Smells Like... An Update
Digging deeper into the Teen Spirit timeline
Back in October I posted my findings after falling into an unexpected rabbit hole of teenage deodorant & pop culture history. The entire process left me with more questions than when I started, and while I didn’t really get much feedback on Substack itself, the article made its way to reddit. If you know the history of this stack, you probably already know my feelings about reddit. Needless to say, I haven’t been back there in a while, but… appears not much has changed. Maybe it’s because it got posted on /r/Nirvana, but people were not happy about it.
Though, as usual, once you sifted through the garbage and collapsed comments there were some gems to be found. Even though I didn’t get it archived before the post was deleted, I did manage to find the exact information I needed to answer some questions the first article left unanswered.
Quick Re-cap
In the previous article, I discussed how this all started with reading an article on a different Substack claiming that, not only did Teen Spirit (the deodorant) come out in the late 80s — with the author claiming to have seen a commercial specifically in 1988, but also that it wasn’t popular until Kurt Cobain wrote “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. I did some digging and all the official documentation I could find seemed to indicate “early 1991” as the release date for Teen Spirit.
With the only supporting evidence for a “late 80’s” Teen Spirit being a YouTube video with 1988 in the title and everything else pointing to 1991, I figured I had enough info to debunk the author’s claims… until I remembered seeing a video of Kathleen Hanna giving a relatively specific date for when the legendary night that birthed the phrase “smells like teen spirit” occurred — and it didn’t line up. Forgetting all about the Substack article, I started digging to find dates of all documented events surrounding anything about this particular story.
That’s kinda where it ended because I couldn’t find the actual roll-out date of Teen Spirit beyond “early 1991”. Until now… well, actually, I couldn’t find the exact date it hit the market, but I narrowed it down considerably from the last time, and I feel confident in saying when it wasn’t on the market.
Smells Like... Bullshit?
Last week I was reading some random Substack article that, to be honest, I wasn’t that interested in — until I got to a line saying, "I do not believe that teen spirit deodorant was successful until Kurt Cobain wrote a song called 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and made it cool."
New Old Information
In the reddit post mentioned, someone posted a link to the full version of the undated ad I found on InStyle — with a copyright of 1990. There wasn’t any information about what magazine it was in or when it was published, but based on the surrounding uploads in the Flickr album I guessed it was the February, 1991 issue of Seventeen (“early 1991”). Soooo, I did what any normal middle-aged man would do: I went to eBay and looked for old issues of Seventeen.
That specific issue was actually there! There were actually tons of them from that time period, so I bought as many Seventeen magazines as I could find from a few months before August 1990 through February 1991. For good measure I also snagged one from October 1988. I remembered Kurt mentioning Sassy magazine in an interview one time, so I grabbed a few of those too — and I kinda bought one specifically because I wanted to read the Mike Patton story… but it was within the time frame I was looking, so it still counts as “research”.
Published for Opposition
Another vital piece of information found in the reddit thread was a link to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Here I found information on the “Teen Spirit” word mark. Some people in the thread pointed to the filing date of March 15, 1990, but neglected the “Published For Opposition” and “First Use in Commerce” dates listed. According to YourTrademarkAttorney.com…
A trademark is published for opposition after the USPTO determines that your trademark application complies with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Approximately 3-4 months after your trademark application is filed, a trademark examining attorney will carefully review it. If the examining attorney concludes that your application meets all legal requirements, it will approve your trademark for publication.
So, apparently, after your trademark is filed you have to wait a bit, then a lawyer reviews it. After that, if it’s all in line with laws and all that, you’re set. At that point “opposition” has 30 days to file a trademark opposition against your application. In this case it was filed in March, but not published for opposition until September 11, 1990.
