Scope Mouthwash pulled off quite the April Fool's joke with its weeklong campaign to introduce consumers to a new product: bacon-flavored mouthwash. We'll admit, they really had us going, thanks to a dedicated product website and a well-produced video released a full four days before April 1.
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According to the website's FAQ section, the mouthwash will kill 99.9 percent of bad breath germs without leaving your mouth tasting like breakfast meat all day. In fact, it leaves your breath minty-fresh and just tastes like bacon while you swish. We should have known then that something was up.
The bacon mouthwash made its debut on March 28, gaining plenty of media buzz -- and raising more than a few eyebrows. This skeptical Huffington Post article entertained the notion that the product was, in fact, real but included a quote from a Procter & Gamble representative who neither denied or confirmed the existence of the mouthwash. A CNBC writer also said a public relations representative's coy answers set her reporter senses a-tinglin'.
It's not the first time a company has pulled out all the stops just to get a few laughs (and a hell of a lot of media attention) on April Fools. In 2010, Starbucks announced it was to add two new sizes of drinks in its U.S. and Canadian stores: the Plenta and the Micra. The unveiling of the two-ounce cup and the 128-ounce serving of caffeinated drinks was made online, accompanied by rather convincing photos of the new products. The April Fools crown goes, hands down, to Google, which rolls out elaborate jokes each year. This year, it got Google treasure maps a BETA version of Google Nose, an Internet sommelier who allows for search by smell.
The Bacon Scope promotional video touts "the crowning achievements in the world of bacon," including bacon shaving cream (which really does exist), bacon candles (also real), and a bacon portrait of Kevin Bacon (check that out, 'cause it's also real.)
Topping the list of achievements probably would be Bacon Scope, but we're not holding our breath for the product to show up on shelves anytime soon. For now, we'll just have to comfort ourselves with the slew of other products that feed our national bacon obsession. (Including of course, our very own bacon-ful rendition of Joe Arpairo from two years ago.) As far as we're concerned, bacon will never jump the shark.
