its rival Amul whose cheese was an excellent product considering it was made by an Indian company in rural Gujarat. Ignorance, in this case due to non-availability, is generally bliss. It was not until my relatives from Africa came to Bombay on long leave and brought Kenya Creamery churned butter tins did we realize that Polsons was really a very poor cousin. In the end whether it was Amul's superior product or just their big budget advertising or political heft that did Polson in, we shall never know. Like an old soldier, Polsons after ruling Bombay's roost for decades, didn't die. It just faded away. Roland Francis Toronto. > On Sep 27, 2016, at 4:51 PM, Frederick FN Noronha * फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * > فريدريك نورونيا <fredericknoron...@gmail.com> wrote: > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polson_(brand) > -- > _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ > _/ > _/ Frederick Noronha | http://about.me/noronhafrederick | http://goa1556.in > _/ P +91-832-2409490 M 9822122436 Twitter @fn Facebook: fredericknoronha > _/ Goa,1556 CC shared audio content https://archive.org/details/goa1556 > _/ > _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
