Kilmer House

Johnson & Johnson was founded in 1886.  But this product – our oldest – dates from 1879.    How is that possible?  And what’s more, how did a product that started as a surgical disinfectant end up as a mouthwash?

The product is LISTERINE® Antiseptic, and it became part of our consumer product portfolio with the acquisition of Pfizer Consumer Healthcare in 2006.  Despite its recent tenure with the Company, our new oldest product has something in common with the first products made by Johnson & Johnson:  it was inspired by Sir Joseph Lister. 

Sir Joseph Lister 

Lister was an English surgeon who, in the 1860s, applied Louis Pasteur’s theory that invisible germs caused infection, and pioneered antiseptic surgery.  He inspired Robert Wood Johnson and his brothers to start Johnson & Johnson to make the first sterile surgical dressings, and he also influenced a doctor from St. Louis, Missouri named Dr. Joseph Lawrence. 

In 1879 Lawrence formulated an antiseptic liquid, naming it “Listerine” in honor of Dr. Lister.  Lawrence’s surgical disinfectant had germicidal properties without being harsh or irritating, and was initially advertised for a whole range of uses, such as cleaning cuts and abrasions, as an antidote to dandruff and athlete’s foot, and as a soother of insect bites.   Like the Johnson brothers, Lawrence was concerned with manufacturing and packaging products that could be used by doctors to improve public health.  In keeping with Lawrence’s high standards, the product listed its ingredients on the label.  According to the November, 1952 issue of Modern Packaging Magazine, it was either the first, or one of the first products ever to do so. 

Lawrence purchased his product’s ingredients from a local St. Louis pharmacist, Jordan Wheat Lambert.  In 1881, Lambert licensed the formula for LISTERINE® from Lawrence and formed the Lambert Pharmacal Company.  In 1895, Lambert started marketing the product to dentists as an oral antiseptic.  An early, undated ad listed the product’s virtues as being “Antiseptic, Prophylactic, Deodorant, Non-Toxic, Non-Irritant, Non-Escharotic, Absolutely Safe, Agreeable, Scientific and Strictly Professional.”   The ad called LISTERINE® a pharmaceutical specialty for dentists, and listed a use in small print that would become more and more important later:  LISTERINE® could get rid of bad breath. 

LISTERINE® was available only to the medical profession until 1914, when it started to be sold to consumers…and it sold steadily if unspectacularly.  So the people at the Lambert Pharmacal Company looked around for ways to generate more interest in their product.  And the ones who came up with an idea were Jordan Lambert’s sons.

The Lambert brothers were sure that their product would sell better if they could find something that would make it indispensable to people.  So in 1921 they asked the Lambert Pharmacal Company chemist to list all of the things for which the product was helpful.  One of the items on his list was the fact that LISTERINE® could eliminate what he politely called “halitosis.”  “Halitosis” is derived from the Latin word for “breath,” and the Lambert brothers most likely chose to use the word because it sounded scientific and would elevate bad breath from being a personal nuisance to an official-sounding social condition that could be cured by using their product. 

Since virtually everyone was sensitive about the possibility of having bad breath, the new advertising hit a nerve with the public, and sales took off.

A typical ad from 1928 (shown above) was titled, unsubtly, “Halitosis makes you unpopular.”  It began by trying to catch readers’ interest by playing on their insecurities:

“No matter how charming you may be or how fond of you your friends are, you cannot expect them to put up with halitosis (unpleasant breath) forever.  They may be nice to you – but it is an effort.”  [1928 Ad, "Halitosis Makes You Unpopular]

Now that the ad had the reader’s attention, it went on to say that the problem could be remedied by using LISTERINE®. 

Perhaps the most famous ad campaign for the product dates from the 1930s and showed a weeping girl, with the phrase, “Often a bridesmaid, never a bride.” 

Here’s another ad with the bridesmaid theme.

Some of the product’s advertising held echoes of its original purpose as a surgical disinfectant, such as ads urging its use to disinfect small cuts, or this excerpt from an ad from the 1920s encouraging consumers to dab LISTERINE® under their arms to use as a deodorant. 

Or this ad, alerting men to the potential dangers of shaving:

For most of its history, LISTERINE® was packaged in glass bottles with the name of the product embossed above the label. 

