The Invention of Listerine

You know Listerine? It was never supposed to be mouthwash. Here's what happened. So you're a surgeon in the 1800s and you've got a huge problem. Your tools are absolutely disgusting no matter how hard you try to clean them. Soap and water just isn't cutting it, and surgeons need a way to prevent infections during operations. And cleaning your tools becomes the difference between life and death for patients. So in comes a doctor named Joseph Lawrence with the solution. He comes up with this miracle liquid that sterilizes surgical instruments and keeps wounds clean. He calls it Listerine. It's so good at killing bacteria that people start using it for everything from cleaning floors to treating gonorrhea. Fast forward to the 1920s, Gerald takes the helm of the business. He's a genius marketer and sees a new way to sell Listerine: embarrassment. He starts running ads everywhere about bad breath. He even takes an old Latin word for bad breath, halitosis, and convinces everybody it's a horrible medical condition that's ruining their lives. Suddenly everybody's rushing to fix this problem they didn't even know they had. And boom, the company explodes to 60 times its size and Listerine becomes the number one mouthwash in the world.