As the mild (?) panic buying combines with the severe supply chain shortages and shelves across the country are left bare, it’s been interesting to see what people are opting for in their daily shops. Some of it’s pretty funny, like how my mum couldn’t find anything except onions and the expensive Kipfler potatoes. But the funniest thing to me is how clearly marketing for Panadol has been ingrained into our psyche.
So much so that a chemist was cleared out of the green and white packets, despite another brand of the exact same painkiller being left largely untouched.
Please, nobody tell the rich that Panamax is miles cheaper and does the same fucken thing.
Lol when people don’t realise Panamax is paracetamol pic.twitter.com/A8eJdGSmO1
— Katerina (@Kat_La) January 11, 2022
Katerina Toussas from Melbourne snapped a pic of a Chemist Warehouse on Tuesday, showing how people had gone nuts buying all the Panadol off the shelves (save for a few packs of the rapid variety).
Right next to the empty shelves sat boxes and boxes of the Panamax brand, which is the exact same pain killer (paracetamol) just in a different box, and heaps cheaper than the leading brand.
It doesn’t help that deputy chief health officer Professor Michael Kidd told Aussies to stock up on paracetamol or ibuprofen this week, in case of a positive COVID-19 test. Because our tiny lizard brains are so smoothed out by decades of advertising and marketing, Neurofen and Panadol were the first to be snapped up despite cheaper alternatives sitting right next to them.
Our local Woolies was all out of panadol, nurofen and cold and flu meds on Thursday. Also toilet paper and tissues. pic.twitter.com/dFQK91r8i2
— faranaaz (@faranaaz) January 8, 2022
Again, nobody tell the poshos that they can save a buck or two by going for a different brand name packet.
Now, this is absolutely not a PSA to go and hoover up as many packets of Panamax as you can hold, because that’s just silly and limits others from being able to access simple pain relief.
But it’s a good little reminder to not get too stressed if the shelves look a bit bare. There’s always the non-brand name version that’s just as effective — a handy little tip from those of us who flat refuse to buy Codral at the pharmacy and always go generic.
