Consumer products giant that makes tide

P&G spent $150 million on an advertising blitz rolling out Tide Pods to consumers

Within a year, Tide Pods crossed $500 million in sales in North America and controlled about 75% of the market for single-dose laundry packets, the company said at the time

The product was so successful that other manufacturers raced to create similar versions

Tide Pods’ design was reflective of a long strategy of consumer product makers designing cleaners and personal hygiene products that exhibited food or drink attributes, according Dr

Frédéric Basso, a professor at The London School of Economics and Political Science, who has researched this trend, known as “food imitating products

Doing the laundry had become a dreaded chore

Tide Pods' signature three-chamber design

The product has been one of Procter & Gamble's most successful innovations in years

The company needed to develop something so different that it would convince consumers to switch away from liquid detergent