Saturday Evening Post, January 25, 1969:



This had been a selling point for Listerine since the 1920s:  the notion that by using it, you could prevent colds.  If you got wet or chilled, if you felt a hint of a cold "coming on", if someone coughed on you, if you sat in a draft, especially if your children came home wet or chilled ... Listerine.  As soon as one member evinced the hint of a cough or sniffle, start the whole family gargling Listerine.  It would not only prevent colds, it would ease and shorten those that had already started:  one ad recommended gargling with Listerine every two hours for as long as the cold or sore throat lasted.

It wasn't until 1976 that the Federal Trade Commission ruled that Lambert Pharmacal (at that time the maker of Listerine) had to change the advertising:  had not only to stop claiming the product prevented colds, but specifically to state in their next ten million dollars' worth of advertising, "Hey, you know those claims we've been making that Listerine will prevent colds?  Not true!"