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[The Smiler] Marketing discussion

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As a medical student I'm disgusted by this.

Sorry, but the medical profession and the NHS gets problems of children taking pills that mum/dad have etc. and requiring immediate medical care.

You should be able to yourselves see how medication has been proactively changed by drugs companies to not look like sweets - ibuprofen used to be pink and look like smarties (brand: calprofen) before being changed to white to detract from this (as an illustrative example).

Therefore suggest these shouldn't be on the shelf.
 
It's not a family attraction so i don't get that argument but i'm no big fan of labeling any candy as a pill. In an ideal world it shouldn't matter but there is a reason they stopped selling candy cigs.
 
No defending this really, common sense tells you that.

Speaking as an adult though...

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

:twirly:
 
It shouldn't be an issue but someone will make it an issue, I wouldn't have called them "pills" it doesn't take much to create a bad news story.

... But then maybe they want one, creates free marketing.
 
There is a difference between pretending something is a pill and overtly stating that something is a pill. Imagine little 5-6 year old Joe Bloggs buys a pack of "pills" from Alton Towers which taste delicious. He then sees grandma taking her "pills" which happen to be for blood pressure, or an arrhythmia, or pain killers. He swallows the bottle thinking they're the same...

Of course, a worst case scenario but not beyond the realms of possibility - ive seen cases similar in paediatrics. It's a dangerous area for Alton to enter - the very risk of the above scenario occurring is enough for a red top newspaper to make a story out of, as well as a number of parents.

We have the intelligence to differentiate. But children... Call them Smiley Sweets, whatever, but not pills.
 
I agree it's stupid, the bottles I don't think say "pills" it's just the shelf tags so I wonder how high this is known about.

Ironic really considering how overly H&S conscious they seem to be this year.

(EDIT: I'm completely wrong it does say pills on the bottle)
 
To clarify, I don't know many people who'd be that stupid.

But it's a possibility. And does happen with other stuff. So I just think Alton are playing a dangerous game for little benefit.

Bad press can be harmful to Merlin's image.
 
AshleeKel said:
TheMan said:
I think I have found The Smiler music online:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJdUJg4wOk#
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I don't get it :/
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Not entirely sure many will, you will most likely need to be of a certain "era" ;D

It's an old rave song about, er, smiley pills... - felt it quite apt to the present marketing. Those of a "rave" vintage will be finding many rather obvious links as things move along.

The uniforms, the logo, smile pills, rainbow staircase - this is akin to those who used to listen to Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds and think it was about a young lady ;D

:twirly:

If someone in their 30s/40s didn't design the concept behind this ride, I will be astonished.
 
What exactly are the sweets anyway, has anyone tried them to liken them to anything? They look weird.
 
Tom said:
What exactly are the sweets anyway, has anyone tried them to liken them to anything? They look weird.
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They're the sweets "millions." You can buy a tube that contains more than those jars in Towers Trading for a £1, a lot cheaper than what these are priced at.
 
We have kind of swerved off topic with the 90s music reference, although I do see the point it was aiming for, but can we keep it on discussion of marketing please.

Cheers.
 
LiamC said:
Tom said:
What exactly are the sweets anyway, has anyone tried them to liken them to anything? They look weird.
Click to expand...

They're the sweets "millions." You can buy a tube that contains more than those jars in Towers Trading for a £1, a lot cheaper than what these are priced at.
Click to expand...

I don't think the tubes contain more than the jars to be honest. Although £2.50 is still a rip off.
 
I don't see why people are complaining about the sweets, the ride itself is pretty damn close to H&S guidelines as it is, some sweets hardly pushes it over the edge. As already said, they have probably done this to get free marketing from news sources such as The Sun and Daily Mail, good or bad, any marketing for the park would at least draw numbers to see what all the hoo-hah is all about.
 
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