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Review: Viral videos claims your poop can smell like roses (Includes interview and first-hand account)

August 25, 2013, two viral videos (one with and without captions) showed up on YouTube and now has a combined 76 million views and put a small company on the radar with a rather unusual product – Poo~Pourri.

These videos make claims that anyone would think are outrageous. The whole commercial has lines that would make the king of taboo comedy, including poop and fart comedy, the late George Carlin, proud.

In researching the product in the video, I discovered that Poo~Pourri may be the real deal. And the company does all its advertising by Internet, social media (Facebook Page and on Twitter (@PooPourri)), news stories, and word-of-mouth.

Who is Poo~Pourri?
Suzy Batiz, Inventor of Poo~Pourri and CEO of the company by the same name based in Addison, Texas, agreed to speak about her products, how the the company grew, to this Digital Journal reporter.

Batiz said that Poo~Pourri was the result of a dare from her brother-in-law in April 2007. It took her nine months to develop a a formula that can trap the odors from leaving the toilet bowl.

“Working with oils is a hobby I’ve been doing for 15 years,” said Batiz, which led to some bragging that led to the brother-in-law daring her to create a product that masks the odor while he had to take a dump.

“My husband built me a website, and I had 10 to 12 friends test it,” Batiz said.

Then Batiz said she asked her friends to sent those bottles out to everyone the knew.

She even sent this Digital Reporter three to try out — for men, there was “Trap A Crap,” and two bottles for women — “Original Citrus” and “Royal Flush.” All I will say right now after personally testing them, definitely pick the right bottle for your sex.

This is not Batiz’s first business. She said that she had started more than 20 businesses, all of them failed, including a clothing store, tanning salon and a bridal salon.

“I had a lot of ideas,” Batiz said, and said she believed she had a winner here, but marketing it was going to be challenging.

Post a month ago on YouTube.

Post a month ago on YouTube.

How the product and company grew
Starting a word of mouth campaign, her product was featured on a local radio station. After that broadcast, she got her first order from a store wishing to carry her products.

“I could not remember the name (of the business), but it was after it was highlighted on the show,” Batiz said.

Then in Dallas a store called “The Basket Case” became the second store to stock her products and sell them.

“It was done word of mouth, a product made here in the United States, and was being sold locally through the grapevine,” Batiz said.

However, the product was a hard sell.

“Everybody though it wasn’t real,” she said.

So, is it REAL?
In 2010, three years after the product was created, Batiz hired an independent third party to test it against other products and to provide scientific proof that it worked.

Batiz hired Odor Science and Engineering in Bloomfield Connecticut who did an analysis of the poop-masking product and reported back (taken from an email sent by Batiz):

On May 3, 2010, Martha O’Brien, president and senior odor scientist of Odor & Science Engineering Inc. tested the product, and reported that: “The odor testing conducted by OS&E found your Poo~Pourri toilet deodorizing product to be very effective in eliminating all of the unpleasant odor characters associated with the toilet odor surrogate used in the test”

Batiz said she owes her great success because she focused on being the leader of a new category of products, the toilet spray category.

“Our product is being sold as a ‘Beauty/Personal Care’ product,” Batiz said.

How it Works
After receiving some samples, this Digital Reporter put them to some of the strongest testing using a team approach. The team will not be named, except this Digital Journal reporter. But before I reveal whether it works or not, we need to see first how to use it.

When you spray Poo~Pourri into the bowl before-you-go, their proprietary formula claims to create a protective barrier on the water’s surface. This barrier is designed to trap unpleasant bathroom odors beneath the surface and keep them out of the air. All you are supposed to smell is a refreshing bouquet of essential oils.

Tests were conducted on dog poop, clumps of cat litter, human poop, and an object with a strong rotting aroma, anything we would not want in our house for a short time.

In all tests, after using the product as instructed, it worked on everything, even with the rotten substance.

Company making a splash in mainstream

Once it hit mainstream, sometime last year AD Week ran a story “Even Santa is caught with his pants down in Poo-Pourri’s hilarious and inappropriate Ad” written by Nick Nudd who leads with “Even St. Nick has to poop.”

In 2014, Entrepreneur Magazine also ran an article on it.

In the months I have been researching this product, major retail outlets started carrying Poo~Pourri. When I started months ago my Internet searches turned up very little about Poo~Pourri, except its website, Twitter posts and a Facebook page.

Besides articles appearing about Poo~Pourri, you can now even order this product nationally including on Amazon, QVC, and even the retailer Bed Bath & Beyond. If you really need it bad, Walmart carries it, but I haven’t checked if it is on the shelves.

I even did a search within 5 miles of my home and five local stores carry Poo~Pourri products.

Who is that woman in the commercial?

A Utah TV station interviewed the woman, Bethany Woodruff, who is a student at Brigham Young University (BYU). In the interview Woodruff tells how she got involved with Poo~Pourri.

Don’t be this guy

My final thought is, if you’re at your date’s home and like Jeff Daniels’ character in “Dumb or Dumber” who drank a lot of laxatives, and you have to take a horrendous crap, maybe spraying first just might save you.

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