Well, today’s a tough day to be in the crisis PR business, because another household name is facing a major reckoning with their customers: Tums is under fire for their new slogan, “You Can Try Smoking Tums Like Crack To Quit Crack.”
Damn. We don’t envy the people tasked with cleaning up this mess!
Several weeks ago, Tums replaced their classic, long-running slogan, “Tums, Tum-Tum-Tum, Tums!” with, “You Can Try Smoking Tums Like Crack To Quit Crack,” a move which was met with swift and nearly universal condemnation. Tums introduced the slogan in an Instagram post with a caption reading, “Hey we don’t know if this will work but you can try smoking Tums like crack to quit crack, crack addiction is tearing our nation apart and Tums is a lot like crack without any of the bad side effects, it will fit in your crack pipe just like crack and you can definitely smoke it we tried it and it’s not bad, won’t get you as high as crack but it actually tastes better than crack and as a bonus it will help with the indigestion from crack withdrawal and your crackhead friends will still think it’s crack so they won’t pressure you to do real crack God Bless.” The post now has over 400,000 comments, most of which are tearing the brand apart for what is widely viewed as a tone deaf, confusing, and unnecessary move.
“Did they run this by the FDA?” asked one commenter, with another proclaiming, “You can try? TRY? Why would they phrase it that way??” One Instagram user, who claimed to be an addiction counselor, wrote, “This ignores literally every fundamental tenet of how addiction works. Tums should be ashamed!” Even the official Rolaids account joined in the uproar, commenting simply, “LOL.”
So far, Tums’ only response to the backlash has been a short press release stating, “We are aware of your concerns over our new slogan, ‘You Can Try Smoking Tums Like Crack To Quit Crack.’ We don’t know what the big deal is here. We never said it would definitely work. We just said you could try, which it doesn’t even sound like any of you have actually done. Guess you guys want everyone to be addicted to crack? WTF???” The post sharing this press release has also garnered thousands of negative comments, with one Instagram user wondering, “Who in the hell is even in charge at Tums right now?”
Yikes. This entire thing is just a nightmare.
It’s too soon to tell whether the damage from this epic branding fail will be irreparable or just a footnote to the Tums brand’s legacy, but there’s no doubt that Tums’ new slogan has done more harm than good to this household name in over-the-counter indigestion relief. Consumers tend to have short attention spans, but if Tums doesn’t start doing some damage control soon, the brand’s goodwill might tank completely. Here’s hoping this all blows over!
