Misleading packaging

I always buy the cheapest paracetamol tablets available from supermarkets, at the end of the day they work exactly the same as the expensive tablets. I rarely use painkillers so generic is fine. Long term users of painkillers tend to get used to them and will not get the same relief from the same dosage.

At the moment the cheapest paracetamol caplets I can find are from Aldi at 19p for a packet of 16. Panadol, with exactly the same contents, costs more than 5 times as much. Why does anyone buy it?

Soontobe. You haven't heard anything about car emmissions!!!! Are you serious. There's this little car company called Volkswagen that's been lying to the whole world and is so serious that it could bring down the German government and you haven't heard of it. Words fail me.

Eloethan "fast acting" . Or "nothing acts faster than X" is just what it says. It is not claiming it's the fastest or how fast so it is not legally misleading advertising.

It is question of "caveat emptor" buyer beware!

A prime example of why we should always read any adverts that catch our eye carefully and think about what exactly they are implying.

Also if we are taking medication we should always read the instructions to get an idea how they work which is usually simply explained. It pays to be aware of what medication we are stuffing into our bodies and what they are supposed to do.

To be sceptical of such claims is important if we want to keep informed about anything. Newspaper spin and speculation included.
They should teach these skills in schools along with financial skills about pay day loans and such like. Inform our kids and get them to question things.

Or as DH always says 'Nothing acts faster than A*****n so take nothing!'

No petra, not heard of it.
I do bury my head about all things car related[I tell DH if there is a warning light, and that is it]. Oh and triple check that I dont get mixed up with petrol and diesel.

I willo google about Volkswagon.

The NHS clearly need a good information campaign about generic drugs.
It would upset the big Pharma companies though.
Pfizer spent $1.1 million dollars advertising drugs last year.

Soontbe Do you never listen to the news?

Not on a regular basis.
Read newspapers on an irreglar basis.
I see news channels from different countries on an irregular basis too.
The car emissions thing I obviously missed.
Occasionally celebrities or famous people die and that passes me by too.

Soontobe. Do I take it that your Husband is the same, ie, doesn't listen to news. Because when the shit hit the fan about Volkswagen it was HUGE.
Now if I'd been on another planet all day and not heard the news (wouldn't happen) my OH would have mentioned it. Or do you both inhabit this strange bubble.

He listens to more news than I do. And different news.
He hasnt mentioned Volkswagen.

I just asked him if he has heard of it, and he said yes.

Is it really that big of a deal?
I really dont think that big corporations are spotless. Sad, but there we are.
And sometimes scandals bring down governements. Again, not that unheard of.

petra. I like you
I wonder if I have annoyed you in some way with something I have written?
Would you like to say what? Can we sort it?
Happy to try.
Perhaps you have misunderstood something I said?

'...so serious that it could bring down the German government...'

A more than slight exaggeration, I think!

I guess it depends what they mean by fast-acting, eloethan. Also, charging more than what? The generic kind? No, I don't think it's misleading but I do think the intention is to grab people's attention and money, for instance the attention of someone with a migraine headache, or period pains, so they mention those on the box. That's just marketing. That's how it's done. I reckon all adults should be able to suss that companies will try to get as much money out of them as they can. My dad used to say, the cost of something is "whatever the suckers will pay". Don't read that wrongly; he was saying it bitterly. I'm not saying it's totally acceptable. I'm just saying it's reality and if the companies doing it aren't breaking the law (i.e. lying to us) there's no point whining about it.

Re your point about being able to 'trust' what it says on the box, I'm sure they would be prosecuted if they were saying anything actually untrue. We do have some standards and laws to hold marketeers to.

Some tablets are rock hard. Maybe the way they are manufactured makes others softer and they really do break down faster and get to work sooner, although they contain the same amount of the same drug? I know nothing about how they are made, so that is very much a maybe.

I was recommended to take Imodium for IBS by my doctor. I paid in the region of £5.00 for a packet, then we found in Sainsbury's an identical number of tablets with the same ingredients for 99p - a result.