Fresh breath leads to big smiles, confidence, brownie points with the opposite sex, etc. It’s a storyline as old as toothpaste…which, by the way, dates back to the 4th century Egyptians. How’s that for useless knowledge?

Anyway, it’s a common point in brand theory to NOT attack a word or concept that is owned by your competition. Instead, pick another word. Wrigley Chewing Gum is a great case study on this point. The company owns a variety of breath-freshening gums- Spearmint, Doublemint, Big Red, Juicy Fruit, Winterfresh, Extra, Freedent, Orbit, Eclipse, Altoids, and Airwaves, among others. So, they pretty much own the breath-freshening gum category. But how to prevent these child brands from competing with each other? Probably, you can’t. They’re going to compete. When you stop at a gas station and pick up a pack of gum, do you choose Winterfresh or Extra? The choice isn’t between a Wrigley gum and a competitor’s…it’s between Wrigley brands. So, inevitably, there will be competition and, inevitably, each will take market share from the other. But I digress…

The point is that it’s SOMETIMES ok to attack the same concept. For each of the Wrigley brands, the concept is “fresh breath.” It’s interesting to note that, over the years, the marketing message has become more and more extreme. Starting, of course, with the infamous Doublemint Twins…

These ads clearly make the point that the Wrigley Doublemint brand offers twice the freshness…and, who wouldn’t want that? (the gum, that is). As new Wrigley brands are introduced, however, how do they compete with that? Offer triple the freshness? Nay, instead, we see a simple concept given over-the-top treatment that is clearly overstated and tongue-in-cheek. Take Altoids, for instance…

Another example is Orbit Gum. The message of these ads is that fresh breath can make any situation bearable…

So, by taking the idea of freshness to the extreme in a context that is obviously silly and unrealistic, the brands are actually able to differentiate themselves within their own category by attacking the same word or concept as their siblings.

It’s a rare exception, but one that can absolutely work- particularly within a smaller market, and when dealing with “average products for average people.” Other notable examples are Mentos, Kohler, Enzyte, Slim Jim, the Toyota Tacoma Loch Ness Monster ad, and others.