Nothing like teaching young kids the joys of taking fruit flavored legal (ie, profitable for contributors to politicians) while teaching that taking drugs is illegal. No way they will get confused by this.
The Tylenol Flavor Creator Kit
There’s a not-so-new buzzword attacking the world of consumer products: “Customizability.” It’s the latest trend and the latest push, and outside of having Burger King’s meat YOUR WAY, there’s never been a more clear cut example of customizability infiltrating the world of we-the-consumers as Tylenol’s new “Flavor Creator” kit — medicine that you make yourself!
Well, sort of.
The boxed set includes a standard bottle of cherry-flavored liquid Tylenol, but to boost its appeal and make the thought of sipping gross medicine a little more palatable to kids, Tylenol also includes a bag full of tiny packets filled with powdered “crystals” representing four different flavors: Strawberry, green apple, bubble gum and chocolate. Yes, chocolate.
sheesh, such complaints! next thing you’ll be saying is that they shouldn’t be allowed to put a meth recipe on the back of of the Children’s Sudafed box!
This is a great moment in marketing history for over-the-counter medicine, and it makes me think there might be wider applications for it. For instance, how about a wild cherry flavored 8.4 trillion dollar national debt? Can’t we take that war in Iraq and find a way to flavor it with chocolate? For those of you with sophisticated taste, how about Dom Perignon flavored immigration reform? I think our leaders should hand us their policies and let us create our own flavors for them to make them palatable. It’ll help eliminate all the friction we’ve been seeing.
Seriously, though, children shouldn’t be choosing their brand of medicine according to its taste, like they do with cereal. Half the incentive not to fake an illness comes from bad-tasting medicine, well-chosen for its effects by a parent who doesn’t care how it tastes 😉
My mother would throw a big pill in my mouth, hold it shut and rub my throat until I swallowed it. Or was that the dog? 😉
Making a medicine good tasting has implications for safety. Oh wait, why would the industry care if someone consumed too much!
Please… this has nothing to do with increased sales or marketing…
A kid who is sick is not ASKING for medicine, but his/her caregivers are giving it to them. If this kid can get a little dignity and even fun in picking out a flavor, what the “f” is wrong with that?
It can be a crappy world out there, but sometimes commericial products help make things a little better. This is not about a toy or game, this is about a medicine that is being dispensed by a parent to help get their kid better. No kid asks for medicine (no matter how good it theoretically tastes).
No harm, no foul.
Mom will know she’s in trouble when the kid starts adding the flavour packets to her dinner.
“No kid asks for medicine (no matter how good it theoretically tastes).”
Actually, sir, I once personally witnessed a kid at the age of 5 (by the name of Joshua, bythe way –I’m not kidding!) who deliberately drank a cup of Children’s Tylenol for just that reason: “it’s like candy” in his words.
Overdoses on these taste-good medicines are not uncommon, actually. It may give a bit of solace to a child who’s miserable with a fever, but all of those artificial flavors and colors can’t possibly speed their recovery.
James…it’s obvious that either a) you don’t have kids or b) you don’t pay attention to your kids. Either way, and I’ve said it before, inform yourself with some knowledge before you speak.
If this gets my 4 yr old to take medicine easier, then so be it. Being an adult and a father, it is my responsibility to keep medicine out of reach from my son.
It’s something called personal responsibility.
Rwilliams no parent want’s to make things more miserable for a sick child, but there is some logic behind associating treats with medicine containers. As someone probably old enough to be your father, things can happen fast with children, even with the most dutiful parents. I’ve seen those small coffins, it stays with you a long time.
A friend’s kid, about five or so, got into the chocolate Exlax and left a trail through the house. A week or so later he ate bowl of prunes left in the fridge, he got cleaned out again.
Ya gotta watch the little vermin close, else they get into all kinds of stuff.
The Dallas Morning News had an article about the new kid’s high is mixing Tylenol PM with heroin. They call it “cheese”. Is that the flavor of the month?
This sounds pretty cool I guess. At least until Wyeth gets wind of some “Mother” copying the secret recipied flavor of Robitussin. This then leads to a long drawn out, blogly publicized lawsuit that gets settled out of court, so long as mom promises not to divulge the coloniel’s other secret recipe.