Raid is the brand name of a line of insecticide

Insecticide

An insecticide is a pesticide used against insects. They include ovicides and larvicides used against the eggs and larvae of insects respectively. Insecticides are used in agriculture, medicine, industry and the household. The use of insecticides is believed to be one of the major factors behind...

s produced by SC Johnson, first launched in 1956.

The initial active ingredient was the first synthetic pyrethroid

Pyrethroid

A pyrethroid is an organic compound similar to the natural pyrethrins produced by the flowers of pyrethrums . Pyrethroids now constitute a major commercial household insecticides...

, allethrin

Allethrin

The allethrins are a pair of related synthetic compounds used in insecticides. They are synthetic pyrethroids, a synthetic form of a chemical found naturally in the chrysanthemum flower. They were first synthesized in the United States by Milton S. Schechter in 1949...

. Raid derivatives aimed at particular invertebrate species can contain other active agents such as the more toxic cyfluthrin

Cyfluthrin

Cyfluthrin is a synthetic pyrethroid derivative that is used as an insecticide in restricted use pesticide and common household pesticide. It is a complex organic compound, and the commercial product is sold as a mixture of isomers. Like most pyrethroids, it is highly toxic to fish, invertebrates,...

, another synthetic pyrethroid.
Currently Raid uses Permethrin

Permethrin

Permethrin is a common synthetic chemical, widely used as an insecticide, acaricide, and insect repellent. It belongs to the family of synthetic chemicals called pyrethroids and functions as a neurotoxin, affecting neuron membranes by prolonging sodium channel activation. It is not known to...

, Tetramethrin

Tetramethrin

Tetramethrin is a potent synthetic insecticide in the pyrethroid family. It is a white crystalline solid with a melting point of 65-80 °C. The commercial product is a mixture of stereoisomers....

, Cypermethrin

Cypermethrin

Cypermethrin is a synthetic pyrethroid used as an insecticide in large-scale commercial agricultural applications as well as in consumer products for domestic purposes. It behaves as a fast-acting neurotoxin in insects. It is easily degraded on soil and plants but can be effective for weeks when...

 and Imiprothrin

Imiprothrin

Imiprothrin is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide. It is an ingredient in some insecticide products for indoor use. It has low acute toxicity to humans, but to insects it acts as a neurotoxin causing paralysis....

 to kill insects.

Effectiveness

• American cockroach
  American cockroach
  The American cockroach , also known as the waterbug, or misidentified as the palmetto bug , is the largest species of common cockroach, and often considered a pest. None of the Periplaneta species are endemic to the Americas; despite the name, P...
  
  
• German cockroach
  German cockroach
  The German cockroach is a small species of cockroach, measuring about to long; however, they are known to get bigger. It can be tan through brown to almost black, and has two dark parallel streaks running from the head to the base of the wings. Although it has wings, it is unable to sustain flight...
  
  
• Brown banded cockroach
• Oriental cockroach
  Oriental cockroach
  The oriental cockroach is a large species of cockroach, measuring about in length at maturity. It is dark brown to black in colour and has a glossy body...
  
  
• Flea
  Flea
  Flea is the common name for insects of the order Siphonaptera which are wingless insects with mouthparts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood...
  
  
• Carpenter ant
  Carpenter ant
  Carpenter ants are large ants indigenous to many parts of the world. They prefer dead, damp wood in which to build nests. They do not eat it, however, unlike termites. Sometimes carpenter ants will hollow out sections of trees. The most likely species to be infesting a house in the United States...
  
  
• Spider
  Spider
  Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
  
  
• Black carpet beetle
  Black carpet beetle
  The black carpet beetle, Attagenus unicolor, is a beetle, long, that can be a serious household pest. The larvae grow to in length, are reddish brown in colour and covered with bristles. The larval form feeds on natural fibres, damaging carpets, furniture and clothing.-External links:* on the UF...
  
