When you’re a global company, you’re going to have global problems. But perhaps there could’ve been a few more eyes/brains on a packaging campaign for Ariel laundry detergent from Procter & Gamble in Germany that featured a large white soccer jersey with a large “88” on them. See, because that’s a neo-Nazi code, if you’re in the know. [More]
procter & gamble
Gillette Wants To Sell You A Fancy New Razor That Works With Older Blades
By 4.23.14
The Gillette business model is now a legend selling an item inexpensively or giving it away for free, then selling customers a more profitable item that they need to keep that item going. Think of razors and disposable blades, inkjet printers and cartridges, or free mobile phones tied to long service contracts. Now Gillette is changing its time-honored business model a little, and selling the FlexBall razor, which accepts a variety of blade cartridges. [More]
Fluoride And Fudge: Crest Introduces Chocolate To Toothpaste
By 1.28.14
Remember when Procter & Gamble cruelly taunted the Internet with the prospect of bacon-flavored mouthwash? It was all an April Fool’s Day joke, but seemed just plausible enough to be real. We wanted it to be real. Now the same company is offering another oral care product that seems too amazing and can’t possibly be real: chocolate toothpaste. [More]
Procter & Gamble Was Testing Opaque Detergent Pod Jars Before U.S. Launch
By 11.20.13
Since detergent pods hit the market back in 2012, authorities (and Consumerist) have been warning consumers to keep the products far, far away from children who might mistake them for candy. Procter & Gamble reports that incidents of young children poisoned by Tide’s detergent pods are way down. Public awareness probably helped, but putting them in jars that make them look less like candy has helped a lot more. [More]
Grandmother Of Poisoned Boy Asks Procter & Gamble To Stop Making Tide Pods Look Like Delicious Candy
By 9.27.13
Since their introduction in 2012, Tide detergent pods have been a lightning rod for controversy. Initially packaged in clear plastic, candy jar-like container, the glossy, orange, blue and white pods tempted an alarming number of children into taste-testing them. Procter & Gamble, the makers of Tide, have subsequently made the packaging opaque and more secure, but one woman who says her grandson almost died after biting into a Tide pod says more can be done to make the product less yummy-looking to children. [More]
Shrink Ray Blasts Old Spice Deodorant, Leading To Stench And Sadness
By 4.8.13
Andrew is a regular user of Old Spice deodorant, so he noticed when a packaging change also meant a sizing change. And no, it was not the same brand/fragrance scramble that led another Old Spice user to think that his deodorant, too, had fallen prey to the shrink ray. Nope. This is the same product. [More]
Scope ‘Introduces’ Bacon Mouthwash With A Mint Finish Just Before April 1st
By 3.29.13 — Updated: 4.2.13
Do you know what’s wrong with the current oral hygiene products market? Not enough bacon. In what has got to be an early April Fool’s joke, Procter & Gamble has joined the global bacon obsession. Yesterday they announced a new flavor of Scope mouthwash flavored like the famed pork product. It tastes like bacon, but leaves your breath minty fresh. If that’s even possible, the existence of Scope Bacon is a disturbing bit of flavor chemistry and we have to try it right now. [More]
How Tide Became An Underground Currency
By 1.18.13 — Updated: 1.19.13
Everyone loves Tide, from the toddlers who gobble detergent pods to the criminals who boost it and sell it illegally. Some people even do laundry with it. The real question at the core of the Tide trade is this: How did bottles of brand-name detergent become a de facto currency? Why this brand, Tide? Where do the bottles come from, and who is the end consumer who actually pours the Tide in their washer? [More]
Explosion At Japanese Chemical Plant Results In Run On Diapers In North Texas
By 10.2.12
Over the weekend, there was an explosion inside a chemical plant in Japan. So it only makes sense that the parents of youngsters in North Texas are buying oodles of diapers. [More]
This Mr. Clean Label Helps You Brush Up On Basic Math Skills
By 7.23.12
Have you ever looked at a 80 oz. bottle of Mr. Clean and puzzled over how many 40 oz. bottles of Mr. Clean would go into this larger size? Probably not, but this label clears up the math question no one really needed the answer to. [More]
Market Researchers Want To Literally Read Your Mind
By 7.16.12
People lie. What we want isn’t always what we say we want. This poses a problem for marketers, who depend on market research before launching new or redesigned products. Researchers have learned that people in focus groups tend to tell the authority figures running the test what they think the tester wants to hear. They say that they’re interested in products without considering whether they would actually buy them. They say that something draws their eye when it really doesn’t. Fortunately, technology has caught up with our lies. Market researchers can now track subjects’ retinas to see what products really draw their eye, analyze barely perceptible involuntary facial expressions, and even monitor brain waves to see which choices elicit happy thoughts. [More]
Shrink Ray Zaps Aussie Shampoos, Somehow Makes Them Look Bigger
By 6.26.12
Procter & Gamble’s Aussie brand of hair care products have been redesigned, and with that came a shrink raying of their larger pump shampoo bottles, from 33.8 fluid ounces to merely 29.2. Only notice how the elegant curves and narrower bottle make the new version look larger, not smaller. [More]
Five Big American Businesses Teaming Up To Develop Plant-Based Plastic
By 6.5.12
Coca-Cola might be super proprietary about its secret soda formula, but when it comes to sharing technology that could help the earth, it’s willing to to spread the wealth with other big American businesses. Coca-Cola, Ford, Heinz, Nike and Procter & Gamble announced today they’ve teamed up to work on how to develop plant-based plastic material. [More]
New Tide Pods Box Will Aim To Keep Kids From Feeding On Detergent
By 5.25.12 — Updated: 5.15.15
It looks like 2012 is the year of Tide. First, it was revealed that the detergent is being heisted for use as currency by unseemly folks. Now the makers of Tide are having to change their packaging for Tide Pods because kids want to put the colorful, shiny detergent packs in their mouth. [More]
P&G Apologizes, Has An Actual Reason For Old Spice Deodorant Shrinkage
By 3.26.12
Consumerist reader Jordan recently copied us on an email he wrote to Procter & Gamble, shaming them for performing the grocery shrink ray on his favorite Old Spice deodorant. But before we could even post his tale of outrage, he received a reasonable explanation and an apology from P&G. Imagine that! [More]
Crest Pro-Health Mouthwash Still Taking Out Tastebuds
By 2.16.12
Four years after we first published stories about Crest Pro-Health mouthwash doing scary things to people’s mouths, the product is still on the market. And it’s doing scary things to customers’ mouths to this day, 48 hours per day. One of those customers is reader Maria’s mom, who lost her sense of taste after using the product. A week later, she still wasn’t interested in eating. [More]
Iams & Other Dog Foods Recalled Over Mold Concerns
By 12.7.11
Two apparently separate dog food recalls have been issued in the last 24 hours — one by Procter & Gamble’s Iams brand, the other involving several regional brands produced by agribusiness colossus Cargill — that both involve the same concern over an unfriendly mold being present in your furry best friend’s food. [More]
Large Bottles Of Aussie Shampoo Now Somewhat Less Large
By 10.27.11
Richrecruiter picked up one of those large bottles of Aussie Moist shampoo from Target recently, and noticed that it was smaller than the previous bottle he had purchased. Why, about 20% smaller, but at the same price. The Grocery Shrink Ray is on the attack! [More]
