This is the third of my historical series on marketing.
Listerine. Had it today? Used it? In any case you know it as what?
A mouthwash of course.
But that is not what is was made for originally. Originally it was an antiseptic. When the 1921 recession came about, then the sales declined of the antiseptic. Gerald Lambert who was now the heir of the Lambert Pharmaceutical monies decided to do something different.
He asked his science staff if the swishing of Listerine would be OK. They concurred. So there launched one of the largest Chinese curtains – or not. Yes people had bad breath but that was because of how in the years almost a century ago the idea of oral hygiene was not what we thing of today.
It was also the time when there became an urbanization of America. With close proximity, poise, attributes, and more importantly personal hygiene became more important than ever before in history.
Then came ‘halitosis’. This was used by Lamberts company to push mouthwash as a solution to a ‘disease’ that was not really real. Much like some of the ads we see every day on CNN for afflictions.
So what is this lesson?
Well it is not about taking something and making it something else to market to a blind society, but I think the real message out of this is that we should never take things at face value and make sure that in the end when we market, we do it in a proper and honest way.
Why? Well two reasons:
Its the right thing of course.
If you choose the other path, social media will SLAY you.
And that is about all there is to say about that. Other than, yes I have Listerine in my cupboard and uses it now and again.
After I brush.
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