Listerine Debuts Dismal Metaverse Where Everyone Has Horrible Breath

The metaverse is often being lauded as a utopia of sorts. But looking at how humanity has treated the physical realm, Web3 can turn out to be just as beautiful as it is foul and smelly.

Listerine is flipping the script by launching its metaverse from the bowels—or rather, kisser, of hell. Late last month, it rolled out an open-world game called Breathcalypse where everyone living in its city of Complexo should never open their mouths. You could say the idea is a breath of un-fresh air.

There are no zombies or murderers on the loose, since Breathcalypse is a simulation of real life. The only enemy is bad breath, of which every avatar created is born with, according to Keka Morelle, CCO at marketing communications agency Wunderman Thompson Brazil.

Every player wakes up with green smog wafting out of their mouths (we’re never looking at the Sims crystal the same way again). Contrary to the laws of human evolution, no one gets used to the stench and, in fact, becomes increasingly stressed when exposed to the breaths of their fellow peoples. Their vision becomes foggy, and this ultimately triggers a “bad breath apocalypse.”

The only way to save this world is to look for Listerine’s antiseptic mouthwash products in pharmacies and vending machines across the city. This is Listerine’s world, after all—we’re all just living in it.

“There is nothing better than this space to communicate with our audience in a modern and disruptive way,” says Sabrina Tichauer, Marketing Director of Oral Hygiene Brands at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health Brazil.

It’s a good thing Smell-O-Vision doesn’t exist yet.

[via Wunderman Thompson Brazil, images courtesy]