Listerine was a floor cleaner before it was a mouthwash 🧽

Listerine was a floor cleaner before it was a mouthwash 🧽 . . . Invented in 1879 as a surgical antiseptic by Joseph Lawrence, it was sold for decades as a treatment for gonorrhea and as a heavy-duty floor cleaner. Sales were flat. Then in the 1920s, Lambert Pharmacal dug up an obscure medical term — 'halitosis' — and ran ads convincing Americans their breath was ruining their marriages. Sales went from $115,000 to over $8 million in seven years.