
In October 2023, Colgate India took on the mantle of educating Indians about the need to brush their teeth before bed, in the night. But instead of making it a dry lesson, they got their long-time ad agency Ogilvy India to craft a monumentally captivating narrative… the kind that you cannot forget at all 🙂
To be sure, Colgate did not just talk about the benefits of brushing your teeth in the night before going to bed. Instead, they came to the point from another angle – about Indians’ obsession to have something ‘sweet’ after dinner and how such ‘sweets’ stay on the teeth in the night and cause cavities. This is an excellent, purpose-led idea than just exhorting Indians to brush their teeth in the night.
Colgate followed up with a subsequent campaign about brushing in the night in May 2024.
Here too, the framing was through sweets. Not just ‘brush your teeth in the night before bed’, but ‘If you had ice cream or a cookie in the night after dinner, you are better off brushing your teeth before bed’.
I haven’t heard of any other ad campaign that wanted to educate a country about brushing the teeth before going to sleep. Brushing the teeth in the night is usually a communication that is delivered by dentists, directly to their patients. So a toothpaste brand taking up that responsibility is commendable. They stand to gain from it, of course, but that doesn’t negate the point or the need for the communication, particularly in India.
But, consider which toothpaste Colgate recommends in these ads for brushing our teeth in the night. Is it Colgate Total? Or the plain Colgate? Maxfresh, perhaps? Or Colgate Herbal? Nope, it’s none of these.
Colgate’s ‘Brush Tonight’ campaign is not toothpaste-specific. The ads simply tell you to brush and the use of a toothpaste is not underlined with any specificity. In fact, a lot of dentists recommend brushing your teeth in the night with just the brush, without any toothpaste. That would be quite boring, though.
So, here’s the question – why isn’t Colgate recommending any one of their many toothpaste products specifically to brush the teeth with in the night before going to bed?
The answer is related to the product mix Colgate has. Or doesn’t have. Colgate does not have any toothpaste that is meant specifically for night brushing. Not just in India, Colgate doesn’t seem to have such a night-specific variant anywhere in the world.
It’s not just Colgate. From what I could search (quite extensively), none of the major toothpaste brands have specific toothpastes for night brushing!
I found Crest having a ‘night’ variant, called ‘Crest Pro-Health Night Toothpaste’, but that seems to be very rarely available, and not a common enough variant.
The other major toothpaste brands globally include Aquafresh, Sensodyne, AIM, Closeup, and Pepsodent. None of these have night-specific toothpaste variants.
But here’s what is interesting: a lot of smaller brands do have night-specific variants, and many of them sell the day + night variants as a pair/combo!

So why don’t the largest toothpaste brands of the world do not have a separate night variant?
Consider the reasons why they should have.
1. Using a ‘morning’ toothpaste in the night
Most toothpaste brands advertise their default toothpaste being ‘effective’ for 8-10 hours. I know this is absurd because if you drink coffee after brushing your teeth in the morning, you forget that you even brushed 🙂 But, the usual advertising exaggeration is ‘fresh breath for X hours’. Now, do you need ‘fresh breath’ before you go to sleep?
‘Fresh breath’ is usually framed as being important when you are with people. You yourself don’t specifically realize your fresh breath, but it is pitched as something meant for external validation – that you are tolerable to be around with (provided you avoid body odour too, with good perfume/deo).
While you are sleeping, fresh breath is perhaps not what you may seek. The requirement from a night toothpaste could be completely different.
Performa pitches ‘teeth whitening’. Zenyum pitches ‘soothing of gums’. Smile Therapy pitches ‘repairs’. Daylee pitches ‘restores enamel’. Laser Glow pitches ‘polish and repair’.
So, there is a terrific opportunity to differentiate the use-case of a toothpaste meant for the morning vs one meant for the night. It is limited only by the toothpaste brands’ imagination.
2. The night-brushing habit
Colgate in India currently uses advertising to school people about the benefits of night brushing. But how can it create a habit that can stick? The easiest way would be to create a night-specific toothpaste that, without any advertising or schooling whatsoever, creates a habit by simply existing!
I mean, if Perfora has cracked the idea of selling day + night toothpaste packs, what’s stopping the mighty Colgate? The mere existence of a night toothpaste conjures the need for brushing before bed, it’s as simple as that.
3. Better business sense
I recall reading somewhere that Indians change their toothbrush very occasionally. I don’t remember the exact words, but it went something like this: Indians change their brush only once every 3-4 months. If they changed it every 2 months, the business of toothbrush companies would double. If they change it every month, imagine the market!
On a similar note, imagine if people bought 2 toothpastes when they are conditioned buy only one and use it primarily in the morning (and very unevenly/irregularly in the night).
4. The all-important ‘sleep’ factor
‘Sleep’ is a very big industry right now. It always has been, but it is at its peak right now that it is a proper industry in itself with a diverse variety of products. So, why not include a toothpaste to the roster?
There are flavors famously associated with ‘calming’, like lavender, vanilla, chamomile, valerian root, lemon balm, and almond milk, among others. A Google search would throw up a lot more such flavors. Guess what flavor is Perfora’s night toothpaste. It’s lavender… for a reason! And Salt’s night toothpaste flavor? Vanilla… again, for a reason!
So, reframing the use of a toothpaste in the night to go beyond the teeth is a very valid idea that is waiting to be fully exploited and explored. A toothpaste is applied to the innards of our mouth, so we ‘apply’ the flavor automatically. It can hence be dual use – cleaner teeth + promote sleep.
This also leads to shaking up the flavor profiles of toothpastes that start and end with some form of mint. This is mainly because it’s meant for mornings and that means it has to have the tingling sensation. But, removed from the ‘tingling’ necessity, night toothpastes can explore a whole range of fresh flavors that are more suited to calming the senses instead of exciting them.
There is precedence for the day + night product differentiation anyway. Consider the AM + PM creams that work on the same concept – that there is a need for different skin creams for the morning and the night!
So, what do the newer, nimbler toothpaste brands have, in terms of data or chutzpah that the biggest toothpaste brands in the world lack? Why are night toothpastes not common enough?
If you say that only about 10-20% of Indians brush their teeth in the night, that can also be seen as an opportunity instead of an impediment. But also look at markets beyond India where night brushing is a daily habit.
To be sure, people do understand the need to brush their teeth in the night. It’s evident, and made more glaring based on what they consume in the evening/night during dinner and after it. So, it makes good sense to give them something interesting to brush their teeth with instead of expecting them to use the same one that promises ‘fresh breath energy for the whole day’ just before going to a calm sleep!
A night toothpaste is not a new category of a product, it simply is reframing the need. The core category is always just toothpastes, which has been ‘sold’ to people adequately over a very long time. Now, the brands just need to sell a new habit. For people’s own good, of course, besides the brands’ balance sheets.