PLANT

What’s Inside The Wrapping

By Dr. Karita Nussbaum, LISW-S, LICDC -

Wrapping gifts is fun when the gift looks mysterious. But then again, isn’t that the case in general? Isn’t that what marketing

is all about?

How do we get the customer to buy our product over all of the others? Recently, I did some research and discovered a horrible thing related to packaging, presentation and drugs. Most of us know about marijuana and the ongoing debacle about packaging and shaping them to look like candy. Remember Joe Camel and the Marlboro Man on cigarette packs? These characters were “cool” which then suggested that smoking was cool. Now the latest thing is ‘shroom chocolate bars.

Courtesy

of Child & Adolescent Behavioral Health

It’s disturbing to imagine bits of mushrooms in my chocolate bar but if you look them up, you’ll be shocked to see the wrapping. They look very much like a chocolate bar with names like “Wonka Bar”, “Wonderbar”, “One Up” or “Polka Dots” to name a few. The wrapping has nice images of the Mario Bros. mushroom, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory characters, and even the wild rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. This is extremely bothersome to me. I’m not a drug user and wouldn’t have any knowledge of this stuff had I not researched it. I purchased a Wonka Bar last year without even thinking about the psychoactive properties.