# To the marketers of Pepto-Bismol: Please stop. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 14, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479 "2006-07-14T15:34:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/1 "2006-07-14T15:34:21Z")
We know what your product does, we really do, but to go over the symptoms that it cures with a dance routine is just completely fucked up. I especially enjoy seeing the young woman who does the diarhea bit. I can imagine how that goes over when she attends parties and touts ‘I’m the diarhea girl!’. This in itself annoyed me, but not to the point of posting this. What has haunted my mind now is that they have a new commercial out. Same jingle, except in rap style with urban youths doing the Pepto-Bismol breakdancing moves for upset stomach and all the rest and to see the young man do the little slide for the diarhea is just too much. Are they trying to turn on the next generation to their hip pink product? Seriously guys, maybe for the next ad, you can get 12 year old kids to do the dance and flood Nickelodeon with it. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/2 "2006-07-14T15:46:13Z")
I disagree. If anything, they need to become even _more_ explicit. Have a bunch of people actually blowing chunks all over the set. Have a bathroom with all the stalls occuppied and noisilyl being used. Maybe have a little “spill over” onto the floor (and thus under the stall doors) to make it a little more “exciting”. Ooh! Or instead, have a bunch of people at a meeting all shit their pants at once! Yea! That’s the “Pepto” ad _I_ want to see! The above statement contains sarcasm. If you could not detect this, please proceed to the “Blues’s Clues” website for something closer to your humour abilities. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/3 "2006-07-14T16:03:06Z")
> [@TommyTutone](#): > > Seriously guys, maybe for the next ad, you can get 12 year old kids to do the dance and flood Nickelodeon with it. Actually, they already did this. There’s a commercial with a bunch of kids, probably around age 12, acting out the symptoms. For some reason, they don’t mention diarhea in that one. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/4 "2006-07-14T16:12:47Z")
I still recall the original (classic?) diarrhea dance commercial. Where the Diarrhea Guy is fanning his ass as his “dance”. Lovely. I’d prefer the “Oops, I Crapped My Pants” commercials aired, instead. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/5 "2006-07-14T16:21:11Z")
Anyone else notice that the Symptom Dance[sup]TM[/sup] looks like a cross between the Electric Slide and the Macarena? I’m sure there a joke there somewhere, but I’m drawing a blank. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/6 "2006-07-14T16:22:57Z")
I lurve this commercial. Mostly because when it comes on my two (grown-- 19 year old) children jump up in front of the TV and do the dance too and I am sooo easily amused. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2006, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/7 "2006-07-14T16:36:22Z")
> [@TommyTutone](#): > > you can get 12 year old kids to do the dance and flood Nickelodeon with it. Poor choice of words. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/8 "2006-07-15T16:59:52Z")
Hey. It came in handy… kind of! The other night, my husband wakes up, hitting his chest and complaining that it hurts like crazy. I go into panic mode, wondering if heart attacks are common in 25 year olds, and then start to quiz him on exactly _how_ it hurts and he mentions it feels like it’s in his esophagus and that his stomach is upset too. He sits up, and it feels better, and I’m wondering what to do and if there’s anything I can give him that might help. I remember the Pepto-Bismol song ( heartburn, indigestion!) and remember that we have two PB tablets that came in a product sampler kit we got a while back. I had just cleaned out the cupboard the other day, almost threw them away, saw that they weren’t expired, and kept them “just in case”. I got them, my husband took one, and a little while later he felt fine. He fell back to sleep immediately. It took me a while longer to calm down! So, see, it’s effective advertising! ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/9 "2006-07-15T17:11:16Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#): > > Actually, they already did this. There’s a commercial with a bunch of kids, probably around age 12, acting out the symptoms. For some reason, they don’t mention diarhea in that one. That’s because children’s Pepto is a different formulation than adult Pepto; the [main ingredient](http://www.childrenspepto.com/faqs.shtml#q1) in the children’s version don’t take care of diarrhea. (There was a health scare several years back when cases of Reye’s Syndrome in children were linked to them taking Pepto-Bismol; the pink stuff was then marketed as an adults-only product.) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/10 "2006-07-15T17:39:20Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > Anyone else notice that the Symptom Dance[sup]TM[/sup] looks like a cross between the Electric Slide and the Macarena? Not so much the Slide part, although when either of us gets the trots, my wife and I have a ritual of performing the Crapcarena on the way to the pot. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/11 "2006-07-15T17:43:00Z")
I much prefer the baseball rhyme, in the voice of George Plimpton: \*When you’re sprinting around First and you feel your colon burst diarrhea You squeeze a fart at Second and it’s wetter than you reckoned diarrhea They wave you on at Third and you drop a juicy turd diarrhea You slide on into Home and your shorts are full of foam. **diarrhea** \* ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/12 "2006-07-15T17:57:06Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I lurve this commercial. Mostly because when it comes on my two (grown-- 19 year old) children jump up in front of the TV and do the dance too and I am sooo easily amused. Me too. Or I should say, us too. When this commercial comes on my daughter and I jump up and do the dance, and my son if he’s home. Then we all laugh our asses off. Fun. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/13 "2006-07-15T18:23:09Z")
> [@TommyTutone](#): > > What has haunted my mind now is that they have a new commercial out. Same jingle, except in rap style with urban youths doing the Pepto-Bismol breakdancing moves for upset stomach and all the rest and to see the young man do the little slide for the diarhea is just too much. He is also, IIRC, dressed entirely in brown. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/14 "2006-07-15T18:42:43Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > I lurve this commercial. Mostly because when it comes on my two (grown-- 19 year old) children jump up in front of the TV and do the dance too and I am sooo easily amused. I’ve got one word for you, **Biggirl** : Youtube. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/15 "2006-07-15T18:47:36Z")
The week before last, I was in Copenhagen and suffering from a serious case of Eurocrud (Denmark hasn’t quite caught on to the whole “cleaning” thing, and that includes fresh fruit and vegetables, and quite possibly the chef’s hands). I was riffling through my bag-o-drugs trying to figure out what to take, and the song came into my head. Nausea-heartburn-indigestion-upset stomach-diarrhea! Well, four out of five ain’t bad. I took it. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-the-marketers-of-pepto-bismol-please-stop/364479/16 "2006-07-15T18:56:56Z")
I crap my pants whenever that rap commerical comes out. What the hell are they wearing? I know it’s supposed to retro, but all the dancers look, well, strange to me. They look old and crazy.