The Truth About Bad Breath
Last week I wrote about how truth is the starting point of trust in a marriage. On the same note, it is impossible to hide something in a marriage because marriage makes two people become one flesh.
One of the things—which I'm sure other married couples will agree with—under this category would be bad breath. When you are with the same person everyday and wake up beside them every morning, you will find yourself experiencing a real "close-up moment- that is not as exciting and romantic as the ones we see on television.
Strange as this may sound, sometimes even something as mundane as bad breath can teach us a lesson or two about relationships.
The Story of Bad Breath
Back in the early 1900's, bad breath was just what it was ‚ bad breath. Lambert Pharmacal was the lone company that offered a solution to bad breath, and that product was Listerine. At the onset, Listerine generated a mere $700,000 in revenue annually. Genius struck in the 1920's when Listerine started to advertise bad breath by using the term's medical counterpart, halitosis, and targeting couples who were constantly close to one another. This halitosis slant on bad breath worked; as Lambert Pharmacal's revenue skyrocketed to $8 million the year the campaign was released.
Saving Marriages
While Listerine did help in making couples' conversations more pleasant, the point of this article is not how Listerine saved marriages but how the truth saved Listerine. As Listerine grew more popular, consumer manufacturing giant Procter and Gamble saw the opportunity to make a competing product and give Lambert Pharmacal a run for their money. That's when they introduced Scope, the mouthwash to compete against Listerine.
Scope had a fresher-looking green color as opposed to Listerine's urine-like yellow. It also came in a more attractive bottle. More importantly, it had a great mint flavor compared to Listerine's bitter medicinal taste. Overnight, Scope took the lead; it threatened Lambert's flagship product and consequently, the company's existence.
How the Truth Saved the Day
Instead of contesting Scope's advantages over Listerine, Lambert Pharmacal did the unthinkable. They didn't just admit their weakness, they advertised it: "The taste that you hate twice a day.- In doing so, they reminded people why they needed a mouthwash in the first place—to treat halitosis.
It worked; people switched back to Listerine because they thought that it did a better job of killing germs than its better-tasting counterpart. In the end, it was Lambert's honesty that brought back the product's credibility and saved the company.
Here are two lessons on truth that we can learn from Listerine:
1. Embrace your strengths—and weaknesses. Then your spouse will too.
People intuitively know there is no such thing as a perfect product or person. So when caught in a place where our imperfect selves are exposed, our response should be honesty and the truth, and not denial or cover-up.
We all have good things to offer, as well as not-so-good things. But this is precisely the reason why we all need relationships: so that we can be a positive addition to others, as they are to us.
In order to build relationships, we need to be aware of the truth about ourselves and be open to admitting them to others when necessary.
2. A simple embrace won't cut it; improving will.
Now that we've embraced the truth about ourselves, make the necessary changes. It's not enough that we admit our shortcomings; we need to find ways to change for the better in order to keep our relationships. Let me say that again: to keep our relationships. The reason why we have to make the necessary (positive) changes right now is so that we can enjoy its long-term benefits in the future.
Listerine realized that while they had a good product, it could stand some improvement. In time, they developed a line of products that still delivered the same germ-fighting capability without the bad taste and the urine color. Listerine today comes in a variety of exciting colors and fresh tasting flavors. They even made their bottles more beautiful.
Truth and Lasting Results
A marriage joins two people as one. This means that everything of your spouse—the beautiful and the ugly, the inside and out—is now a part of you and vice versa. It is because of this that spouses end up knowing their partner so well.
Married people simply can't hide from the truth. It is as present in their lives as their spouse is. But the good thing about truth is that it gives us a chance to stop, reflect and often repent on our own shortcomings. And if our repentance is true, it will spark in us a positive change that will deliver lasting external results.
Hurtful as it may be at times, we need a dose of the truth daily because it gives us the opportunity to alter our course and eventually head in the right directionwith our spouse right beside us.
Read related articles:
The True North of Trust
The One Lesson That Changed My Marriage
How to Turn the One Lesson Into Reality
The Risk and Responsibility of Trust
The History of Trust
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