Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Band-Aids

Episode Date: August 16, 2022

In this episode of Justin McElroy’s Medical Brand Hall of Fame, Justin and Dr. Sydnee are stuck on Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages. Justin goes through the decades of campaigns and jingles, the evolution of bandage technology, and Dr. Dan the Bandage Man to explain how this sticky plaster became a staple for children and clumsy people alike.Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/

Sawbones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, talk is about books. One, two, one, two, three, four. Hello everybody and welcome to Saw Bones, a barrel tour of Miscite Admedicine. for the mouth. Wow. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Saw Bones, a barrel

tour of Miss Guy to Medicine. Me, I'm your co-host Justin McAroy. And I'm Sydney McAroy. And we've got an exciting episode for you today. I know. I always say that. But this one's really good, because it's not boring. It's fun.

OK. I know why you're saying that it's a different episode. Like I know what you're about to say next. Do you? Um, but I feel like the insinuation underlying it now is that when I do an episode, when I'm the one leading the episode, it is boring and it isn't fun. Okay. Interesting.

Speak on that. Well, because what Justin's about to tell you is that he did the, he did the episode. I did. Yeah. Justin. Yeah. It was very kind of you. I had an incredibly rough day. The day that I usually reserve to like finish out and make sure my topic's all ready to go and my research is all together was a very, very rough day. Yes. So, I mean, I had to had to see a hidden run that happened right in Harvard. She had to do doctor stuff. The person's going to be okay. Yeah. She had to do doctor. But it was it was an intense day and I did not do my work, which I think is fine. By the way, I'm gonna normalize that. That's fine

that I didn't get my work done. Because why is it okay for you, Sid? In this specific case, I was a network of people around you. Yes, this is hurting you. Yes, and we should all be able to, when we have a traumatic experience, especially like that, something sudden and unexpected, we should all be given the space and time to cope with that, mentally and emotionally, and not be forced to do work

that we are not in a headspace to be able to perform. It wouldn't have been very good. I would have suffered. It would have been bad for everyone. This will be much better. I will now begin the episode. I shall impersonate a man come enter into my imagination and see him. Bony, hollow faced eyes that burn with the fire of

intervision. He could see if the strangest quest I ever imagined to help his clumsy wife with her. Did you write this down? No, this is the introduction to Man of Lomancha. Oh, okay. But I'm like, I'm introducing, I'm going to walk this one in in a different way. I'm going to give you a little bit of the rest of the story action. I would love to know, I would love to know, by the way, how many of our listeners knew that was the intro to Man of Lomancha. Only the cool ones. No, I want to introduce you to Earl Dixon. DICK, S-O-N would have been in the 19 teens that this happened.

Earl Dixon was a cotton buyer. This was not the Earl that the Dixie chick sang. No, this was not. This is E-A-R-L-E. So it's a little... So it's a different Earl. That is the only way we know for sure. It's a different Earl. That's a little different. That's the one clue we have that it's not the same Earl. Yes, that is a completely different Earl. But he had a wife. He had been newly married and to his wife Josephine. And Josephine was a little bit accident-prone.

And when she was cooking, she would cut herself. And in the olden days, there wasn't a good way of dealing with this in an easy way, right? Like my hand cuts. We had not invented profanity, so you had to say like, aw, shucks. Aw, beans. Not darned.

Zoodens. Yeah. No. So here's what he did. He worked for a company called Johnson and Johnson. So he and Josephine worked together with two J&J products. It was an adhesive tape that J&J made and a gauze. And they combined these by laying out this like really long strip of surgical tape and then

placing a strip of gauze down the middle, and then on the other side of the adhesive, he put crinoline fabric onto it. And this- With Tweety Bird on it. No, Tweety Bird was not on this one. But you have sussed out that this was the creation him and Josephine had created the bandaid. And what this was at this time, it was to allow you to treat minor wounds, ideally by yourself easily and quickly without the help of somebody having to cut.

Think about, it's weird we take for granted how easy it is to take care of like minor scrapes and cuts with bandaid. But before this, like, wasn't easy. You're gonna go dig through your first egg kit and find your surgical tape and your gauze, and it's probably not a big enough cut, so you just leave it, you know what I mean?

You can roll with it. But he had created band-aids. This cotton buyer had created band-aids, which were released in 1921. Now, for our friends across the pond. Mm, a plaster. A plaster. Thank you. Yes.

