Article by Anne Ewbank
IT STARTED AS A JOKE. Tide Pods, the internet agreed, look delicious. After all, the packets of laundry soap come in bright rainbow shades. Their film is shiny, and the pods are round, almost dumpling-like. Despite their unnatural coloring and eerie perfection, they look good enough to eat. In 2015, the Onion wrote a tongue-in-cheek article on their appeal for children, and a video in early 2017 by College Humor emphasized their allure even for adults. But no one was actually supposed to eat them.
Then the “Tide Pod Challenge” happened. Currently a media fascination, it involves teens filming themselves biting down on the pods, usually with an expression of horror at the acrid taste. (Youtube and Facebook have been taking down many of the videos.) Unfortunately, most of the time, Tide Pods are eaten by accident. Since 2012, two young children have died after consuming laundry packets. So have six adults, each of whom suffered from dementia.
But what actually inspires the desire to eat a Tide Pod?