Cif

Cif is a French brand of household cleaning products owned by the British company Unilever, known as Jif in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Middle East and the Nordic countries.

Cif was launched in France in 1965 and was marketed in competition against scouring powders such as Vim.

Name
Cif is sold under the names Jif, Vim, Viss and Handy Andy, depending on which of the 51 countries it is sold in.

In Sweden, and South Africa, the products were originally sold under the name Vim before this was changed to Jif, the launch name in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands and Hong Kong.

In January 2001, the name in most of these countries was changed to Cif in order to align marketing and product inventories across the continent. Despite this, many in Ireland and Scotland continue to call the product Jif. The name change from Jif to Cif was confirmed by Unilever in December 2000.

In Belgium, Finland and Portugal, the product was known as Vim for quite some time, after which it became Cif. In Canada and India, it is still called Vim. Recently advertisements for Cif surface grease cleaner have started to appear in India, while the Vim name is still used for the kitchen dish cleaning product. In Germany, the cleaner's name is Viss. In Iraq it is still traded as Jif, with local Arabic and English writing.

In Norway, the product is traded as Jif and owned by Lilleborg, a part of Orkla ASA. Unilever had a decades long partnership with Lilleborg when they were given the exclusive rights to the brand Jif in Norway. Lilleborg registered the trademark in 1968. Without consent from Lilleborg, Unilever registered their trademark Cif in 1998 and started selling Cif products in 2018. Thereafter Lilleberg protested and two JIF vs CIF court cases followed. The court decided that Unilever was allowed to keep the brand Cif, but not allowed to sell Cif products in Norway.

In the United States, Cif Cream Cleaner is sold as a co-branded product with Scrub Daddy.

Products

 * Cif Bathroom Mousse
 * Cif Stainless Steel Cleaner
 * Cif Bathroom Cleaner
 * Cif Kitchen Cleaner
 * Cif Power Cream
 * Cif Cream Cleaner, a non-abrasive version