Now, bandaid is a brand of plaster in the UK. But it's a band of bandage here. Yeah, that's what we never say bandage. No, say bandaid. If somebody asked me for a bandage, I assume they want something other than a bandaid. Right. Like, they don't want a bandaid. They want something that I would put on them.

If you're asking me for a bandage, you're like, I assume you want me to like put some gauze and wrap it and do some stuff. They have worked for a long time to keep the name from becoming genera-sized, like Kleenex or Xerox, because if you lose, that you can lose the ability to enforce that trademark if it enters into the public glass con. But okay, and I mean, this is not, I am not making any case that it shouldn't do that. But hasn't it, I mean, isn't band-aid synonymous with band-aid?

Is this what it's like to record with me? I mean, to get derailed literally three minutes in when you've got so much information to cover, is that what it feels like? I'm so, so sorry. It does. So sorry. But I thought that was the appeal of our show.

It is the appeal of our show. I'm kidding. I didn't research that much. That's why I let it slide. No, well, I know you didn't research that question. I guess it's more of a hypothetical. I feel to me, Band-Aid is, that is what that is. It is just a Band-Aid.

The first Band-Aid was released in 1921. They were made by hand. They were three inches wide. If you can imagine, I know you're not big on measurements. Three inches wide about like this. Justin's holding his fingers up to show me three inches. I'm 18 inches long. That's a big bandaid.

Well, the idea was you would cut what you needed off of this. So if you imagine three inches long, right, you cut a one inch strip and now you have a three by one bandaid. Well, but is gauze just in the middle? Gauze is just a strip in the middle. So you're cutting. But does it go the whole length of it? It does, but you're cutting. You're cutting lengthwise, right? So it's the plates, the bandaid that we understand. I was imagining a square of gauze in the middle, like a, like a giant, fun-sized bandaid. Yeah. Yeah. But that, so it was just a big strip of band, bandaid. Basically, you would cut off the side you needed and, and roll with it. They weren't a very big hit at first. Three thousand dollars were sold the first year because people weren't sure what

it was. Well, how would you package that? Because if it's sticky, you can't roll it up. Did they have the little like paper that they put on it now? You know, okay, to keep it from sticking to it. You peel a paper off. I'm not exactly sure. But Margaret Girlwitz is who I owe a lot to for this episode. She's the chief historian of Johnson and Johnson.

She said that only 3000 or so the first year because we weren't sure how to use them. The company started hiring, traveling salesmen to go demonstrate it to people like doctors, retail pharmacists, and interestingly butchers who they thought would get a lot of use out of it, right? You see people using it. This was also a similar factor for the Boy Scouts of America.

The BSA troops were sent free, unlimited supplies of band-aids. Band-aids became like a standard that they would put into, like their first aid kits. Sure. That the Boy Scouts of America get, and that's still a standard today, but they basically like flooded them with band-aids to get the word out to let people say. By 1924, just three years later, they were made by machine, and they abandoned that whole like needing scissors to just have like individual band-aids.

And they also started using, and I don't remember this, but I've assumed some of a lesson as well, but there was a red string in each package that you would pull the red string and I would tear them open Do you remember that really? Yeah, yeah And and that was before we had the you know the peel apart paper or whatever But you would pull the red string and make it so you could take the band it out Which is it's a very satisfying package now. It is a very satisfying to open. Yeah, so they started spreading these around and they need to spread the word of bandaid, right?

So they're telling people about them, they're getting the word out. And in an effect that I believe we have seen several times and I've heard about many more times than that. Like I know, I think Hershey's would probably be in this category where the celebrity, the popularity was really cemented when they were shipped overseas during World War II and they were kind of a standard issue over there. And they were used by a lot of

soldiers in the early 40s. And that helped it so that when they got back, you know, they knew about band-aids and the soldiers were like, hey, we need some of these. So that helped it so that when they got back, they knew about band-aids and the soldiers were like, hey, we need some of these. So that helped it to propagate. That's interesting. It's interesting, too, because I wouldn't think I've never been on the physician in that setting, but you wouldn't think band-aids would play a huge role. Well, it probably, if they can take care of smaller stuff on their own and not get infections

or help to keep it protected at least, it's probably good. I can see that. That's interesting. The next sort of big watermark for Band-Aid, and I'll ask you to slip on your headphones right now, because you know when I do these, I like to do, I like to do a little like multimedia. So um, look, here is the new band-aid plastic strip with new super stick. It sticks better than any other bandage. The proof, take a dry egg at room temperature, touch the egg with