  
• Stable fly
  Stable fly
  Stomoxys calcitrans is commonly called the stable fly, barn fly, biting house fly, dog fly, or power mower fly. Unusually for a member of the family Muscidae, but like other members of the genus, Stomoxys calcitrans sucks blood from mammals.-External links:* * * hosted by the...
  
  
• Blue bottle fly
  Blue bottle fly
  The blue bottle fly or bottlebee is a common blow-fly found in most areas of the world and is the type species for the genus Calliphora.-Description:...
  
  
• Millipede
  Millipede
  Millipedes are arthropods that have two pairs of legs per segment . Each segment that has two pairs of legs is a result of two single segments fused together as one...
  
  
• Indianmeal moth
• Mosquito
  Mosquito
  Mosquitoes are members of a family of nematocerid flies: the Culicidae . The word Mosquito is from the Spanish and Portuguese for little fly...
  
  
• Tick
  Tick
  Ticks are small arachnids in the order Ixodida, along with mites, constitute the subclass Acarina. Ticks are ectoparasites , living by hematophagy on the blood of mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians...
  
  
• Paper wasp
  Paper wasp
  Paper wasps are -long wasps that gather fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva, and use to construct water-resistant nests made of gray or brown papery material...
  
  
• Yellow Jacket
• Bald-faced Hornet
  Bald-faced hornet
  Dolichovespula maculata is a North American insect commonly called the bald-faced hornet...
  
  
• Sowbug
• House fly
• Earwig
  Earwig
  Earwigs make up the insect order Dermaptera, found throughout the Americas, Africa, Eurasia, Australia and New Zealand. With 1,800 species in 12 families, they are one of the smaller insect orders...
  
  
• Centipede
  Centipede
  Centipedes are arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda of the subphylum Myriapoda. They are elongated metameric animals with one pair of legs per body segment. Despite the name, centipedes can have a varying number of legs from under 20 to over 300. Centipedes have an odd number of pairs of...
  
  

"Raid Kills Bugs Dead" slogan

The product's advertising tagline

Advertising slogan

Advertising slogans are short, often memorable phrases used in advertising campaigns. They are claimed to be the most effective means of drawing attention to one or more aspects of a product. A strapline is a British term used as a secondary sentence attached to a brand name...

, "Raid Kills Bugs Dead," was created by the advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding

Foote, Cone & Belding

Draftfcb is one of the largest global advertising agency networks. It is owned by Interpublic Group and was formed by the 2006 merger of Foote, Cone & Belding and Draft. Although the merger of the two agencies is fairly young, the origins of Draftfcb date back to 1873, with the opening of Lord &...

. The phrase itself is often attributed to the poet Lew Welch

Lew Welch

Lewis Barrett Welch, Jr. was an American poet associated with the Beat generation of poets, artists, and iconoclasts.Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s...

, who worked for the agency at the time.

The line was first used in commerce in 1966 and was trademarked in 1986. Legendary animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

 director Tex Avery

Tex Avery

Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...

 was the producer of the first "Kills Bugs Dead" commercials. Artist Don Pegler developed the bug characters used in the US and continued animating them for forty years.

The slogan has been part of a successful, long-running advertising campaign

Advertising campaign

An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...

. Conjuring up images of an Eliot Ness

Eliot Ness

Eliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, and the leader of a legendary team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables.- Early life :...

-style raid on an illegal bar during Prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

, the television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 spots have featured the cartoon

Animated cartoon

An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...

 bug

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s plotting some silly scheme like invading a kitchen, only to be foiled by the magical appearance of the product which swiftly dispatched the bugs to various giddily horrible deaths. The bugs would scream, "RAAAIIIID!" and then a huge cartoon-style explosion would occur.

Similar campaigns have been run in other countries, either by dubbing

Dubbing (filmmaking)

Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...

the US cartoons or by producing local versions.

External links

• Official Raid Website