# Do you remember Ayds candy for weight loss? Did your parents buy it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [August 2, 2026, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101 "2026-08-02T21:56:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/21 "2026-08-03T11:33:17Z")
Yeah, my Mom had that, and of course I would sneak a few occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/22 "2026-08-03T11:50:04Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > 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. I voted “never heard of it” on the same basis (i.e., only hearing of it after it was already gone). ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/23 "2026-08-03T12:16:11Z")
I wonder why they spelled it that way. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/24 "2026-08-03T14:16:47Z")
Well, they couldn’t trademark a standard word. So they needed a made-up word for their product name. And for whatever reason, back in 1940 somebody got the bright idea to name a weight loss aid product as “Ayds”. I bet they had an early slogan something like “Ayds; it’ll aid you in losing weight” or “Need some aid in losing weight? Try Ayds!” 1940s marketing was very earnest and rather discreet by our standards. Compare to the more modern product e.g. Slimfast. It’s kinda obvious what that stuff’s supposed to do for you. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/25 "2026-08-03T15:08:45Z")
My mother and grandmother had them. I don’t remember trying to eat any, but I loved their Slender Bars. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/26 "2026-08-03T15:29:20Z")
I remember Ayds\*, but my parents weren’t a big fan of ingesting chemicals (cigarettes and alcohol, sure…) so we never had any around the house. Though I do remember eating some off-brand M&Ms at Jonny’s house… that turned out to be diet pills. Doctor said “He’ll be okay, but he’ll have a sleepless night.” I don’t know why my dad got the short straw and (tried to) sleep in my room. But I have vivid memories of him saying “Just lie there quietly and try to sleep…” and six-year-old me blathering on about dinosaurs and outer space at 2 am. . \*By the way, I do remember making fun of them during the Aids epidemic: “Hey, you look slim!” “Thanks, I just got Ayds, and that did the trick!” ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/27 "2026-08-03T15:47:50Z")
I absolutely rmember Ayds and their ads. But I never saw any “in the wild.” My parents didn’t buy it, and neither did any of my friend’s parents. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/28 "2026-08-03T15:49:00Z")
I remember listening to a network top of the hour news program on radio in the early days of the AIDS outbreak, running a story about disease spread. Then there was a commercial break for, you guessed it. “Lose weight with Ayds!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/29 "2026-08-03T15:49:52Z")
Yeah, I remember it. Never saw it in our house, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to see it in my sister’s house, as she had a constant struggle with weight. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/30 "2026-08-03T15:50:50Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Well, they couldn’t trademark a standard word I don’t think this is true. Apple, Target, Shell, Windows, etc. They have to be trademarked in a certain context, but single words can be trademarked. Like, look at all of Apple’s trademarks. One of their registered trademarks is just “Apple”: > **[Legal - Trademark List - Apple](https://www.apple.com/legal/intellectual-property/trademark/appletmlist.html)** They also have trademarks for Carbon, Chicago, Cocoa, Geneva, etc., when used in specific situations. I don’t see any reason why “Aids” couldn’t be trademarked as some of weight-loss candy. I just think it looked more stylzed and memorable, nothing more than that, like Lyft or Krispy Kreme or whatnot. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/31 "2026-08-03T15:51:23Z")
Yes, I’m remembering probably 1976-1977, my mother who was (and is) a perpetual consumer of dieting products had them around the house. I feel like this phase only lasted a few months for her. I sampled them and found they tasted too medicinal for my tastes, something in the family of prunes, cough syrup, or licorice. This was one of an endless conga line of supplements, books, equipment, fads, etc that she was constantly trying and talking about. I’m thankful she’s finally on a GLP-1. Thankful because there’s not much to discuss, she just takes it and crows about how much weight she lost, and of course thankful that she’s finally making real headway in her lifelong weight control struggle. She legitimately needed to lose weight, but the psychological burden of being fat always weighed very heavily on her. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2026, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/32 "2026-08-03T16:45:18Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > 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. This is how I knew about them, but I was reading the full-page ads in doctor and dentist offices. They read like little soap operas. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/33 "2026-08-04T02:03:31Z")
They were advertised in the same magazines that had ads for “bust developers”, iirc. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/34 "2026-08-11T15:08:02Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > 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. Perfect example of how my late mother was Always Right, even when she was provably wrong. We were in the car with the radio on, and there was a commercial for Ayds Diet Candy. “They’re gonna have to change their name!” said I. And my mom completely scoffed at me. “Ohhhhhhhh! They are not gonna change their NAME! Don’t be SILLY! They’ve had that name for YEARS!” Of course: no one was going to connect the name of a candy that made people lose weight, with a disease that made people lose a life-threatening amount of weight. Gah. I knew she had to be wrong, but as usual, it wasn’t worth pursuing. And since what did happen was Slim-Fast and the like squeezing out the speed-candy, there was never a moment when I could say, _“See?!”_ Seriously, man, if a twelve y/o could make the connection, did she really think adults wouldn’t? ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/35 "2026-08-11T16:30:00Z")
I have no idea how I have never heard of this. It sounds like the kind of product my mom would have been all over in the 70s, and I was certainly old enough by the time of the AIDS epidemic to have gotten the joke. But I have no memory of ever encountering it. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2026, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/36 "2026-08-11T16:38:57Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > But I have no memory of ever encountering it. I only ever saw it advertised in the backs of magazines aimed at young or not-so-young women. Seventeen, Ingenue, that type. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/37 "2026-08-12T09:49:43Z")
The 1950s & 1960s were the heyday of unchanging brands. Companies believed they’d spend years & millions teaching consumers about their brand, then reap the reward when everyone knew about their product. To change the name was to throw all that away. Your Mom was rightly echoing the conventional wisdom of her age. You OTOH were born into the era of churn, with new brands invented constantly, divisions bought and sold between conglomerates, and generally a much faster pace of brand innovation. In your and my era brands weren’t exactly disposable, but there was a lot more of “throw stuff at the wall & see what sticks”. Which included far greater willingness to abandon a brand, if not a product, that wasn’t working. When the Tylenol tampering murders happened in 1982 (**[Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tylenol_murders)**) there was lots of discussion about retiring the name Tylenol and continuing to sell the same product under a new name. Management decided to keep the name. Lots of professional opinion at the time said that was a disastrous decision. But in hindsight it worked out fine. Point being sometimes keeping a tarnished name works; sometimes it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/38 "2026-08-12T12:26:54Z")
[Firestone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestone_and_Ford_tire_controversy) is another brand. They had lawsuits and a massive recall of defective tires causing serious accidents in the late 90’s and 2000. They’re rolling along today, selling tires just like it never happened. Ayds just couldn’t get past the morbid weight loss jokes. They also weren’t that effective unless the person included diet and exercise. Ayds only claimed to dull the appetite. Making it a little easier to reduce portions. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2026, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/39 "2026-08-12T13:13:05Z")
Remember the ads that used to appear in magazines, but never actually saw the candy on store shelves and certainly not at home. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2026, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101/40 "2026-08-14T01:32:56Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Your Mom was rightly echoing the conventional wisdom of her age. Eh, that probably had a little to do with it. But that doesn’t account for all the other instances of “Oh, that’s not true!” in response to my telling her something she didn’t already know. “Oh, ‘Sally Forth’ is not a play on words; it’s just her name!” And always in that scathing tone. Anyway, as far as tainted names, does anyone else shudder when they’re watching a movie and “The Weinstein Group” is one of the production logos? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-remember-ayds-candy-for-weight-loss-did-your-parents-buy-it/1032101.md?page=3)