Midland, MI - February 02, 2012

Dow Home & Personal Care, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) received the “Best Innovation Contributor 2011” award from Henkel Laundry & Home Care at the 2012 American Cleaning Institute (ACI) Annual Meeting and Industry Convention, Jan. 30 to Feb. 4, 2012 in Orlando, Florida.

Every year Henkel recognizes an external partner for delivery of outstanding, consumer-relevant innovation. This year Dow received Henkel’s award for its innovation in personal care technologies.

“We are honored to receive the award for the ‘Best Innovation Contributor 2011’ from our long-term business partner, Henkel,” said Eunice Heath, global general manager, Dow Home & Personal Care. “This is the third innovation award that Dow Home & Personal Care has received from Henkel in the past four years. The honor is testament to our business passion. Dow employees around the globe are persistent and dedicated to developing innovative technologies, collaborating with our customers and creatively introducing new solutions that allow our customers’ final end-use products to be differentiated in the marketplace and delight consumers worldwide.”

“Dow is dedicated to providing innovative products that support and enable our customers to meet consumer demands for home and personal care products,” said Lionel Genix, global marketing director, Dow Home & Personal Care. “This award showcases our years of active collaboration with Henkel. It also demonstrates Dow’s success for creating solutions for our customers, which we can anticipate from studying consumer trends garnered from our vast research.”

In presenting this award, Thomas Förster, corporate vice president R&D Cosmetics at Henkel, commented how strong business partners play a decisive role for Henkel in developing innovative products.

“The Dow Chemical Company has made excellent contributions to the launch of two successful innovations in our hairstyling product category in 2011. Due to the development of a shine polymer for Henkel's shine hairspray lines and a styling polymer technology for highest hold levels, we are able to meet the consumers’ needs even better and to set new standards in the market,” says Förster.

About Dow Personal Care

Dow Personal Care is a global manufacturer and marketer of performance ingredients for use in the personal care and cosmetics industries. Its technologies and products are used in end-use applications such as hair care, skin care, and sun care, and enable enhanced conditioning, hair style hold, SPF protection, and sensory appeal. Dow Personal Care is dedicated to providing solutions based on sustainable chemistry, and is able to leverage the technologies and capabilities of the company to develop and refine solutions. For more information, please visit www.dowpersonalcare.com.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company connects chemistry and innovation with the principles of sustainability to help address many of the world's most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, renewable energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dow's diversified industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 160 countries and in high growth sectors such as electronics, water, energy, coatings and agriculture. In 2011, Dow had annual sales of $60 billion and employed approximately 52,000 people worldwide. The Company's more than 5,000 products are manufactured at 197 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted. More information about Dow can be found at www.dow.com.

For Editorial Information:

Christine Kuhinka
The Dow Chemical Company
+1 (215) 592-2973