What does the name AJAX stand for? Spray and wipe brand’s heritage revealed

Shoppers have been left stunned after learning the historical meaning behind the name of the popular Ajax spray and wipe. 

Ajax shares its name with a Greek God known for his strength giving their slogan ‘Stronger than grease’ a double meaning. 

While Colgate Palmolive, the company who owns Ajax, have never confirmed the meaning behind the name, it is widely thought it is a reference to the mythological figure famous for his muscular stature so much so it was thought no one in Greece was stronger.

While Ajax is commonly thought of as a surface spray and scrub in Australia, the company produces many other cleaning products  around the world including a dish soap in the US. 

‘Their slogan is ‘stronger than grease’ and I was like okay yeah makes sense for a dish soap – wait,’ a post to Facebook explained. 

‘Ajax was a Greek solider renowned for his strength – Ajax is stronger than all of Greece.’ 

The post received more than 38,000 ‘likes’ and hundreds of comments from people shocked they never realised the double entendre before.

‘Don’t know how I missed that one,’ one person wondered while another said: ‘Well played, Ajax’. 

‘I guess their target market has always been historians,’ joked a third. 

‘The person writing this is probably the Ajax employee that came up with it.. we never got it.. they were sick of waiting,’ a fourth wrote. 

Others however said they understood the hidden meaning all along with one person stating: ‘I thought this was common knowledge’. 

‘This was known years ago, like when it came out,’ another pointed out. 

‘The earliest commercials explained this,’ one user commented. 

Some argued they knew the slogan as ‘stronger than dirt’ whereas other questioned if the meaning lines up with the story of Ajax. 

Previously, a Reddit user shared the same realisation and sparked a discussion where one person offered more in-depth explanation.  

‘The original slogan for Ajax powder was ‘Stronger than dirt!’. This was a reference to the muscular character Ajax of Greek mythology,’ they wrote. 

‘Some Ajax dish soaps now feature the trademarked slogan ‘Stronger than grease!’ which may be an even more overt reference to the Trojan warrior, with ‘grease’ being a pun on ‘Greece.’