Oh No! I Might Have Onion Breath!

It’s the worst scenario imaginable. You’re alarm didn’t go up and you are definitely going to be late for your eight o’clock class. You don’t even take time to brush your hair or wash your face. But what you probably most certainly will do is brush your teeth. Why? Because its gross if you don’t. People will be able to tell. And because it just won’t feel right if you don’t.

Toothpaste companies have succeeded in planting the idea that without toothpaste, you will have horrible breath and disease. Toothpaste commercials are perhaps one of the best examples of using fear in advertising.

Less Germs, Healthier Mouth

We’ve all seen the commercials: two people are sitting at a Colgate booth in a mall-like setting. The booth worker does some kind of mouth scan, revealing that the one who used Colgate has decidedly less plaque than the one who didn’t. Usually these two people assumed to be a couple, close friends, or family members.

I’ll let you watch the video yourself (I attached it below) but I want to highlight a few things in it. First, the scans emphasize that plaque is unhygienic. They show the teeth covered in green and orange “plaque” with a scale on the bottom labeled “high.” In the commercial, the girl breathes in, “Gross.” Following the revulsion of the girl’s scan, her boyfriend’s scan shows significant less plaque around the gum line, followed by a confident smile on his part.

Second, these commercials not only make the consumer afraid that their gums are plaque infested, but increase the peer pressure the consumer feels. If those closest to you know that your gums look disgusting, then a change is needed immediately.

Above all, these commercials, advertise themselves as teaching the public about hygiene. The mall setting makes the commercial feel informal, as if the viewer is really at the mall and the actors are real people. By setting themselves up as public educators, they give the impression that they are the ultimate authority on the issue of toothpaste.

Colgate Time Warp

Colgate has been doing this for a long time. In an ad from the 60’s, Colgate advertises the “3 Ways Clean: Cleaner Breath, Cleaner Taste, Cleaner Teeth.”  That video is also attached.

This video has its own form of “plaque scan,” showing a mouth filled with black “food particles, attracting bacteria, produce decaying acids.” It presents the problem (food particles and bacteria) and the solution, “Regular brushing with Colgate instantly stops bad breath ad bacteria in the mouth.”

Peer opinion is also emphasized in this ad. It shows the “Colgate girl and boy,” two good-looking, confident college students, with dazzling smiles and catching the eye of the opposite sex. It seems to say, “Don’t you want to be them?” and plays up the fear that someone else will be more attractive at a party/social gathering.

His Teeth Will be Whiter Than Milk

While I don’t think hygiene is by any means a bad thing, the increased obsession our culture has with cleanliness bears some looking into. When it comes to teeth brushing in the Bible, my search led me to Genesis 49, when Jacob blesses his son, Judah, saying, “His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.” But I’m not sure that really applies to what were talking about here.

The problem is not so much brushing our teeth in and of itself, but rather the use of fear in our lives to sell us a product. 1 John 4:18 tells us, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” The Bible makes it very clear that we are not to fear anything except the Lord.

The fear of bad breath and the lack of hygiene that causes it address something deeper than just our appearance. It addresses the fear that we will be ostracized, that we won’t fit in, that we will do one thing wrong and be forever shunned. It addresses the fear that if others don’t value us, then we really don’t matter. Perhaps that is a little far to take a toothpaste ad, but it is something to think about. And perhaps that’s why fear in advertising works as well as it does: it addresses the fear that every human being feels and was made to feel. Will I be loved? Accepted? Important? Well, just in case you aren’t, we have the perfect toothpaste….