Listerine: The myth of Tooth Fairy (or how we successfully slayed the dragon)

This paper seeks to explain the contribution played by planning in putting the legend back into Listerine, and restoring the brand's stature to that achieved during the heyday of its success with Clifford the Dragon in the 1980s - firstly, by identifying an opportunity to reposition Listerine from a brand that simply freshened breath to one that helped prevent tooth and gum disease, in order to make it a more essential part of peoples oral hygiene routine; and secondly by helping to create an enduring spokesperson for the brand, the Tooth Fairy, capable of delivering the tough, new consumer message of Germ Kill.
Agency:Author: Not credited

Listerine

Management summary

'This paper seeks to explain the contribution played by planning in putting the legend back into Listerine, and restoring the brand’s stature to that achieved during the heyday of its success with Clifford the Dragon in the 1980’s..

Firstly by identifying an.. opportunity to reposition Listerine from a brand that simply freshened breath to one that helped prevent tooth and gum disease, in order to make it a more essential part of peoples oral hygiene routine. Secondly by helping to create an enduring spokesperson for the brand, in fact a new...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands