Mixing comic patter ("I guess I could tell you exactly what I look like, but I think that's a lousy thing to say about a guy") with his clever comic songs, The Abe Burrows Show was popular with listeners and critics but not with its sponsor, Lambert Pharmaceutical, then the makers of Listerine mouthwash but promoting a Listerine toothpaste on the show.
The single "Tarzan Boy" bounced back into the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March 1993 as a remix, climbing to No.51, at the time of its appearance in a Listerine commercial.
Sponsored by Warner Lambert's Listerine, it was widely syndicated during 1954-55 and was only five minutes (one or two songs) long on film and therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in on programming schedules.
As the advertising scholar James B. Twitchell writes, "Listerine did not make mouthwash as much as it made halitosis."
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In a January 6, 2005, decision, Judge Denny Chin of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that an advertising campaign by Pfizer, claiming that the mouthwash Listerine is as effective as flossing in fighting tooth and gum decay, is false and misleading and poses a public health risk.
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Currently promoted with the slogan "Kills germs that cause bad breath", it was named after Joseph Lister who advocated the idea of sterile surgery by sterilizing instruments.