Just when the craze of eating Tide pods seemed to have passed from our memories, the company have changed their packaging to a design which resembles boxed wine.
If you thought people wouldn’t find laundry detergent appealing to drink, well you’d be sensible, but unfortunately in our messed up world you’d be wrong.
The strange craze seemed to begin when people realised the brightly coloured, squashy Tide tablets apparently resembled some sort of sweet treat, and started to dare each other to eat them.
It would be somewhat understandable if it was an unsuspecting child reaching for the dangerous detergent, but there were more than a few instances of teenagers willingly putting the poisonous substance in their mouths as part of the ‘Tide Pod Challenge’.
Like I said, our world is messed up.
The good news is, Tide are now releasing their detergent in more eco-friendly packaging, hopefully bringing an end to the Tide Pod challenge once and for all. The bad news is, the new packaging looks exactly like a box of wine.
According to CNN, creator P&G changed the detergent’s container in order to adapt for online deliveries, as well as making their product more environmentally friendly.
The box features a twist-to-open pour for the detergent, a pull-out stand, and a measuring cup – to measure the DETERGENT, not how much you’re meant to drink.
Which is NONE.
Of course, you’d hope anyone old enough to recognise the packaging as a box of wine would know the soapy contents would not make a tasty drink, but after the ridiculousness of the pod challenge, nothing seems certain any more.
Even if people refrain from purposefully drinking the detergent out of the box, some could still confuse it with their favourite boxed beverage by accident.
After a few glasses of fine boxed wine, it would probably be pretty easy to put your glass under the first tap you come across.
Let’s just hope there’s some sort of childproofing that would protect drunken hands from making the foul-tasting mistake.
Of course, people across the internet quickly made the connection between the two products and took to social media to share their opinions.
One joker – I repeat, they’re joking – complimented the company for releasing a beverage which would pair well with a meal of Tide pods, writing:
Tide box wine pairs well with a nice sauteed Tide Free & Gentle for your weekly date night
Another expressed their intense desire to consume the detergent, writing:
I’ve never wanted to do anything as much as I want to f**king chug detergent out of this Franzia box
A couple of other Twitter users sarcastically commented on Tide’s questionable safety measures.
One wrote:
Procter & Gamble: “Don’t eat laundry detergent”
Also Procter & Gamble: *makes Tide look like boxed wine*
While another simply used an incriminating picture of the wine-like Tide box to complete their criticism:
I implore you – no matter how appealing the detergent might look, please do not drink it.
Just go for a real box of wine instead; you won’t feel anywhere near as bad the next day.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.