Meet Alan Whitman and Andrew Masters – the guys who refused to grow up but got rich anyway. They’ve made a killing out of marketing a one-of-a-kind spray called ‘Liquid Ass’, which makes anything smell as bad as it sounds!

The product was born several years ago when Whitman was in high school – his parents had gifted him a chemistry kit and he used the ingredients to invent a smell that had a whiff of “butt crack, kind of sewer smell, with a little hint of dead animal in there.” He used it to play a prank on an English teacher he wasn’t very fond of, and that’s when he realised that what he had on his hands was a real weapon.

But the concoction wasn’t useful to him until about 10 years ago, when he was about to get fired from a truck manufacturing company. Things got pretty bad between him and the management, so along with his friend Masters, he decided it was time to bring out his trusty old weapon again.

Whitman and Masters spilled some Liquid Ass near the microwave in the office break room and then let the scent work its magic. It stunk up the whole place and the engineers had no clue where the stench was coming from. They fixed the water main, replaced the microwave, pulled up the carpet, and even closed off the bathrooms, but nothing worked. Naturally, the duo didn’t work at the company much longer, but they already knew what they were going to do – make sure Liquid Ass was accessible to everyone who needed it.

Despite having their own financial commitments, Whitman and Masters each pooled in $18,000 towards production and marketing. Their families, understandably, thought they were crazy. Whitman’s wife was dead against the idea and Masters’ family thought he’d lost his mind. But they stuck to their belief in the product and two years later, their instincts proved right – Liquid Ass became a huge success.

The orders were pouring in – people were buying it to play all sorts of pranks, like spraying it in locker rooms or using it to get back at noisy neighbors. The product had so many applications that Whitman and Masters even diversified their offerings with BARFume, Tex-Ass, Fake Dog Poop, and Bad Karma, which is just Liquid Ass with a less offensive label. Interestingly, Liquid Ass has found use not only as a prank but also to train medical professionals. 

Liquid Ass is the duo’s only job, and with all the formulas figured out, they don’t really have a lot of work to do on a daily basis. They don’t even need to spend too much on marketing – the horrendous smells pretty much market themselves. Whitman, who handles emails and orders works about an hour a day, while Masters sometimes has days where he does nothing at all. They go into their manufacturing unit in North Carolina about a couple of times a month to do some bottling. “It’s a great life,” according to Whitman.

Photos: Facebook, Instagram

Sources: KQED, Next Shark