Outstanding Marketing Cons of Our Time #1: Preggie Pops

In discussion with the many new mothers in my extended American family, I have discovered a quite delicious marketing con being pulled on millions of expectant mothers.

Morning sickness, the powerful nausea caused during the early months of pregnancy, is a highly uncomfortable and distressing condition - so a team of 'Healthcare Professionals' put their brains together to create a product which helps expectant mothers overcome this distress.

Their invention? The 'Preggie Pop' - a product designed to be sucked (either in 'piece' or 'lollipop' form) to alleviate the symptoms.

It's all natural, it's drug free and it's recommended by doctors - and seven 'Preggie Pop' lollipops or 21 'pieces' will set you back about $3.

The drawback is, however, that a 'Preggie Pop' is nothing more than hard candy - a mixture of sugar, corn syrup and natural flavorings and colours. It's a sweety - a lollipop. The sort of thing you get in the 'penny bin' at your local Woolworths.

Check out the ingredients if you don't believe me: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Citric Acid, Natural Flavours (essential oils) and Natural Colors (like red cabbage.)

No wonder ingredients. No miracle cures. Just the same hard candy that's been made for well over a century - and available everywhere for just pennies.

But the marketing bods at 'Three Lollies' and the other makers of 'Preggie Pops' have hit on a genius scheme to market regular candy to pregnant women and charge them outrageously for it.

I figure if a regular piece of candy costs 1c, 'Preggie Pops' are being sold at thirty times their worth!

So shame on the makers of 'Preggie Pops' - you are exploiting a vulnerable market. And mums-to-be? To combat nausea and morning sickness, go out and buy some regular hard candy. It'll do EXACTLY the same job, at a fraction of the price.