« Girlicious ain't fit for a catchphrase, Blayne |
Main
| Costa Rica beer kicks Bud while it's down »
Listerine and advertising's other lying liars
 If you thought Enzyte's promise to make your penis bigger was club-footed false advertising, wait until you see Mental Floss’s list of shameless false-advertising schemes. The biggest offender is Listerine, which claimed its product treated basically every ailment under the sun in 1921, and was still saying it was better than dental floss in 2005. (It also invented halitosis so it could then cure it, but that isn’t mentioned.) Really, the whole list could have been about Listerine. Aside from Amoco’s ridiculous claim that its gasoline is “crystal clear,” everything else on the list is either an old-time medical bamboozle (Lydia Pickham’s Vegetable Compound, Dr. Koch’s Cure All), homeopathic crap that never works (Airborne), or a non-sequitur (a trick wedding). We’re surprised they left out the “Animal Care Certified” bruhaha, actually.
—Posted by David Kiefaber
|
|
July 31, 2008 in Kiefaber | Permalink
|
Comments
Pinkham. She really existed, and is apparently a distant relative of composer Daniel Pinkham.
Posted by: baylink | Aug 3, 2008 10:11:32 AM
Post a comment
The opinions expressed in comments are those of the individual poster. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Adweek or Nielsen Business Media. Comments of a promotional nature or comments that are otherwise inappropriate may be removed.
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
