Since late 2024, social media users have spread a supposedly real vintage advertisement for scotch- and bourbon-flavored toothpaste.
The image of the ad spread on Reddit, Facebook and X. It read: "SPIKED TOOTHPASTE — SCOTCH OR BOURBON FLAVORED…Put some 'spirit' in your brushing! Real, honest to goodness whiskey in toothpaste." The allegedly authentic ad also joked that the toothpaste will get men to brush their teeth "3, 4, even 5 times daily." Some internet users said the ad brought to mind pop star Kesha's 2009 song "TiK ToK," which includes a lyric about the singer brushing her teeth with Jack Daniel's whiskey.
According to many of these posts, a man named Don Poynter invented the product in the 1950s.
Although it was unclear whether this particular advertisement was authentic, whiskey-flavored toothpaste was, in fact, a real product sold to consumers. Poynter, a novelty inventor from Cincinnati, Ohio, is widely credited with creating the product in the mid-1950s — but there is some evidence boozy toothpaste existed even earlier.
The history of whiskey toothpaste
Snopes could not find proof that the specific advertisement shown above appeared in vintage newspapers. Neither could Cincinnati Public Library researcher Jessie Ludwig, who said via email she could not find the exact ad referenced in the claims — but "it is safe to say that it was a real product."
That's because advertisements marketing whiskey-flavored toothpaste as a novelty gift item appeared in a wide variety of newspapers in the mid-1950s. "Taste it! Smell it! There's real whiskey in this toothpaste!" proclaimed one 1955 Cincinnati Enquirer ad selling the toothpaste for $1.50 a tube.
Another authentic ad that appeared in the Austin American-Statesman in 1956 used a similar tagline to that of the purported ad: "A sure way to make him brush his teeth three, four, or even five times a day!" the real ad, available on historical archive Newspapers.com, said. "Cleans teeth, too!"
An authentic ad for whiskey toothpaste in the June 15, 1956, issue of the Austin American-Statesman. (Newspapers.com)
Many of the ads said the tubes came in three flavors — bourbon, scotch and rye — and were "6 proof," meaning they contained 3% alcohol by volume. The product became popular enough, in fact, that an Iowa state representative reportedly tried to ban it.
Poynter launched his version of the product "around 1954," per an interview with the University of Cincinnati's UC Magazine, but the earliest mention of "whiskey toothpaste" we found comes from a story printed in at least three newspapers in 1937. In all three instances, the story described an incident in which a local health officer tracked down a salesman who was allegedly selling whiskey-flavored toothpaste to children in Burbank, California.
A public patent search returned no results for a whiskey-flavored toothpaste patent owned by Poynter, although it did return patents on various other novelty items he created.
Still, it is clear Poynter popularized the product; a search of Newspapers.com found no additional stories or advertisements about whiskey toothpaste until the 1950s. Numerous articles from around that era credited Poynter with the invention, including papers from Pennsylvania,
Life magazine even published a story on the boozy tubes in 1955. Although the text of the article did not appear to be available online, images from the story are available in Life's photo collection.
The Cincinnati Museum Center
Poynter died in 2021 at age 96. His obituary in The Wall Street Journal called whiskey-flavored toothpaste "one of his best ideas."