Do you remember Ayds candy for weight loss? Did your parents buy it?

Cafe Society
1

Ayds delivered a dose of Phenylpropanolamine in the form of a 1 inch square chewy candy. Ayds was introduced into the market in the 1940’s.

The drug is an appetite suppressant.

Ayds was available in chocolate, chocolate mint, butterscotch, and caramel flavors, and later a peanut butter flavor was introduced.

I remember a box of Ayds chocolate in my mom’s kitchen in the 1960’s and 70’s.

Of course, I ate a few because my mom didn’t keep Snack Chips or Candy in the house.

They were a treat we got occasionally during shopping trips. Mom would let me pick a soda and one candy bar to eat after we got home.

I probably ingested too much Phenylpropanolamine snacking on Ayds. But average consumers didn’t know about the drug.

Consumer confusion between Ayds and AIDS destroyed the brand.

Do you remember Ayds candy for weight loss? Was it in your childhood home?

  • Yes I remember Ayds weight loss candy
  • Never heard of it
0 voters
2

I remember it, but not from my home. I think I read some kid ate a whole box and got very sick or even died? It also- IIRC killed some dogs.

But obviously, anything named “Ayds” was not gonna sell well after Aids came out in the news.

3

This commercial aired before the AIDS disease became widely known.

4

Lose weight deliciously with the aid of AIDS, uh Ayds. :wink:

Oh boy, what a brand slogan!

It really was brand infringement. Ayds was introduced in 1940. Over 40 years before the disease was named.

5

I remember TV commercials for Ayds. That poor CEO at the time, in the early 80s, must have done a hard facepalm when he saw the new killer virus got named AIDS.

I didn’t know Phenylpropanolamine was the active ingredient in Ayds candy- I guess I thought it had some super duper fiber ingredient that swelled up in your stomach, making you feel full. And I was aware at the time of Phenylpropanolamine- in restaurant jobs in the late 70s, early 80s I’d sometimes take a decongestant pill with Phenylpropanolamine and wash it down with a cup of coffee or two. I’d feel great, like I was ready to take on anything. It was a (legal) poor person’s speed or cocaine. Yeah, I didn’t always make the best choices back then.

6

And the company absolutely refused to remove the AIDS connotation from the product. They tried rebranding as Diet Ayds, Dietayds, Aydslim. “Let the disease change its name!” they said.

7

Umm, who was selling AIDS?

8

Bayer

9

“It’s the one that sucks.”

10

Most of us remember. My elderly dr gave me pills to try and gain weight. Didnt work but I wonder what was in them.

11

I voted I remember it, but that’s only because I heard about it with the AIDS crisis in the 80s. I was born in 1975, and have no actual memory of commercials for it or ever seeing the stuff anywhere. I only know it as a bit of trivia.

12

I recall the ads, and might have seen it in the store.

My parents never had weight issues & would never have bought such a product.

I recall the flail when AIDS was discovered. Sux to be them.

13

My sister ordered some from a magazine ad, and I remember being jealous that she would lose weight and I wouldn’t. I must have been in middle school at the time, late '60s.. They were just chewy chocolatey candy. Not that good, but good enough that if you were hungry, you’d eat a bunch. I have no recollection of them containing phenylpropanolamine. No weight was lost.

14

I remember it clearly. My mom used to get it. Not sure how often, but I definitely saw it around the house back in the '70s.

15

Don’t recall that my mother ever bought it, but I do recall that I saw ads for it (don’t recall specifics about those ads).

16

I remember the product, and the ads for it. It was never a thing in our household; my mother had hyperthyroidism when she was in her early 20s, had part of her thyroid gland removed, and was put on prescription meds to get her to the right balance of thyroid hormones (which she is still on today). Her weight was very consistent, thanks to the meds, and she never actively dieted, as far as I could tell.

17

Actually, the original appetite suppressant in it was benzocaine. It was supposed to deaden the taste buds.

18

The next door neighbor had some. Her son, who was about my age, took a few pieces and I remember it was the most bland ‘candy’ I’d ever had. Plus, based on my observations of Mrs. Andrews, it didn’t work.

19

I came here to say this, and it was taken off the market, not just because of declining sales, but also because the FDA ruled it wasn’t really effective.

When I was a kid, I would read my grandmother’s “Workbasket” magazines, which had full-page AYDS ads, that I enjoyed reading because I thought they were regular articles.

20

Well, the CDC came up with that name. Recall that people were throwing around names like GRIDs and other unfortunate terminology.