any other bandage, brand X, brand Y, brandZ, not one sticks, but a band-aid plastic strip with new super sticks sticks tight instantly. Watch it again in slow motion. No pressure, yet we can lift the egg, even boil it. And the band-aid plastic strip never comes loose. Maybe you don't want a royal egg this way, but you do want the extra protection of band-aid plastic strips. They take better care of little cussons scratches. They stay

put. Yes, even in hot soapy dish water. Neat, flesh-colored, almost invisible. Band-aid plastic strips with new super sticks stick better than any other bandage, made only by Johnson and Johnson the most trusted name in surgical dressings. Be sure you'll get band-aid plastic strips. So, uh, I like that the lady says that you may not want to cook an egg like this. Imagine you, but you may. Imagine you come home and your dad is like dunking eggs into hot water that they're attached to band-aids. Like, how's do you cook them kids? What are you talking about? I was sitting there thinking this is such a wild commercial

because I'm watching people essentially stroke an egg with band-aids. Yes, basically, stroke an egg with band-aids. But the thing is, it was very effective because I will never forget the image of someone stroking an egg with a band-aid now. As locked in your memory. And that was a very popular commercial.

Also I think we have to call attention to the very subtle racism there, flesh colored. Well, hold on. Yes. That is an excellent point, Sidney. And it is one that we will discuss at length. So fear, fear not about that. But that was one of the first big, I guess you'd say the first big wins for them. I do.

I want to talk about another really successful marketing campaign. It's one that I think is diabolical in its nature. We are going to do that, but first we're going to take a brief trip to the building department. Let's go. The medicines, the medicines, the escalate macabre for the mouth. Hi, everyone. I'm Adam McLeod, and I'm Alexis B. Preston. And we host a show called Comfort Creatures, the show for every animal lover,

be it a creature of scales, six legs, fur, feathers or fiction. Comp for creatures is a show for people who prefer their friend's staff, Paul's instead of hands. Unless they are raccoon hands, that is okay. That is absolutely okay, yeah. Yes. Every Thursday, we'll be talking to guests about their pets, learning about pets in history,

art and even fiction. Plus, we'll discover differences between pet ownership across the pond. It's gonna be a hoot on Maximum Fund. Sending, I want you to meet Dr. Dan the Bandage Man. Dr. Dan the Bandage Man. Dr. Dan the Bandage Man. It is a little golden book from the, does that ring a bell for you?

I've seen this book. I was sitting there thinking, I feel like there was a little golden book with Dr. Dan. I don't remember the bandage man, but I remember Dr. Dan in a little golden book. Okay, so Dr. Dan the bandage man. This is 1950s, so that actually predates our egg a little bit. Sorry.

This would make sense because I have some of the little gold books that my dad had as a kid. Oh right. Mine. Those are hidden among the other gold books. Well, it has been in circulation since then and it's still made. Still made. Yeah. Okay.

So here's the story. It's about a little boy who scratches his finger while he's playing, goes to his mom, he says, Mom, I, you know, I got to cut him my hand. And she's like, oh, I can do about that. Then she's like, wait a minute, that's not true. I have band-aids. So she gets a band-aid, not a band-age. A band-aid brand band-aid in this book, right?

Wash is the wound, put the bandaid brand bandage on, and for the rest of the book, Dr. Dan, anytime anything goes wrong with somebody, he's like, don't even sweat it. I have bandages for you. Introducing this idea of play and band-aids. The book came with, and it may still, I think, come with six band-aids, like packed in. Oh my goodness. No. So you can like get home and like go wild. In the book, I know I've seen this book, but in the book, I don't remember the contents.

Does band-aid have the little like TM on it? Like, is it obvious that this is an advertising thing? If you look at the book, you actually can see like everything looks sort of like stylized, and then you look at the packages of Band-Aids and they look exactly like Band-Aid packages, because they're just like... But is it, but like, is it, do they make it clear? This is a brand partnership we're doing. This is an ad. This is a brand partnership.

