A video circulating online in early 2026 allegedly showed a vintage cartoon TV commercial depicting a toothpaste tube character removing its cap from its lower regions and then squirting toothpaste into the mouth of a toothbrush character. In the clip, the toothpaste tube was wearing a man's style of shirt while the toothbrush had a skirt and long eyelashes.
For example, one YouTube video shared on April 11, 2026, displayed the caption, "1937 toothpaste commercial." Other posts also mentioned 1936 and, generally, the 1930s.
In the clip, the pair sing, "Brush those teeth. Brush, brush those teeth. Brush, brush, brush!" The toothpaste tube then pushes the toothbrush on its back and shoots toothpaste to fill the toothbrush's mouth, ending with the toothbrush smiling.
In short, the suggestive video was fake and created with artificial intelligence. The clip lasts eight seconds, which is a common duration for AI-generated videos. Multiple reverse image searches, as well as general queries of Bing and Google, failed to locate any record of the purported TV ad prior to April 2026.
Those searches indicated Instagram user @gloomstomper first posted (archived) the AI-generated video on April 6 with the caption, "brush, brush, brush," receiving millions of views.
Snopes contacted @gloomstomper to ask for the name of the AI tool used to generate the clip — if the user truly originated the video — as well as for a screenshot of the prompt. We will update this article if we receive further information.
Looking for the source
On May 6, a Snopes reader shared an Instagram post featuring the video with a lengthy text caption including overly dramatic wording and multiple paragraphs, indicating AI likely generated the words. The reader asked, "Is this real? I just came across it in a group chat of old ladies who are currently furiously clutching their pearls."
A reverse image search for frames in the video located many reposts on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived), TikTok (archived), X (archived) and YouTube (archived).
Common onscreen captions included "Toothpaste commercial from 1936," "1937 toothpaste commercial" and "You are telling me that this is made for kids."
One of the Instagram videos found with the reverse image search contained the clue that led to the original post. Under the user's handle, an April 7 post featured a link for @gloomstomper as the originator of the audio. A search of @gloomstomper's account then revealed the first post (archived).
For further reading, we previously researched plenty of other alleged vintage advertisements, including a body shaving razor print ad containing a double entendre as well as a print ad for coffee showing a man preparing to spank his wife.