Arm & Hammer

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Arm & Hammer is a registered trademark of Church and Dwight, an American manufacturer of household products. The logo of this brand, is a muscular arm holding a hammer. The arm is composed of a left shoulder and a right hand — an anatomical impossibility. Originally associated only with baking soda, beginning in the 1970s the company began to expand the brand to other products which included baking soda as an ingredient, including a line of toothpastes and deodorants. It now includes items that contain no baking soda, such as liquid laundry detergent, but all or most are associated with the idea of cleaning and cleanliness. The Arm & Hammer brand is one of the longest-running and most recognized U.S. trademarks. It is not true that the brand has its origin in the name of former Occidental Petroleum chairman Armand Hammer; it far predates him, although in the 1980s Hammer acquired a considerable amount of Church and Dwight stock, apparently finding humor in the coincidence. At the time of his death, he was serving on Church and Dwight's Board of directors.

The Arm and Hammer is also the symbol of the Socialist Labor Party of America (SLP). Originally a stylized representation of the Greek god of fire and forge, Hephaestos (Roman Vulcan), the muscular male arm with hammer in fist was used prior to the American Civil War as a symbol of the labor movement.

Prior to the Russian Revolution, Dr. Julius Hammer was a prominent member of the SLP. In 1898 Julius named his newborn son after his favorite political logo. (As a young man Armand Hammer was himself associated with American leftist parties and the USSR.) The story that he told about being named for a hero in an Alexandre Dumas fils novel was apocryphal.