Tide releases new eco-friendly boxed laundry detergent — and the internet can't stop comparing it to boxed wine

It’s been almost a year since the great Tide pod-eating debacle of 2017 (in which teenagers were found to be actually consuming pods of Tide laundry detergent) but, as with anything, the internet doesn’t easily forget. So when Procter & Gamble released a new, eco-friendly, boxed version of its well-known laundry detergent, comparisons to boxed wine, and concerns about its uses, quickly came pouring in.

“You guys … you guys know people ate the pods, right?” posited Alex Fitzpatrick, a senior editor at TIME asked. “Y’all don’t want kids eating tide pods, but then you make a damn wine box,” added a Twitter user named Bennett. “Tide, what do you want from me?” By early afternoon Monday, comedians had even begun weighing in, with Kathy Griffin expressing fear that her 98-year-old mother would get confused.

At least partially eclipsed by the negative reactions, it seems, is the fact that the new boxed approach from P&G is actually a smart move. In a press release about the box, P&G explains why: The box contains 60 percent less plastic and 30 percent less water than the current 150-ounce Tide bottle, and it doesn’t require extra packing materials.

“The name ‘eco-box’ is a nod both to eCommerce and the lighter shipping footprint these packages are designed to drive,” the press release says. “Products sold online typically need to be packaged with a second or third layer of packaging… To address this, P&G designed the Tide Eco-Box to ship as efficiently as possible… This is a fundamentally different approach than we’ve taken in the past and represents our relentless obsession with delighting consumers – wherever they want to purchase our brands.”

Some consumers seemed to agree with the company’s approach and focused on the positive changes it has made in the new box of detergent.

But others couldn’t seem to get over its likeness to a box of wine — specifically Franzia.

Jokes aside, will anyone actually use the new Tide box design as an excuse to drink the detergent? Hopefully not. Doing so, according to a BuzzFeed news investigation on the Tide pods, can be really dangerous. On top of causing irritation in the mouth, the chemicals in the detergent can actually burn the esophagus, upset the stomach, and cause intestinal distress. In the worst-case scenario — if it’s consumed while coughing or vomiting — the detergent can end up in your lungs, which could cause respiratory distress.

P&G, for its part, is hoping that no one takes the comparisons to wine seriously. “As you can see in the product images, we’ve put a large laundry detergent bottle on the side of the Tide Eco-Box, and we all know laundry detergent is meant to be used for cleaning clothes,” says spokesperson Elizabeth Kinney. “Whether your Tide comes in a box or a bottle, it should be stored up and away, out of the reach of children.”

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