Examples of Earlier Packaging:  Bottles with Cork Stopper (L) and Cap (R)

The early cork stoppers were replaced by a more modern screw-on cap, but the packaging remained largely unchanged — and reminiscent of the product’s original medical mission — until plastic bottles were introduced in 1994.  Over the years, the advertising gradually shifted, with some ads taking a humorous theme.  One famous ad showed a bottle of LISTERINE® next to a grotesque statue on the top of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.  The three-word caption read “Gargoyle with Listerine.”  Today, the product’s advertising focuses on promoting oral health.   

Since it earliest days, Johnson & Johnson has made products in response to a variety of needs in society.  Some of these products – sterile surgical dressings and sutures, the first First Aid Kits, an antibacterial soap to combat infection, were discussed widely.  But there was one equally obvious need that no one wanted to talk about, even though products to address it made life easier for roughly half the population.  And that was the need for the first mass produced women’s sanitary products. 

Women in the 1920s Buying MODESS®

Before the era of commercially available women’s sanitary protection, women resorted to homemade methods, which were time consuming and less than adequate.  In the 1890s, Johnson & Johnson had started making maternity kits, which contained products that were used by physicians and midwives assisting during childbirth…at a time when most babies were born at home and not in hospitals.  One of these kits was suggested by Dr. Joseph Brown Cook, who was a surgeon at the New York Maternity Hospital.  The kit contained sanitary napkins for the mother.  At the same time, Johnson & Johnson started listing sanitary napkins in its 1897 price list.  In keeping with what was to become the item’s “modesty-based” approach in advertising, it is the only product category on the page without a large-type heading.

1897 Price List, Showing Listing for Sanitary Napkins

These sanitary napkins were said to be the first commercially available disposable sanitary protection products for women in the United States.  The earliest ones the Company sold were called “Sanitary Napkins for Ladies” and “Lister’s Towels.” 

JOHNSON’S® Sanitary Napkins in Plain Packaging

Lister’s Towels Ad Card from 1913 and 1914 Dispenser

The advertisements said “Lister’s Towels, Sanitary for Ladies.”  But the problem was that women didn’t want to be seen buying sanitary towels for ladies.  So in the 1920s, the Company came out with Nupak, a brand name that could be safely asked for without being descriptive of what the product did.  The box had a label on one side with just the brand name and the company name.  The other sides of the box were plain so that it could be carried or stored without embarrassment.

NUPAK Ad from 1920s Showing Plain Packaging

This strategy continued when the Company came out with the MODESS® brand.  Not only was the product improved, so was the method of purchasing it. 

In 1928, Johnson & Johnson started including silent purchase coupons in magazine ads for MODESS®.  These could be cut out of the advertisements and silently presented to a salesperson, without the customer ever having to utter the name of the product.  The product – still in a plain box so as not to cause undue embarrassment, could then be wrapped up in brown paper and taken home.  A Ladies Home Journal ad stated, “In order that Modess may be obtained in a crowded store without embarrassment or discussion, Johnson & Johnson devised the Silent Purchase Coupon presented below.  Simply cut it out and hand it to the sales person.  You will receive one box of Modess.  Could anything be easier?”  (Ladies Home Journal ad for MODESS®, June, 1928.)

Sanitary Protection Enters the Jazz Age:

At the same time, the Company was trying to make MODESS® appealing to a younger generation and to stress its cutting-edge modernity.  This was done by a series of advertisements in the 1920s that played upon the differences between the younger, jazz-age generation and their parents.  The message in the ads was clear:  these are not your mother’s sanitary protection products.  (Even though your mother was probably using a silent purchase coupon to buy them.)

The ad campaign was called “Modernizing Mother” and was focused around daughters trying to teach their mothers to be less old-fashioned and keep up with the times.  Ads had titles such as “Never Mind, Mother – You’ll Learn,” (about playing golf in a short flapper dress); “Step On it, Mother, This Isn’t the Polka,” (about learning new dances); and “Don’t Be a Fraid-Cat, Mother. There’s No Danger,” (about flying in a small propeller plane). 

Despite the appeal to a less old-fashioned younger generation, the ads still talked in detail about the selling points of the product.  But the same problem still remained:  women, even women in the modern 1920s, still didn’t want to read about sanitary protection. 

The Company’s eventual solution to that problem became one of the most famous advertising campaigns of the 20th century.