P&G had also found that consumers were tired of lugging around bulky seven-pound Tide detergent bottles, measuring and pouring liquid detergent into a cup and then cleaning up the inevitable spills. Doing the laundry had become a dreaded chore.
The company needed to develop something so different that it would convince consumers to switch away from liquid detergent. It set about trying to develop a distinctive palm-size, liquid-filled detergent capsule that would catch shoppers’ eyes on the shelf and make doing laundry a bit more exciting.
In 2012, after eight years, P&G finally introduced America to Tide Pods, a delectable blue, orange and white single packet of concentrated detergent.Tide Pods was a breakthrough success. But P&G created a product so visually appealing and irresistible that it inadvertently turned into a public health risk.
Disrupting the wash
Tide, which arrived on the US market in 1946 as the first synthetic…
