LISTERINE, Compound, Thundercat and More Come Together to Promote Diversity Among Dental Professionals

With swishes of mouthwash as stand ins for cuts and scratches, it’s clear funk iconoclast Thundercat didn’t have to look far to find inspiration for his latest song. He created the relaxed, 2-minute groove as a part of The Whoa Collection, a collaborative art and music project sponsored by LISTERINE with a goal of raising awareness and closing the diversity gap in dentistry within the black community.

While approximately 12% of the US population is black, but just 4% of US dentists are. This is a problem that is compounded by the disparities in access to oral health care. The project’s goal is to expand the understanding of and access to oral health care in black communities by increasing the number of practicing black dentists.

With The Whoa Collection project, LISTERINE is partnering with Compound, a black-owned creative collective and cultural agency. This partnership generated a limited-edition LISTERINE bottle design, the original track from Thundercat, and most importantly, an endowment of up to $150,000 tothe Increasing Diversity in Dentistry pipeline program (IDID).

IDID works to help reduce racial disparities in the dental workforce by providing guidance and mentorship to underrepresented minority pre-dental and dental students. The organization currently includes more than 750 minority students and young dentists from throughout the US.

The limited-edition bottles feature a bottle-wrap designed using art created by King Saladeen, a self-taught artist from West Philadelphia. His limited edition The Who Collection design can be found at Target Stores.

You can check out Thundercat’s mouth-swishing composition here: