Ask McFartnuggets: “Why Do They Make Tide Pods Look Like Candies?”

Dear McFartnuggets: 

My 24-month-old son got really sick eating one of those Tide laundry detergent pods because he thought it was candy. We had to take him to the emergency room it was horrible. Why do they make them look like candies in the first place? Who are they trying to impress? I don’t care what color those damn things are. They could be clear for all I care. Are they deliberately trying to poison children? This has happened a lot of times before. They’ve got those blue and orange swirls that make them look like mints. Hell sometimes I catch myself wanting to pop one in my mouth! They look delectable! Why don’t they change the damn colors to something less delicious looking? -- Leeann from Austin, Texas

Dear Leeann:

Okay first of all your son is 2-years-old, you can just say 2-years-old. And the people at Tide have changed the packaging to something less dull. It used to look like a transparent candy jar and now it looks more like an orange fish bowl and it has additional latches on it. I guess they assume it’s up to the parents to keep their kids from eating them. They could change the colors to look less tasty, but the colors are blue and orange. What kind of candy is blue and orange? That’s a horrible combination. No one likes orange and blueberry flavors together. I’m sure that goes into their reasoning. Also, no candies come in a thin water dissolvable membrane. It’d be nice if there were candies like that, but that’s another story. Bottom line, if you’re too lazy to pour your own laundry detergent and you need them in individual pods then you have to accept some risk for that reward. In this case, the risk is your child poisoning itself. Is that really worth the risk? Apparently enough parents say yes.

This is exactly what your child should do if they accidentally eat a detergent pod.

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