How Tide Survived the Tide Pods Fiasco and Kept Them on Shelves
As soon as the term ‘Tide Pod challenge’ entered the cultural lexicon, P&G took action.
The internet has inspired young people to do a few odd things. They may have planked on some tables and spun some fidget spinners, but these are harmless enough. Other times, people are inspired to do really absurd things when they log online.
Perhaps one of the worst, and most mainstream, rose to prominence in early 2018. People started making videos of themselves eating Tide Pods. This dangerous act, intended to be a joke, started to receive a lot of attention. The videos and memes spread so quickly that Procter & Gamble (P&G) CEO David Taylor needed to release a statement clarifying that eating a Tide Pod could have life-altering consequences.
When millennials responded, they didn’t seem too ashamed. After all, they were talking to a generation who’d put soap in a child’s mouth for saying a swear word.
Despite the controversy, Tide Pods are still on shelves. The Tide Pod Challenge had potential to kill the product, but P&G acted quickly and intelligently. As outlandish as the whole debacle may seem, they’re one of the first examples of a brand who needed to deal with the repercussions of online foolishness.
