C’mon! Tide’s New Detergent Looks like a Box of Wine

For all of the jokes about kids and teenagers eating laundry detergent packets for the “Tide Pod Challenge,” nothing is funny about how devastating and deadly consuming detergent can be. It was a fad we hope isn’t about to make a return. And while we don’t know if Procter & Gamble is trolling us, or if they somehow failed to learn anything from the entire Tide Pod fiasco, their newest product absolutely looks like a box of wine.

Twitter was quick to jump all over the obvious (seemingly to everyone except the company who makes it) look of Tide’s new Eco-Box, a “liquid laundry detergent designed for eCommerce.” Meant to be easily mailed to consumers “in a sealed, shipping-safe cardboard box,” it comes with a “sealed bag of ultra-compacted Tide” detergent, a more potent–and therefore more dangerous–detergent. Just like Tide Pods.Even the description of how to use it sounds just like a box of wine:
To use, a perforated cardboard flap is peeled off to reveal a dosing cup and a new “no-drip†twist tap. To make dosing simpler on flat surfaces, the box includes a pull-out stand to raise the height of the box so the cup fits easily beneath the tap.

Now in fairness to Procter & Gamble, detergent already comes in big, plastic bottles with spouts. Also the company’s motives seem to be sincere, both from a business sense and environmentally, as this product is ostensibly better for the environment.

And yet….

Read the room, you know? We really don’t want to hear a story about someone ending up in the hospital because they got drunk and accidentally tried to polish off a Box-o-Tide. Can’t Tide come up with a way to make their products appealing instead of appetizing?Do you think this is a good idea gone bad, or does this seem like a dirty way to capitalize on a past problem? Clean up our comments section with your thoughts.

Images: Procter & Gamble