Listerine’s Accidental Mouthwash Success

Products that became successful because customers used them completely wrong. Listerine was originally

marketed as a powerful floor cleaner and general disinfectant for hospitals and homes,

but customers started using it as mouthwash during the 1920s. The company spent decades promoting

Listerine as an industrial-strength cleaning solution that could sanitize surfaces and medical

equipment in institutional settings. When people began gargling with the antiseptic and reporting

fresher breath, Listerine pivoted their entire marketing strategy and invented the concept of halitosis

to sell their cleaning product as an essential oral hygiene solution. Listerine Antiseptic stops bad breath

four times better than any toothpaste.