This is a band-aid ad that you just bought your kid. Or is it, like back then, I don't think we have very clear rules on that, right? Like nowadays you can't just make something that's an ad and pretend it's not an ad. You have to say it's an ad. No, and this was one of the first times ever to have this idea of co-packaging,

like packaging in something like this, to help sell units. And I hate that because the result is what we all know, kids just want to put on band-aids all the time. It's, yes, that's why you have to hide the band-aids because kids love to play with band-aids. We literally have to put our band-aids on a shelf that is unreachable by our children, because if they get to the band-aids, they will cover themselves and all the band-aids and will be out our band-aids on a shelf that is unreachable by our children,

because if they get to the band-aids, they will cover themselves and all the band-aids and will be out of band-aids. Everybody gets a band-aid and Dr. Dan the bandage man. The first printing was 1.75 million copies, which is the largest printing of any little golden book ever to this point. Now, and then this is the, the wildest thing about Dr. Dan the Band-Aid man, other than like saying it is so fun. The wildest thing about it is that it was not Johnson and Johnson's idea.

It was little golden books. Little golden, here is a letter. Did they get money or something? Here is the letter that was written. Oh, well, they sold golden books. That's what they got. Yeah. Here's the letter that was written at the beginning of the book. OK.

For a long time, the publishers have been ardent admirers of band-aid adhesive bandages. Not only for themselves, publishers seem to cut themselves more than other people, but because they're affect on children. We've noted the band-aid adhesive bandages, not only cheer and comfort small boys and girls who bang themselves up, but that they make wonderful play things as well. No one quite

knows how many millions of dolls and stuff toys have been patched up in this manner. Consequently, when the idea for this book came to us, we promptly went to Johnson and Johnson and asked them if they would be willing to help us. They were very nice about it, and as we point out the bandaid is Johnson and Johnson's trademark for its brand of adhesive bandages and for several other products in its line. Yeah, I've been, I've been, I've been, they said that. Yeah, but they were very nice about it for this free. Oh, you would like to create a book that will market our product to children so that they'll

demand their parents buy it. I guess, I guess we'll let you do that. I guess we can work that it. I guess we'll let you do that. I guess we can work that out. I guess we'll let you do that. I guess we can figure out some sort of deal. And, you know, and it's funny because it worked. I was thinking like these would have probably just been plain colored band-aids. They wouldn't have had designs or something on them, right?

They would have just been a solid color. So you wouldn't have necessarily a character or something on them, which like our kids prefer those, but they will still just cover themselves and any bandaid. Any bandaid that comes along, they will. So like I can see where it still would have worked. Dr. Dan the bandage man was so popular that it was reprinted in 2004, is still in print today and does still come with band-aid brand adhesive bandages.

Packed in. Are they in fun colors or characters? That's a question. I don't know. I would think they want to be more tiled in than they do. Can you imagine if they are also doing various property partnerships? Co-branded with like frozen or whatever, you know.

Yeah. It is also featured in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian as a piece of American culture. Dr. Dan the bandage man. I will say I think what they're playing on and maybe you're going to talk about this more, but when I I dress wounds a lot nowadays in my practice and. Couple of Brad going. No, I just mean like that's a big part of what I do.

And that isn't typical. I will say I'm distinguishing that because as a family doctor, you don't necessarily spend a ton of time bandaging wo- You don't go to the doctor to get a band-aid level wound. Right, right. But I do that in my particular practice. So I spend a lot of time dressing wounds. And when I'm dressing even larger wounds, there's something very, there's a deep level of human connection that occurs when someone is injured, and you are physically caring for the injury.

And I, with a band-aid, you are giving the ability to literally everyone to do that. It is such a, I don't know, there's something very, it's this deep moment of connection that like, it's in our, the deepest part of our brain. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I always feel so connected to a patient. It's kind of an annoying way. Yeah. Yeah. It's very intimate. And you can do, with a bandaid, anyone can do it.

Like some of the stuff I'm doing, I know because of my training, nobody has to be trained to use bandaid. You just use it. Bandaids continued their sort of like triumphant march to success. In the mid, let's say in 68, bandaids orbited the moon with Apollo 8, and they were part of the kit that landed on the moon with the Apollo 11 mission.

Now we don't know for sure if old buzz and Neil had any like minor nicks or cuts, but it's possible. It's not impossible that they had band-aids on their bodies when they were walking on the moon. So I don't know. Maybe the band-aid. I don't know. I feel like that band-aid Johnson Johnson would have heard about that and only talked about that forever.

Yeah, you think that if that happened, like our band-aids were on the moon. Dr. Dan, too, the band-aid spaceman out there across the cosmos giving band-aids people. Do you think before they went to the moon, there were a lot of brands for various products that like approached them and were like, we just really want to say our underwear were on the moon or whatever, you know? And like they were just they had to turn down people because it's like we can only have so many things on us on the moon. We don't really know the moon might be made of cheese. We're still not clear on that. We don't know what we're walking into. So I can't promise you that like, I'll wear your socks on the moon or whatever.

