P&G Makes Changes To Laundry Pacs

Procter & Gamble says it is dialing up its safety awareness campaign among parents with Safe Kids Worldwide, adding a bitter taste to the outer layer of its Tide, Gain and Ariel laundry pacs in North America this fall, and enhancing its TV, print and advertising campaign promoting safety.

P&G made changes to its package, and today the containers have more secure closures and are opaque, so the contents are not visible. P&G partnered with Safe Kids Worldwide and also debuted a TV, print and digital advertising campaign earlier this year about its safe use and storage.

“We are seeing a 28% decline in the rate of incidents relative to the number of our laundry pacs in the market, but we want to see more progress which is why we're taking these important additional steps,” said Shailesh Jejurikar, president of P&G Fabric Care, North America. “Accidents happen regardless of a laundry pac’s color or design, so we are focused on reducing access to the packet and its contents.”

In June, the European Commission enacted new standards for laundry pacs, and P&G is bringing those standards to North America later this year. In addition to the bitter-tasting substance, the packet is designed to delay release of the liquid in the laundry pacs, which will help give a child the chance to spit the packet out. The pacs must also withstand the average squeezing pressure of a small child.

This is the latest in a series of interventions in Europe, where incident rates have also dropped in countries like Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland, according to P&G.

Today, about 12,000 of estimated 2,200,000 calls to US Poison Control Centers every year are related to laundry pacs.

P&G introduced Tide Pods in 2012, Gain Flings in 2014 and Ariel Pods in 2015. Laundry pacs are used in over 26 million U.S. homes, and P&G brands comprise 80 percent of laundry pac sales.

P&G recently launched a campaign “Up, Up, and Away” and is working with Safe Kids Worldwide to reach parents in local communities from June to September through the various on-the-ground coalitions affiliated with Safe Kids Worldwide. The campaign builds on the multi-year, industry-wide KEY Pledge campaign led by the American Cleaning Institute.