History of Listerine

Bad breath did not become a social problem until the company that sold Listerine mouthwash decided it was. In 1879, Dr. Joseph Lawrence and Jordan Wheat Lambert concocted an antiseptic mixture and dubbed it ‘Listerine’ to suggest an association with Dr. Joseph Lister, who first used a chemical –carboxylic acid - as a disinfectant during surgeries.

Listerine came of age in the 1920s when Lambert Pharmacal Company came up with the idea of marketing it as a cure for ‘halitosis’ or bad breath. One famous advertisement created for Listerine mouthwash contained the headline ‘often a bridesmaid but never a bride’.

The advertisement came out in the early 1920s and was the first time the subject of halitosis had been raised in an advertisement.

By the time of the stock market crash in 1929, Listerine was one of the largest buyers of magazine and newspaper space, spending more than $5 million- almost the exact amount of yearly profits.

After a series of merges in the 1950s, Lambert Pharmaceutical joined with Warner-Hudnut, Inc., to become Warner-Lambert Company in 1955, and Listerine was joined by a number of sibling brands in the new company’s line-up, including Bromo-Seltzer, Schick, Anahist, and many others.

In the 1960s, Listerine competed with Colgate-Palmolive Company’s Colgate 100 and Scope, a product of the Procter & Gamble Company (P&G), but it remained the market leader.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Listerine maintained its lead in the mouthwash category. In 1984 it claimed the product could prevent plaque buildup and gingivitis and spent $16 million three years later to publicize this attribute.
History of Listerine

Early Coca-Cola advertising

Coca-cola invested heavily in advertising and promotion since its beginning. The great strengths, apart from allying the brand very early on with religion and patriotism, was a strong commitment to advertising in a society restless to progress and try new products.

Pemberton marketed his concoction as a patent medicine, a supposed cure-all for a variety of ailments.

Asa Candler own early ads he proclaimed that he was a great sufferer of headaches. He claimed to be a great benefactor by offering to the world the cure that relived his suffering.

However, the product only really took off when the company stopped marketing Coke as a drug and rebranded the sweet formula as a tasty beverage.

In 1895, Coca-Cola launched a new advertising campaign encouraging consumers to ‘Drink Coca-Cola, Delicious and Refreshing.’

Six hundred thousand miles of highways were built in the 1920s. and the first of the ‘Ritz boy’ billboards appeared in 1925: a smiling bellhop holding a tray with a bottle of the soft drink and a glass on it.

The bottle in the Ritz boy ad was telling: Coca-Cola had been built on soda fountain sales.

In the 1970s, a song from Coca-Cola commercial called ‘I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’ became a popular hit single, but there is no evidence that it did anything to increase sales of the soft drink.

The Coca-Cola Company has historically targeted children and youth in its advertising and promotional activities.

Coca-Cola is one of the brands that are frequently used as examples of longtime successful global advertising.
Early Coca-Cola advertising