Its “First Use In Commerce” is listed as “19900900”. According to the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure…
In a trademark or service mark application, the date of first use in commerce is the date when the goods were first sold or transported, or the services were first rendered, under the mark in a type of commerce that may be lawfully regulated by the U.S. Congress, if such use is bona fide and in the ordinary course of trade.
and
When a month and year are given without a specified day, the date presumed for purposes of examination is the last day of the month. When only a year is given, the date presumed for purposes of examination is the last day of the year.
Meaning “19900900” would be interpreted as Sept 30, 1990 for “First Use In Commerce”.
So that kinda narrows it down a bit… even though I couldn’t find an exact date for the product roll-out, it seems October (Q4) 1990 would be a good bet.
Sassy Seventeen
So, what insight did spending $200+ on old magazines for teenage girls get me? Teen Spirit was advertised in 5 of the 11 magazines I bought — following the pattern of a Q4 roll-out. I couldn’t find a complete set of any of the magazines for 1990. September and October editions of Seventeen magazine were especially difficult to find, but I did get June, August, November and December of 1990 — as well as January and February 1991.
June and August had ads for Ban Wide Solid, FDS with Powder, Secret Roll-on, and Arrid Extra Dry — no Teen Spirit. Both November and December each contain an ad for Teen Spirit prominently placed in the first half of the magazine.
Starting in 1991 Teen Spirit was the only deodorant advertised in both January & February’s issues of Seventeen, and it made its first appearance in Sassy. Oh, and the October 1988 issue I picked up only had ads for Secret Roll-on and Soft & Dri. Though, I guess the trademark info kinda already debunked the ‘80s narrative.
A Sharpie in August
Going back to Kathleen Hanna’s version of events: with the release date of Teen Spirit more or less narrowed down to October [Fall] 1990, in combination with Dave Grohl not being in Seattle until the end of September 1990 — and then spending most of October playing gigs & touring Europe with Nirvana before moving in with Kurt to the apartment on North Pear St. in November 1990 — it’s not really possible for this night to have happened in August of 1990.
It seems more likely that it happened in November or later — which would also mean the call from Kurt to ask permission to use what she wrote couldn’t have been “6 months later”, because that would place it after “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had been performed for the first time… at a show that Bikini Kill opened. 3 months, 6 months… whatever… not really that important, but if I’m being picky about dates, might as well point it out.
Conclusion
I'm not really sure what, if any, useful information comes from any of this. It was just one of those things that I had to know the answer to, and the fact that something that happened just 30 years ago has such wildly varying details from source to source made me determined to find the truth — even if it was about a deodorant for teenage girls.
Whether it's useful is up to you, but a few insights and corrections to the cultural consciousness this deep dive did provide...
No, Teen Spirit did not come out in the late ‘80s. The number of articles and comments I've read claiming to have seen ads on TV or used Teen Spirit in the 80s has been illuminating... if not a little disturbing.
People will form memories of something happening in a specific year simply from seeing a YouTube video with that year only in the title. Or they’re just lying… but that’s not a thing on the internet, right?
Publications like InStyle (owned by IAC Inc.) will write an article claiming it “officially hit drugstore shelves in the late '80s'“ using that same video as their only supporting evidence. Bonus: Loudersound claims the video for SLTS was shot in 1990 — nearly a year before the song was recorded.
No, Teen Spirit wasn't introduced to the market in "early 1991" either. This one is specifically for Wikipedia. The November 1990 issue of Seventeen has an ad for Teen Spirit with a coupon to save 50¢ and if you used it before January 1, 1991 you could get a free pair of neon shoelaces in the mail. So, it had to have been on the market by at least November of 1990.
And finally... No, Kathleen Hanna couldn't have written "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on Kurt Cobain's wall with a Sharpie one night, with Dave Grohl there, after seeing Teen Spirit in a store earlier in the day in August of 1990. It appears that it couldn't have happened any earlier than October, but with the band's schedule and the timing of Dave moving into the apartment with Kurt, it seems November or later is more likely.
Updated Teen Spirit Timeline
Fascinating read, thank you for putting in the work for such a niche topic 🫡