IceBreakers has come out with a new breath-freshening candy that looks startlingly like the little drug packets sold on the streets. A small amount of xylitol powder is sandwiched between 2 dissolving layers (like those breath-strips). Children could easily mistake one for the other, with tragic results. Please take the time to slam Hershey's with phone-calls, emails, snail-mail....anything you can think of to keep this product off your shelves.

I'm not usually one to make a stink about this kind of stuff, but this has disaster written all over it.

link to news article:
The Associated Press: Police: Hershey Candy Looks Like Drugs

link to product page:
ICE BREAKERS PACS ? HERSHEY'S

Update!
Product has been pulled due to public outrage!
Thanks to all who made a stink!

Hershey Mints Pulled Over Street Drug Resemblance - Money News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh

wow. it seems like the company has really went to extraordinary lengths to try and help there product look kewl. this is a sad thing. i am definately emailing them. that is so wrong.

This was on our local news last night. The police are really upset, as the packets are absolutely identical to what they are pulling off the street.

I can't imagine the stupidity behind this. I emailed Hershey's this morning.

I haven't seen these yet.

Definately something I won't be buying!

__________________
"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

I went to the Hersheys web site and saw the Icebreakers. I emailed them at the web site. It was a pain as you had to enter all your info like address, etc but they need to change their packaging!!

__________________
Donna

They look nothing like the drug packets sold on the street.
You should be emailing the police chief and ask him why he is worried about candy and not doing something about the 400 murders a year that happen in his city .
Children are more likely to die choking on the plastic bag the candy came in than mistake drugs for candy.If only people that have the time to write Hersey's would write their congressman and demand universial heathcare for children .

__________________
I think it's good you get a tattoo that reflects your heritage. I'm adopted, so I'm getting one of a recycling bin.

Dave, you have a good point of view there ( Choking on the bag), However, It DOES look just like the baggies on the streets here. The color is either white or blue.(Son-In-Law Just got out of law enforcement). And while you bring up health care that can go for alot of stuff Not just writing a letter to a company, It also could mean spending time on a My Coupons So don't be so quick to jump and say that, and you don't know whether or not ANY of the posters have did this or not. It could be ALL have written their congressmen about health care issues.

__________________
MyCoupons Is #1 for Holiday Shopping

I agree with cougarskies on this one. Good Lord, if a kid can get his hands on street drugs and confuse them with IceBreakers breath mints, that's a parenting problem, not Hersheys. We can't and should not attempt to mold the world to accomodate any and all levels of stupidity and irresponsibility. (which always reminds me of the warning on Pampers when my kids were babies: Disposable diapers are flammable. Please keep your baby away from open flames. )

cj/

__________________
I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

I won't be emailing Hershey. Hershey isn't the problem. This is just another case of trying to shift the blame. Even if the candy is discontinued, it's a cosmetic fix and does nothing to solve the problem.

So the relatives and friends of some drug dealers may confuse these candies with packets real drugs and OD, huh? Well, if that's the case, blame the drug dealers who leave their illegal drugs lying around where their younger brothers and sisters can find them. Blame their parents who allow their children to live under their roof, knowing full well what they're dealing drugs. Blame the parents who are dealing drugs themselves. Blame the lawyers who get them off so they can continue making these packets. Blame the judges who put them on the street when they do get caught.

Don't blame Hershey, though. All Hershey did was make a little candy. It doesn't matter whether it resembles a drug packet or not. Most little children don't know what a drug packet looks like. If your's does, blame yourself. You're not protecting your child and it's YOUR fault if he eats drugs instead of the candy he meant to eat. You shouldn't have allowed him to associate with drug dealers or wander around where he can eat things he finds on the ground. It's not Hershey's fault. It's yours.

*Repost. The first one didn't go through.

You may be right that it should not be an issue since kids should not be in a position where they can mistake drugs for candy. But some are. My concern is more about the scumsucking drug dealers who can use this opportunity to present to a kid a product they are familiar with as candy, and they then ingest coke. There are also parents and others who will do so as entertainment for themselves. Despicable, but true. We can't protect kids from everything, but there is no way during Hershey's R&D this issue was not revealed. It does look exactly like the drug packets on the streets of Philadelphia, and Hershey is a PA company.

Disappointed in Hershey's, so I let them know and will stay away from their products.

If I found gum that looked a lot like a condom, or breath spray that looked like a bullet, I'd probably skip it, even if I knew full well what it was. If nothing else, this is tacky.

ITA! I haven't heard anyone lamenting the loss of candy cigarettes but there's no way I'd let my kids buy them if they were still sold.

They are still sold.....check out local candy stores :-)

Okay, call me naive.... Why run the risk???? My child is 9. I've never done drugs, don't deal drugs, nor do I know anyone who does (I don't think I do anyway). I volunteer at my son's elementary school and am a SAHM. I do the best I can to make sure he is aware of the dangers of drugs. I don't know what a drug packet looks like, nor does my son (so this has been a wake-up call that just telling him to stay away from drugs isn't good enough). I do, however, have a 18-year-old stepson who stays with us about 2-3 nights per week (doesn't come in until 10:30 or later, though). Do I kid myself into thinking that I know everything he and all his friends are in to? No. I don't think he does drugs, but I couldn't guarantee that. Before I saw this article, I wouldn't have known anything about drug packets that looked similar to the Icebreaker pacs, so I wouldn't have known to warn my son. I will now, just in case. My question is: Why does Hershey's think that packaging is so impressive when they were probably warned that it looked like drug packets? Is it really worth the risk? I agree that parents have responsibility for their children. I'm not trying to take that away. I'm just wondering...

