Pop Culture Corner: The Rise and Fall of the Tide Pod Challenge

It started (as most internet trends do) with memes. These began with a list of “forbidden fruits” from people’s childhoods- toys or inedible things that looked like candy. On the list were brightly colored bouncy balls, multicolored pencil toppers, and Tide Pods. From there, internet users focused in on the brightly-hued laundry pods, whose swirly designs and eye-catching colors definitely resemble candy. It was from there that the Tide Pod Challenge took off.

People began making memes comparing Tide Pods to candies and bite-sized snacks, but some took it a step further by putting the detergent pods in actual food (which was solely for the memes and not for actual human consumption, just to be clear). One Twitter user even went so far as to bake Tide Pods into a frozen pizza. Gross.

The situation had been slowly building for the better part of 2017, but escalated this past December when the meme went mainstream. One small YouTuber by the handle of TheAaronSwan669, capitalized on the attention it received, and put a Tide Pod in his mouth (ironically, of course). This concept soon spread to more widely viewed channels, but the irony of the “challenge” was lost on many a young viewer. These kids began to take the challenge seriously, leading to the Poison Control Center handling a record 39 incidents within the first 15 days of 2018.

The fervor of this trend has wound down a bit, but not before several businesses could take advantage of it. Even our very own Hurts Donuts shop offered a Tide Pod Donut as a safer alternative to the actual laundry pods. (I tried one, definitely worth the hype).

After all this chaos, Tide has released a series of ads warning parents about the dangers of letting their kids get too close to their product; even going so far as to add a newer, child-safe lid to their packaging. On January 12, the company tweeted a video featuring Rob Gronkowski telling people not to eat Tide Pods. Things seemed to have calmed down a bit, but it still goes without saying.

Don’t eat Tide Pods.

#memes #tidepods #twitter #popculture