A Malta-distributor of a specialised toothpaste for children was forced to apologise to dentists in Malta after their product featured in Rosianne Cutajar’s Halloween campaign.
Images posted to Facebook by Rosianne Cutajar over the Halloween weekend shows “goody bags” distributed to children included sweets and tubes of Vitis Junior tooth-paste.
Cutajar’s Facebook post drew attention to this fact in her post. “In every good bag we included a free tube of toothpaste to encourage our little ones to brush their teeth especially after eating candy.”
In a statement to dentists practicing in Malta the medical representative for Vitis assured professionals that “in no way did I promote the consumption of sweets and surely did not sponsor their purchase or this campaign.”
“As often happens,” the representative explained, “I was contacted by a government department and asked for the said samples to be distributed among school children. It was never my intention to have this politicised or to be associated with the consumption of sweets.”
The representative apologised to dentists for the episode.
The statement is significant also because Rosianne Cutajar no longer runs a government department. It appears that Rosianne Cutajar misled the agent into believing she was supporting a government-run educational campaign rather than a political stunt by a candidate.
A dentist that spoke to me about the incident told me that promoting oral health by distributing candy is a perverse notion. “Rosianne Cutajar’s campaign was a bit like giving people petrol and a fire extinguisher.”