Judge, 1928-08-25 · page 31 of 36
Judge — August 25, 1928 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Listerine mouthwash advertisement** using social shame as a sales tactic. The imagery shows a man examining a woman's returned engagement ring alongside a bottle of mouthwash—the implication being that she rejected him due to bad breath ("halitosis," a term Listerine popularized). The satire targets early 20th-century consumer advertising's weaponization of insecurity and social embarrassment. The ad shames people with halitosis as socially unacceptable, claiming "people who offend deserve no sympathy." It presents bad breath as a moral failing rather than a health issue, and suggests keeping mouthwash "handy" for constant self-monitoring. The secondary ad for Listerine Shaving Cream reinforces this messaging through normalcy marketing. The advertisement exemplifies how vintage advertising exploited social anxiety—particularly toward women—to drive product sales by equating hygiene failures with romantic and social disaster.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Have you tried the new Listerine Shaving Cream? ont fool yourself Since halt ver ar itself ‘The ring came back -with a bottle ! Today, halitosis is inexcusable People who offend deserve no sympathy WOMAN we know took a direct means to ttle a matter which she cou t bring to talk about . : with a arried its own to suspect I no emselves on the Every ween t fore meetir eep a bottle handy in home and office for this purpose. Listerine ends halitosis instantly. Being anti septic, it strike Its commonest cause—fer- mentation in the oral cavity. Then, being a powerful deodorant, it destroys the odors them- selves. If you have any doubt of Listerine’s deodorant propert nake this test: Rub a slice of onion on your hand. Then apply Listerine clear. Immediately, every trace of onion odor is gone. Even the odor of fish on the hands yields to it. Lambert Pharmacal Co., St. Louis, Mo. READ THE FACTS '/; had halitosis 68 hairdressers state that about every third woman, many of them from the wealthy classes, 1s halitoxic. Who should know better than they? LIS TERINE 2 —the safe antiseptic comicbooks.com