Johnny Carson once accidentally used his public platform to incite a public panic. On this day in history, 1973, Carson started a near month long toilet paper shortage in the United States. In his show, he stated, “You know what’s disappearing from the supermarket shelves? Toilet paper… There’s an acute shortage of toilet paper in the United States.” Americans promptly went out and bought up every piece of toilet paper they could find. Supermarkets tried to ration it, but to no avail. By noon the next day, pretty much all the nation’s supermarkets were sold out of toilet paper.AndyC wrote:It might - if folks believe it's true and panic, then perception becomes reality.WildBill wrote:And it just may work.AndyC wrote:Many legit sources say that the "embargo" is just nonsense designed to scare up sales, promote a panic, etc.
After several days of toilet paper shortages due to this hysteria, Carson went on the air to try to explain it had been a joke and apologized. But because there really was a toilet paper shortage now and the shelves were almost always empty of TP at this time, whenever some would come in, people would buy it all and hoard it. This toilet paper shortage lasted a full three weeks.
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