Putting a Squeeze on the Tube

Toothpaste is the stuff of which family feuds are made. The problem is the packaging: some people think nothing of leaving the cap off or nonchalantly squeezing from the 1 middle of the tube. But now U.S. makers of "dentifrice think they can bring harmony to the bathroom sink with a packaging breakthrough: the pump, a hard plastic container that dispenses toothpaste with a flick of the thumb.

Minnetonka, the Minnesota firm that developed Softsoap, last May introduced the first pump toothpaste, Check-Up. Now Colgate-Palmolive is following with Colgate in a pump, and Lever Bros, has put out a pump version of Aim. Procter & Gamble started test-marketing a Crest pump in August. Packaging experts predict a tough battle over which brand's pump design is superior. Crest's model, for example, uses valves to extrude the paste, while Colgate's design has a piston mechanism. The new containers generally cost 20% more than tubes. Even so, the companies think they will have far more success than the last time they tried a radical departure from the tube. In the late 1950s an attempt to market toothpaste in aerosol cans was a bomb.