Brushing teeth is supposed to clean the aftermath of fried chicken, not make you relive it at 7 am. But KFC doesn’t understand this.
The American fast-food chain teamed up with Australian dental care brand Hismile to launch a limited-edition $13 (Rs 1,110) fried chicken-flavoured toothpaste. Launched exclusively on the Hismile website, the product is currently available only in the US market. A blend of 11 herbs and spices, it is designed to deliver “the irresistible feeling of biting into a piece of hot, juicy Original Recipe chicken.”
What’s worse is that it sold out within 48 hours of its launch.
If someone wakes up craving Zinger sauce in their mouth, they should seek help. A product meant for oral hygiene can’t taste like greasy fried chicken – it’s absurd and uncalled for.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first. Bacon and cupcake-flavoured toothpastes, launched by American novelty gift company Accoutrements, also confounded people upon their launch in 2013.
While brands often push boundaries for attention, such disappointing products scream publicity-stunt-gone-too-far. Oral hygiene and fast food were never meant to mix like this. It shows that sometimes, innovation can cross the line into pure nonsense.
Fusion has gone too far
The obsession with food-infused everything is spiralling into bizarre territory.
It started with strawberry lip balms and chocolate-scented body creams, followed by savoury-smelling perfumes like Tilda Swinton’s Like This Etat Libre d’Orange and Black Eau de Toilette Comme des Garçons.
But a toothpaste that makes your breath smell like you ate a KFC Double Down burger in your sleep is madness.
Food fusion in actual food is already chaotic enough — gulab jamun cheesecake, butter chicken pasta, and whatnot.
Now, this trend has leapt from the plate to the bathroom shelf, and it must be stopped before someone drops a buttermilk toilet cleaner. Brands are so desperate to be quirky and viral that they’ve started confusing ‘innovative’ with ‘indigestible.’
Fusion works when it’s thoughtful. When it elevates, surprises, and makes sense. But most of it today is just attention-seeking behaviour in a world bored out of its mind.
The KFC toothpaste isn’t genius — it is edible marketing trying too hard to be a meme.
So maybe let toothpaste taste like toothpaste – minty, fresh, and not like fried chicken. There’s no need to bring food into your bathroom cabinet.
There’s a fine line between fusion and confusion. And KFC just deep-fried it.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)