Shampoo

Until the second half of the 20th Century, the human race managed perfectly well without a special type of soap for washing hair. Instead, people managed with various animal-fat based soaps and grease related products. Indeed, many people didn't wash their hair at all. In 1953 however, an American entrepreneur and part-time trapeze artist called Kasey Herbert thought that he could make a fortune by convincing people that they needed special soap for their hair and he launched the world's first shampoo. The name was chosen through a competition where people were invited to put forward suggestions which were then put to the public vote - an innovative method of promotion that is used to this day by Simon Cowell to flog crap pop acts.