Everything about Listerine totally explained
Listerine is a brand name for
antiseptic mouthwash. Its original formula has a notoriously strong
flavor, although variations have been released that are marketed as tasting milder. The product is marketed under the slogan "Kills
germs that cause bad breath".
Listerine is one of the most popular mouthwashes sold in the
United States. It is currently manufactured and distributed by
Johnson and Johnson since that company's
acquisition of
Pfizer's
consumer healthcare division in late
December of 2006.
The Listerine brand name is also used on
toothpaste, a Listerine Whitening rinse, a new Listerine Fluoride rinse (Listerine Tooth Defense), Listerine Agent Cool Blue (children's plaque disclosing rinse),
PocketPaks, and PocketMist. In September of 2007, Listerine began selling their own brand of self-dissolving teeth whitening strips.
History
First formulated by Dr. Joseph Lawrence and Jordan Wheat Lambert in 1879 as a
surgical antiseptic, it was given to dentists for oral care in 1895 and it was the first over-the-counter mouthwash sold in the United States in 1914. The mouthwash was named in honor of Dr.
Joseph Lister, a pioneer of antiseptic surgery.
According to
Freakonomics,
» Listerine was invented in the 19th century as a powerful surgical antiseptic. It was later sold, in a distilled form, as a floor cleaner and a cure for
gonorrhea. But it wasn't a runaway success until the 1920s, when it was pitched as a solution for "
chronic halitosis", the faux medical term that the Listerine advertising group created in 1921 to describe
bad breath. By naming and thus creating a
medical condition for which consumers now felt they needed a cure, Listerine created a market for their mouthwash. Until that time, bad breath wasn't conventionally considered a catastrophe, but Listerine's ad campaign changed that. As the advertising scholar
James B. Twitchell writes, "Listerine didn't make mouthwash as much as it made halitosis." Listerine's new ads featured forlorn young women and men, eager for marriage but turned off by their mate's rotten breath. "Can I be happy with him in spite of
that?" one maiden asked herself. In just seven years, the company's revenues rose from $115,000 to more than $8 million.
From 1921 until the mid-1970s Listerine was also marketed as a preventive and remedy for
colds and
sore throats. In 1976, the
Federal Trade Commission ruled that these claims were misleading, and that Listerine had "no efficacy" at either preventing or alleviating the symptoms of sore throats and colds. Warner-Lambert was ordered to stop making the claims, and to include in the next $10.2 million dollars' of Listerine ads a specific mention that "contrary to prior advertising, Listerine won't help prevent colds or sore throats or lessen their severity."
Listerine was packaged in a glass bottle inside a corrugated cardboard tube for nearly 80 years before the first revamps were made to the brand; in 1992, Cool Mint Listerine was introduced in addition to the original Listerine Antiseptic formula and, in 1994, both brands were introduced in plastic bottles for the first time. In 1999, FreshBurst was added, then in 2003 Natural Citrus. In 2006 a new addition to the "less intense" variety, Vanilla Mint, was released. Currently, eight different kinds of Listerine are on the market in the U.S. and abroad: Original, Cool Mint, FreshBurst, Natural Citrus, Vanilla Mint, Advanced with
Tartar Control (Arctic mint), Tooth Defense (mint shield), and Whitening pre-brush rinse (clean mint). The most recent addition is the whitening formula.
Composition
The active ingredients listed on Listerine bottles are
menthol,
thymol,
methyl salicylate, and
eucalyptol.
Ethanol is present in concentrations of 21.6% in the flavored product and 26.9% in the original gold Listerine Antiseptic. Thymol is an antiseptic, methyl salicylate is a cleaning agent, and menthol is a local anesthetic. At this concentration, the ethanol serves to dissolve the active ingredients.
A
Food and Drug Administration Advisory Panel has recommended that the active ingredients in Listerine be classified as Category I (safe and effective) for antiplaque and antigingivitis activity.
The efficacy of the treatment is due mainly to Listerine's liquid properties, as liquids are quite effective at coating most exposed surfaces in the mouth, even between teeth. By the same coin, however, this treatment is generally ineffective at physically removing the plaque buildup and wedged-in food particles that it's intended to neutralize. Listerine is best used in conjunction with brushing and
flossing, but not as a replacement .
Effectiveness
Additional rinsing helps in reducing
dental plaque and
gingivitis in children, in addition to reducing the risk of bleeding from the
gingival sulcus. However, the effect isn't as essential a motivation to using Listerine as everyday
oral hygiene. summarize that alcohol-containing mouth rinses are not associated with oral cancer.
On
11 April 2007 McNeil-PPC disclosed that there were potentially contaminants in all Listerine Agent Cool Blue products sold since its launch in 2006, and that all bottles were being recalled. The recall affects some 4,000,000 bottles sold since that time. According to the company, Listerine Agent Cool Blue is the only product affected by the safety issue and that no other products in the Listerine family were under recall..
Pixar Animation Studios animated many commercials for Listerine, before it became known for short films, like Luxo Jr.
The punk-cabaret band The Dresden Dolls on their 2006 album Yes, Virginia… end their song "Necessary Evil" with the line "Come on and take your Listerine."
Natalie Teeger, a character from the TV series Monk, asked her daughter to fill the tub with Listerine in the episode Mr. Monk and the Leper after discovering her date had previously been afflicted with Hansen's Disease.
Coach Z, a character from the internet series Homestar Runner, routinely drinks Listerine recreationally, most notably during a Christmas special.
Philip J. Fry, a character from the animated series Futurama, didn't find voting cool, so he stayed home alone and got trashed on Listerine. (S02E07 - A Head In The Polls)
"Dramamine", a song by Modest Mouse features the lyrics, "Traveling swallowing Dramamine, feelin' spaced, breathing out Listerine"
In an article in Mad Magazine satirizing television commercials, this exchange appears:
» Q. What do you think of the taste of Listerine?
A. Taste?! I use it for removing grease from my bicycles!
Tom Carver, a character from the 2007 movie Cleaner portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson, says he uses Listerine, the original flavor, because it has an enzyme that liquifies coagulated blood.Further Information
Get more info on 'Listerine'.
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