Thomas J. Barratt to be a well known catch phrase well into the twentieth century. Barratt was awarded a Guinness World Record in 2014 for being considered the world's first brand manager, a job he held for A&F Pears from 1865. Barratt was keen to equate Pears with quality and high culture through his campaign methods. He acquired works of art to use in the advertisements, most famously John Everett Millais' painting "Bubbles", which he turned into an advertisement by adding a bar of Pears soap in the foreground. Millais was said to be unhappy about the alteration, but he could do nothing,
William Pears Group William Pears Group William Pears Group is one of Britain's largest property companies, with £6 billion of property in London and south-east England. The William Pears Group was founded in 1952, by Bernard Pears (who changed his name from Schleicher on emigrating from Austria) and his son Clive Pears. It is run by Mark Pears with his younger brothers Trevor and David. According to "The Daily Telegraph", Mark Pears is a director of 212 companies, a "complex labyrinth of operating and investment companies", but won't say which is the main holding company or what the group's annual profit is. William