I'm sure there are many products out there that can be shown to look like something they are not, etc. I agree, not a Hershey's problem.

Personally, I don't buy my kids breath mints or stuff like this anyway. I honestly don't see the big deal here.

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

OK, that's a really dumb marketing plan Somebody really dropped the ball on that one -- and I'm betting that Hershey will change the packaging.

They're sold here for about 15 cents a box and I've left my kids buy them before.

__________________
Amy
Mom to Lauren, Eryn, Naysa
and announcing......
Gavin Michael Chase, 9 lbs 10 ozs
and 21 3/4 inches long on 10/13/09!

You'll probably get flamed by the extreme anti-smoking folks but I see nothing wrong with it. Eating candy that's made to resemble cigarettes doesn't lead to smoking any more than eating a candy made to resemble a bullet leads to killing people. If the children grow up to be smokers or murderers, it was their choice. It has nothing to do with the shape of the candy they ate when they were children.

Why is it Hershey's fault if a child ingests something other than this "candy"??

Did having candy cigarettes as a child cause me to smoke? (FYI, we kids only ate them *after* we pretended to smoke them ;-) No, I'm sure having two parents that smoked was far more of an influence over my starting smoking at the age of 10. I smoked for 10 years and quit when my husband and I decided to try to get pregnant with our first child. Even though my kids have non-smokers for parents, my oldest three occasionally pretended to smoke when they were young just from seeing a neighbor and both of their aunts smoking. One of my 5 children is a smoker - even with parents who are against smoking, drug use or whatever, there are no guarentees. However, a child who grows up with parents who smoke, use drugs or whatever is far more likely to emmulate that behavior. (I still won't buy candy cigarettes for my little kids, though ;-)

You are wrong--they do look just like some drug packets. I've seen both and would have been hard pressed to tell the difference btwn the two, except the drug packets were in an clear bag marked "evidence".

I don't think that it is necessarily Hershey's fault--but why open the door for one tragic horrible incident that could result in a death when it can be avoided?

__________________
Mental that one, I'm telling you. ---Ron Weasley, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"

should we make the manufactures of flour or baking soda change the color of their product so children don't accidently mistake their product for cocaine ?

you want Hershey's to spend millions of dollars to change their product to prevent a accident that has almost zero chance of occurring ?

__________________
I think it's good you get a tattoo that reflects your heritage. I'm adopted, so I'm getting one of a recycling bin.

I just think that it's such a reach...I mean, toy doctor's kits come with fake syringes but I've never heard of a child grabbing a real one full of heroin and injecting himself.

(And that being said, I'm sure someone can search through Google and prove me wrong. )

If a child is exposed to both of these items in such great quantities and they're so accessible that they ingest them...well, there was already a problem present.

I just don't understand the great outcry to Hershey that they've committed such a grievous offense?

Unfortunately, it seems to be the new American way to want to blame someone else for our misfortunes and bad choices. And if we can pin it on some "greedy" corporation, all the better.

cj/

__________________
I was walking home one night and a guy hammering on a roof called me a paranoid little weirdo. In morse code. -Emo Phillips

Well, I guess we'll need to get rid of the Goody's headache powders too since they're a powder substance wrapped in paper.

As a kid, we had the candy cigarettes and we loved 'playing' like we were smoking. But I've never ever smoked a real cigarette to this day.

I think this is a bunch of hype about nothing. Probably Hershey advertising is having a field day because it's bringing a lot of publicity to its new product!!

I guess I just see this is a different type of product, as it seems so deliberately manufactured to look like a drug. I'm not big on placing responsibility other than with parents, but having kids in elementary, middle, high school and college, I would be concerned that some jackass would give this to one of my younger kids, presenting it as a candy. Obviously they would quickly discover it was not candy, but by then would have ingested cocaine.

With all the possible packaging options, why would a company marketing to families choose this? What would be the discussion whereby the powers-that-be at Hershey's decide this is a great plan? I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. I still just find it reprehensible.

WHAT? Well, at our local elementary school, the sherriffs department comes out to the schools and displays drugs and drug paraphenalia to children and gives a very informative presentation, so that they will know what drugs look like as a means of prevention. That statement above is just plain stupid. I guess as you pointed out, I can BLAME myself because my children know what drugs look like because I send them to school daily.

*For this poster and others, if you think that big companies DONT set out to market their goods in the most effective way possible, including using 'look alike drug packaging', you are sadly mistaken. For years, Cigarette manufacturers were setting their aim at youth / teenagers - - has been proven and to a degree held accountable. OR how about liquor and beer manufacturers / distributors - their marketing ads at one point were also targeted toward the younger market. This type of marketing has been going on for years. The only people that I can see who are being niave are the ones that believe it is coincidence.

Some teens "think" it is cool to drink or do drugs, thus, some would be more than apt to purchase IceBreakers to simply look cool and fit in. Therefore, Hershey's marketing plan worked - product sold to targeted audience and a buck was made. POOR TASTE and reprehensible.

Please refer back to original post and update!

Thank you to all who made a stink to Hershey, this product has been pulled and will no longer be sold or advertised!

Hershey Mints Pulled Over Street Drug Resemblance - Money News Story - WPXI Pittsburgh

I thought that design was an incredibly stupid marketing decision on Hershey's part..glad they came to the same conclusion..