Sudocrem in vogue: How an Irish cure for nappy rash got into the groove on Madonna’s bathroom shelf

Madonna with Sudocrem in the background in this post from Twitter

Madonna with Sudocrem in the background in this post from Twitter

Sudocrem

Madonna with Sudocrem in the background in this post from Twitter

Ralph Riegel Twitter Email

March 30 2021 02:30 AM

Little did Irish pharmacist Prof Thomas J Smith suspect in 1931 that the soothing cream he developed in the back room of his small Dublin shop would go on to be found everywhere from the bathroom shelves of Hollywood superstars to the nappy bags of young mums from Balbriggan to Beverly Hills.

Madonna has now become the latest celebrity to showcase the Irish-developed Sudocrem.

Prof Smith, who combined an academic career with a retail pharmacy business, had painstakingly developed a zinc-based cream at his Old Cabra Road premises to help customers with the skin ailments common at the time.

After years of trials, he developed a formula which customers found to be excellent at treating a range of conditions, ranging from nappy rash, eczema, pressure sores and incontinence rash to a variety of other minor skin lesions.

Ninety years later, his cream is found everywhere on the planet – and became a social media sensation when Madonna posted a photo last week revealing a pot of Sudocrem proudly sitting on her bathroom shelf.

Brand owners Teva Pharmaceuticals declined to comment on Madonna’s social media endorsement of the famous Irish ointment.

Irish Madonna fans in a lather after tub of Sudocrem spotted in Pop Queen’s bathroom

“Unfortunately, as Sudocrem is a licensed medicine we are unable to promote celebrity endorsements under current regulations,” a spokesperson said.

Sudocrem – perhaps more familiar to maternity wards and creches – suddenly found itself rivalling vastly more expensive beauty and health lotions thanks to the vast social media reach of the American pop icon.

It’s an unlikely tale of global triumph for a product originally known as Smith’s Cream. Offering the product for a period under that label, Prof Smith decided – in a shrewd marketing move – to underline the actual properties of the cream in its title.

Smith’s Cream suddenly became Soothing Cream.

By removing his name from the title, Prof Smith also ensured other Dublin pharmacists would have no objection to selling his product as it wasn’t promoting a rival chemist outlet.

As legend has it, the Dublin accent then took over and the product was quickly morphed by pronunciation from Soothing Cream to Sudocrem.

By the early 1940s, even World War II couldn’t constrain the product and demand outstripped the production capacity of the original premises with a new plant being developed in Baldoyle.

Another stroke of genius came in the 1960s when it was decided to offer Sudocrem samples to all expectant mothers in Ireland – a master-stroke credited to Prof Smith’s son, Brendan.

Customer feedback was also critically important to the Cabra chemist and families who contacted him about the cream were often stunned to receive a home visit from Prof Smith who wanted more information on their product experience. Emigration to the US, UK, Australia and beyond ensured that Irish families brought word overseas of the benefits of the cream – and foreign sales began to surge.

Packages posted to loved ones from Brooklyn to Basingstoke usually included a pot of Sudocrem for nieces, nephews and grandchildren born overseas.

In the space of just four years by the late 1960s, sales of Sudocrem doubled and the product was launched in the early 1970s in Northern Ireland and northern England.

By 2011, Sudocrem was available in more than 40 countries with sales still showing healthy growth and, best of all, the product still largely being manufactured at its original purpose-built Baldoyle plant.

Such has been the success of Sudocrem – and the role it has played with generations of Irish families – that it was hailed as one of the great Irish products of modern times.

In 2012, UK singer and TV star Cheryl Cole revealed she was an avid fan of Sudocrem.

Not to be outdone, the cast of the hit UK TV show Towie also admitted they regularly used it. For Sudocrem, it was the kind of marketing you could only dream about.

For decades, Sudocrem was part of Forest Laboratories but is now within the Teva Pharmaceuticals global empire.

Last year, UK head of marketing Nick Lang said Sudocrem’s success has always been linked to its core offering: “Sudocrem is ultimately about soothing. It is in the brand’s DNA.”

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Sudocrem in vogue: How an Irish cure for nappy rash got into the groove on Madonna’s bathroom shelf

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