The Olsen twins are rich. They are famous. They are fluoride-friendly.
Mary-Kate and Ashley, the toothpaste, noted as mary-kateandashley(TM) in official correspondence, shipped to stores last week courtesy the makers of Aquafresh, retailing for an average price of $2.77 per pump-dispensing tube.
Mary-Kate and Ashley, the multimedia-starring, multimillion-dollar-earning siblings, are said to be holding off on their plans of global domination until after, like, graduation.
Tomorrow, the world. Today, the molars.
The teen titans were described as being closely involved with the development of their toothpaste selves, right down to the selection of the flavor.
"They absolutely tested it out," says Michael Pagnotta of the Olsen twin-controlled Dualstar Entertainment Group.
"It's sort of a combination of bubblegum with a minty flavor to it," says Lori Lukus, spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, home to the Aquafresh brand.
The bubblegum factor apparently was key because, as Lukas points out, "a very strong mint taste is too strong for most children."
And children are precisely the brushers that Mary-Kate and Ashley, the toothpaste, desire.
Aquafresh is looking to lock in the preteen set with the brand, billing it as a "landmark in the history of toothpaste marketing," and not just because the Olsens, now 17, appear as 13-year-olds on the packaging.
To whit, the company claims Mary-Kate and Ashley, the toothpaste, is the first children's brand to feature "live celebrities," as opposed to cartoon characters, such as the noted cavity fighter SpongeBob SquarePants.
Tammy Szatkowski-Reeves, curator of the Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry at the University of Michigan, points out adult celebrities, including Pepsodent purveyor Bing Crosby, were frequently seen on toothpaste tubes in the 1940s and 1950s.
During the war eras, dating back to the Civil War, grown-ups' dental hygiene was a national-security concern as the military was forced to turn away many recruits, lacking as they did the proper choppers to, say, rip pins out of grenades.
The consumers of Mary-Kate and Ashley, the toothpaste, likely will be using their pearly whites on the school yard, not the battlefield. Accordingly, Aquafresh is seeking to keep them comfortable--not too much mint, not too-old Olsens.
"The idea is that particular image of them [as 13-year-olds] will be most appealing to that age group," Lukas says.
The Olsen twins jointly began their 'tween-queen reign as toddlers on Full House. Even before the sitcom wrapped in 1995, they were starring in their own straight-to-video movies, produced by their own company. Later, came the Wal-Mart clothes and makeup lines, the now-defunct Oprah-style magazine and the dolls, to give an incomplete account of their holdings. In June, it was estimated the twins' fortune stood at $150 million--each.
The duo is currently filming the big-screen comedy New York Minute, with Eugene Levy, in Toronto. The twins are, naturally, producing.
So great is their reach, Szatkowski-Reeves says she foresees the day when Mary-Kate and Ashley, the toothpaste, will find its way into her museum, which documents the evolution of dentistry.
And unlike Olsen twins detangler, Olsen twins nail polish and Olsen twins soothing eye gel masks, sold exclusively at Wal-Mart, Olsen twins toothpaste, Lukas says, "will be distributed everywhere."
Everywhere.