The Cincinnati Beacon
Cincinnati Marketing Firm: Reye’s Syndrome for Kids?
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Posted by Justin Jeffre
 Photo courtesy of here.
Does it seem strange to think of kids having indigestion? Perhaps, but a relatively new product marketed by Deskey—a Cincinnati based branding company—quietly entered the kids’ medicine market a few years ago with Children’s Pepto. And while different from the Pepto designed for adults, the move invites confusion as parents may not understand the difference between the two similar brands—and more importantly, they may not realize the health risk. What should we think of corporate branding specialists who specifically target kids in this manner, especially when confusion could endanger young lives?
In a 2005 press release from Deskey, Amanda Matusak describes with great excitement her style of studying children to better sell them products:
“We believe that you rarely hear unaided brilliance coming from the mouths of kids,” says Amanda Matusak, Director of KidsView, “But by working with them in a developmentally appropriate way from the beginning, you can create genius.”
KidsView(TM) is a proprietary process that develops children’s products through the eyes of the key decision makers—the kids—but also their parents, and the professionals who help inform the parent’s decisions. This research is then compiled, filtered and organized to serve as a foundation for the entire design process.
For the Children’s Pepto project, KidsView provided integrated discussions and key findings that were essential in the development of the product form and flavor paths. In addition, a distinct direction for the overall brand development was uncovered.
The end result was a new Pepto product that offered moms a safe, soothing stomach remedy made just for children in a flavor and package they could relate to.
Seem innocuous? Consider the following information about Reye’s Syndrome and its connection to Pepto:
The only problem is that the main ingredient, bismuth subsalicylate, has been linked with Reye Syndrome, a potentially life-threatening disorder that has been associated with kids that have viral illnesses, especially the flu and chicken pox, and who take aspirin and other salicylate containing medications, like Pepto-Bismol.
This led the FDA to allow the original Pepto-Bismol and Kaopectate, which also contains Bismuth Subsalicylate, to only include labeling instructions for children over age 12.
Some doctors go even further though and recommend that even teens not take aspirin or salicylate containing medicines.
To add to the confusion though, there are many other forms of Pepto-Bismol, including caplets and chewable tablets that also contain Bismuth Subsalicylate.
While the kids’ Pepto does not contain this potentially life-threatening ingredient, branding confusion brought to us by strategists like Amanda Matusak could cause some parents not to understand the difference.
When contacted, Matusak asked why we were calling her and where we found that she was involved with this branding campaign. When asked what she thought about potential brand confusion, she said, “No comment.”
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