SALT LAKE CITY Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble says Utahns spread false rumors that the company is associated with Satanism. Procter & Gamble is suing the Utahns for libel and unfair competition.

Procter & Gamble is suing the Utahns for libel and unfair competition.

The Utahns, who are associated with a competitor of proctor and gamble, deny libeling anybody, and say they are protected by the first amendment.

It’s a big case; it’s been going on since 1995. Dozens of lawyers have been involved and the file consists of more than a thousand documents.

But federal Judge Ted Stewart slapped a gag order on the whole thing, so none of the participants or lawyers can talk.

Cincinatti based Procter & Gamble is a giant company bringing in $60 billion a year, and employing 138,000 workers. It makes Ivory Soap, Tide, Prell, Crest, Charmin, Downy, Folgers, Gillette, And Pepto Bismol, among other products.

But beginning in the 1980s, Procter & Gamble had a problem. People said the company was connected to devil worship, and they pointed to a company logo adopted in 1851. Rumor mongers said in the bottom of the beard here you can make out 666, the number of the devil. Procter & Gamble had to give up the logo.

In the trial inside, proctor and gamble says that leaders of freedom tools and freedom associates, both based in Ogden, sent messages to each other in 1995, slandering Procter & Gamble. The people who allegedly sent the messages are associated with Amway, a corporate competitor of Procter & Gamble.

The messages repeated an old rumor that the president of proctor and gamble appeared here on the old Phil Donahue talk show, and said he would "come out of the closet" and admit his company was Satanist, and gave a lot of its profits to the church of Satan.

In fact, however, the president of proctor and gamble never appeared on Phil Donahue, and never said his company was Satanist.

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