L'Italo-Americano

IMPRESA ITALIA MADE IN ITALY TOP BRANDS BUSINESS & ECONOMY THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 12 L'Italo-Americano F e w p r o d u c t s become so familiar t h a t t h e i r b r a n d n a m e b e g i n s t o replace the thing itself. In Italy, Borotalco is one of them, because the pow- der created by Florence-based Manetti&Roberts was not simply a successful personal- care product, but the word many people used, and still use, when referring to talcum powder in general. Its story begins in Florence, where Manetti&Roberts was founded in the nineteenth century as a pharmaceutical and chemical company. In 1 9 0 4 , t h e f i r m l a u n c h e d Borotalco, a finely milled talcum powder intended for e v e r y d a y s k i n c a r e a n d hygiene. It entered the market a s a p r a c t i c a l p r o d u c t designed for ordinary domes- tic use at a time when house- hold toiletries were becoming more widespread. Its success rested on its very simplicity because Boro- t a l c o c o u l d b e u s e d a f t e r b a t h i n g , d u r i n g w a r m e r months, for skin comfort, as part of childcare routines and, more generally, as a familiar item in daily hygiene. In other words, it was affordable, easy to use, and adaptable to dif- ferent needs. Products that remain in homes year after year tend to build something more valuable than advertis- ing: trust. Borotalco became associated with reliability and continuity, used almost auto- matically by people of all gen- erations; parents bought it because their parents had bought it before them, and because it had become one of those items people expected to find in a bathroom cabinet or travel bag. In this, its visual identity played a major role, with its c l a s s i c g r e e n p a c k a g i n g becoming one of the most recognizable containers in twentieth-century Italy. Even when details evolved, the product remained instantly identifiable. Older packaging and advertising often used m a t e r n a l a n d c h i l d c a r e imagery, reinforcing ideas of gentleness, cleanliness, and family care, and while the image itself today looks more modern than the traditional one many of us were used to, it still delivers the same feel- ing of protection and warmth. The strongest sign of Boro- talco's dominance, however, was linguistic. In common speech, many Italians used the brand name as shorthand for the entire category. Ask- ing for borotalco in Italy, yes- terday like today, means ask- i n g f o r t a l c u m p o w d e r , regardless of who made it; t h i s h a p p e n s o n l y r a r e l y , when one product becomes so closely associated with its purpose that consumers stop separating brand and object. T h i s s a y s s o m e t h i n g v e r y important also about market leadership, because a success- ful brand may be recognized, but it's only a dominant one t h a t i n f l u e n c e s l a n g u a g e . There is more, because Boro- t a l c o ' s m a k e r s , Manetti&Roberts (which also produce another iconic prod- uct-turned-household-name, Acqua di Rose Roberts), are i n c l u d e d a m o n g I t a l y ' s Marchi Storici di Inter- esse Nazionale, the official register reserved for names closely linked to the country's industrial and manufacturing heritage, which places Boro- talco within a wider context of Italian enterprise. O v e r t i m e , t h e n a m e e x p a n d e d b e y o n d p o w d e r itself, with the introduction, starting in the 1990s, of Boro- talco-branded deodorants and other personal-care items, including shower gels and body creams, which allowed t h e c o m p a n y t o c a r r y i t s strongest asset, recognition, into newer markets while pre- serving continuity with the original product. And this may be, in fact, the most interesting part of Borotalco's history, because I t a l y i s o f t e n a s s o c i a t e d abroad with high-end prod- ucts (think of couture or cars), yet much of the country's real industrial success was built through less glamorous sec- tors like pharmaceuticals, household goods, cosmetics, packaging, and simple, every- day consumer products, just like Borotalco. Useful things, with a recognizable identity and consistent quality that allowed them to become part of people's most ordinary habits. From there, some- thing even rarer happened: t h e b r a n d m o v e d b e y o n d commerce and entered lan- guage. More than a century after its launch, Borotalco remains not only a popular product but also a reminder that some of the most successful Made in Italy stories were not nec- essarily the most glamorous. Sometimes they just sat on a bathroom shelf, in a green container everyone recog- nized. W h e n w e t h i n k o f a n c i e n t Rome, we o f t e n imagine the grandeur of the e m p i r e a n d i t s m i l i t a r y p o w e r , y e t o n e o f R o m e ' s most important "inventions" was perhaps not as visible, but far more influential for the modern world: the idea of citizenship as a legal sta- tus that could be expanded and granted, used to bind very different peoples into one political system. I n t h e a n c i e n t w o r l d , belonging was normally tied to a city or an ethnicity, and in Rome began that way, too. Early Roman citizenship orig- inally belonged to the inhabi- tants of the city itself, in time, however, Rome became dif- ferent, because it gradually transformed citizenship from a narrow local privilege into a flexible political tool. As Rome expanded across Italy, it did not always rule conquered communities in the same manner; some allies received limited rights, others l o c a l a u t o n o m y , a n d o v e r time, many were incorporat- ed more fully into the Roman s y s t e m . A f t e r t h e S o c i a l W a r ( 9 1 - 8 8 B C ) , R o m e granted citizenship to the peoples of Italy, turning for- mer rivals into participants in a shared civic order. This was a remarkable develop- m e n t , i n t h e s e n s e t h a t Roman citizenship brought legal protections, rights in m a r r i a g e a n d p r o p e r t y , access to courts and, in some periods, voting rights to those who held it. It also created obligations, such as taxation and military service. In time, Rome widened the concept further across the e m p i r e w h e n p r o v i n c i a l élites, soldiers, merchants, and communities could gain citizenship through service and imperial favor or loyalty. In 212 AD, Emperor Cara- calla issued the Constitutio Antoniniana, extending Roman citizenship to most f r e e i n h a b i t a n t s o f i t s colonies. By then, citizenship had become one of the main ways Rome held together the vast and diverse world form- ing its empire. O f c o u r s e , t h e R o m a n model was far from what, today, we consider democra- cy, because women still had limited political roles, slavery remained central, and power w a s d e e p l y u n e q u a l . Y e t Rome introduced something historically significant: the notion that political belong- ing could be based on law and m e m b e r s h i p , a n d n o t o n ancestry alone. Roman citizenship, imagined as a tree crowned by SPQR, whose branches shelter the many peoples gradually brought within the civic structure of Rome (Image gen- erated using Adobe Illustrator AI) The Roman idea of citizenship: an "invention" that still shapes the modern world Borotalco: the Italian brand that became the name of a product Borotalco Roberts, one of Italy's most recognizable household products, became so iconic that its name entered everyday language (Image generated using Adobe Illustrator AI)

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