Czech company Yoni has recently sparked outrage online after taking miswak twigs that people have been using for literally thousands of years and selling them as “revolutionary raw toothbrushes” for the obscene price of $5 apiece.
Twigs from the salvadora persica or miswak tree have been used as a natural teeth-cleaning agent for the last 7000 years in the Indian subcontinent, Arab peninsula, parts of Africa and Central and Southwest Asia for free, but Czech company is now trying to make a profit by marketing them as “raw toothbrush and toothpaste in one” and selling them for a hefty $5.
Photo: Yoni/Facebook
The msiwak twigs sold by Yoni are packaged in a plastic bag and comes with a plastic test tube to be carried around in. The raw toothbrushes “full of minerals and vitamins” can be used to clean your teeth pretty much anytime and anywhere. They remineralize tooth enamel, prevent tooth decay, whiten teeth, maintain PH at healthy levels and leave your breath smelling fresh.
All of the above claims are true, but those who have been familiar with the benefits of using miswak twigs since forever have a problem with the way the company has appropriated a millennia-old cultural product and the price it is being sold for.
Photo: Yoni/Facebook
“Really? You’re going to take #Miswak, take a number of edgy images with some YT hipsters and check out re-brand it the #rawtoothbrush. No. Just No.” one person wrote on Twitter soon after the Yoni promotional video for its raw toothbrushes went viral.
“They are thousand years late of their “discovery” We’ve been utilizing MISWAK since perpetually,” another person added.
Photo: Yoni/Facebook
The online backlash against Yoni is still going on, with people asking the Czech company to give credit for their “discovery” where it is due.
The price of $5 per twig has also been described as unrealistically expensive, but in an age when people are paying big money for simple painted logs and tree branches with holes drilled in them, I can see this product becoming a big hit with hipsters.
via NDTV
