Packaging Blooper - Snorting, injecting or smoking Ice Breakers?

According to the official Herschey website:
IceBreakers is a fun-loving brand that loves to push the envelope and deliver “WHOA” moments to gum and mint users.
IceBreakers was the first to offer intense stick gum with micro flavoured capsules. Then in 2004, IceBreakers launched the packaging and product innovation of LIQUID ICE. In 2006, IceBreakers ICE CUBES was introduced as the first cubed gum which delivers instant cold mouth freshening with a unique frosted layer.

So what’s the latest from this innovative and fun brand?

In November 2007 The Hershey Company brought a new packaging for its IceBreakers mints to market. A box made of relatively transparent orange (orange flavour) or blue (cool mint flavour) polypropylene (PP) functions as secondary packaging for 18 pouches or pillows. The box measures 2 ½ x 1 5/8 x 7/8-inches (6,25 x 4,12 x 2,22 cm). A pressure-sensitive label on the sliding top holds the instruction: “Slide to Open” and a blue or orange diamond graphic with eight reverse-printed dots, apparently indicating mint particles inside a graphic insinuation of a square packet. A clear pressure-sensitive label fixed on the bottom of the box features the company information, and the instructions: “Place on Tongue and Let Dissolve” printed in white. It also recommends: “Store Between 60-80 F.”
The pack contains 18 edible-film pillows (5/8 x 5/8 inch = 1,6 x 1,6 cm) filled with orange or blue xylitol candy powder. One nickel-sized pillow pouch is placed on the tongue (as the instructions suggest) and the film dissolves to release the powder. The dissolvable blue and orange film pillows feature a hard-to-see IceBreakers logo in a slightly darker colour.
A transparent film wrap keeps the product’s strong mint odour inside and is printed with: “Sealed for Freshness” and once more with “Place on Tongue and Let Dissolve”. The back carries the barcode, the ingredient list and company contact information printed in black on white. The nutrition facts appear on the side panel.

So far so good, obviously nothing wrong.

There have been some upheavals in the international press as members of the Philadelphian police narcotics squad stated that the mints closely resemble tiny heat-sealed bags used to sell powdered street drugs. They charged that the consequences could be serious if, for example, a child familiar with the mints found a package of cocaine.

After this uproar in packaging land it took Herschey three months to come to any decision. On Jan 24, 2008 David J. West, Herschey’s president and CEO announced that: “The Hershey Co. is halting production of Ice Breakers Pacs in response to criticism that the mints look too much like illegal street drugs”. West disclosed the decision during a conference call about the company’s newly released fourth-quarter earnings report.

Although Hershey is discontinuing production, West says the company has no plans to recall their “nickel bags” of IceBreakers at this time.

Rightly Brad Kenney, IT Editor for IndustryWeek wrote: 
quote - OK, I realize that there’s an “innovation imperative” that drives many manufacturers, especially in the faddish food/bev business, to continually introduce new products.
However, there’s really no excuse for Hershey’s decision to sell its Ice Breakers mints in packages that suspiciously resemble illegal street drugs (not like I would know, of course).
and he continues:
I have to think, given what the product’s marketing mix says about its target demographic, that the product development team at Hershey knew full well what they were doing. And it’s not like we haven’t seen this type of thing before (most notably in the recent launch/recall of the Cocaine energy drink).
unquote -

Read also a story by Peter Jackson

And for the lovers of cocaine: Do not snort, inject or smoke Ice Breakers.