You know what I mean? Because I was thinking like that would have been such an easy thing to do. promise you that like, I'll wear your socks on the moon or whatever. Right. Because I was thinking like, that would have been such an easy thing to do. So just like, please have a bandaid on your body when you're on the moon. Just promise me. Just, I don't care if you have a cutter. You put a bandaid on you and then we can say our bandaid is on the moon. But like, how many requests like that before you're like, okay, I'm covered in things?

It's that saying of like, you know, the president uses like 11 different pens when he signs a big piece of legislation so he can like this is the pin Yeah, these are the 14 pins I use to sign these are the 3000 different products that I had on my person when I was on the moon Yeah, when I got 100 moon I was on you my so first How did I heat it don't worry about it the check cleared? And then I had to push up. Yeah, delicious space, push up. The space, push up. And a moon pie.

Get it? Get it? I got another commercial for you. Put your headphones back on. This is a jingle that you're sure to recognize. I am stuck on Band-A, record Band-A, look at me.

I am stuck on Band-A, cause Band-aid, rick, band-aid, slug on me I am stuck, I'm band-aid, cuz band-aid, slug on me Cuz they really stick to your fingers and they stick on, band-aid, need Remember, only Johnson and Johnson makes band-aid branded hesav bandages with a unique, super-stick adhesive depend on the protection of America's number one bandage I am stuck, I'm band-aid, cuz band-aid, slug on bandage, cause bandage's on me. Yeah, John Travolta just randomly pops up at the end of that ad, it's bizarre.

They're all naked in a shower. Yeah, John Travolta is just like there, getting his paycheck, it's wild. You don't see groups of people naked in a shower on TV, like in commercials this much anymore. Certainly not for bandage. That jingle, which is like very famous that they still use, I think, did you notice how, first off,

the lyrics say, not, I'm stuck on band-aids. I'm stuck on band-aids. Band-aids brand. The second time they do say band-aids, but the first time they clarify band-aid brand band-aids. Okay, don't get it messed up. That jingle is written by Barry Manalo. Oh. Yeah, I know, right? Good job, Barry Manalo. Good job, Barry Manalo.

Now, that was the originally into this podcast, and then we changed it to Salmon's. Now, I said you to touch... Next, you're for the max fun drive, we're going to have to do a podcast called Good Good Job, Barry Manalo. That has to be our special episode. You touched on something during your, after we watched that first ad, and you noted that they labeled these as flesh colored. Yeah. Yeah, I noticed that.

And that wasn't, I will say that wasn't a problem unique to band-aids. I think crayons used to have things like that on them. Yeah, for sure. Like flesh or skin or things. And they are assuming that there is one color that is flesh-colored or one color that is skin-colored when obviously that is racist and wrong. The Atlantic did a really interesting story on this.

They interviewed a woman named Rundu Johnson, who's 66 at that time, African-American woman living in Harlem. And she remembered that she would tell her, she said, the bandages would say flesh color. And I explained to my kids, well, that's not your flesh. And even, you remember in 1956, we had the first printed bandaid. It was stars and stripes.

Now, I have seen reports that say that the first came out in 1951 and it was Mickey Mouse, but that's not according to the official girl with report from J&J historian. And I'm going to trust her because she, that's her whole thing. I also feel like you would know as a Disney officialant auto, you would know if Mickey was on the first printed bandaid. I'm more of a box guy, but I know she's. Yeah.

But yeah, so this was an absolute issue. They had these colorful printed band-aids with all these different characters on them, all these different prints, and not one that was creative for people of color. So this is also from that Atlantic story. Los Angeles based marketing consultant Harry Weber, he was the one responsible for J&J accounts at that time.

He said that he promoted it between, I guess, 63 and 68, where this would have been, you know, in the mid-60s there. Said the products flesh color was quote, a non issue. And he said Johnson and Johnson's consideration was a mass market product. And as a mass market product,

you look at what is the largest faction of that market and you create the product for that faction. So for non whites, which people who are not white love being referred to that way. So for non whites, at the which people who are not white love being referred to that way. Sure, yeah. So for non-whites, at the time between 12 and 15% of the total population, there was no way anybody was considering making a bandaid brand and he's a bandage to mass the color of skin that is the complete spectrum from pink to ebony.

So that was the corporate line. And you know, that this was his, like, he he's not gonna say we decided to change all that. Like this is just a, I mean, worth noting, like he was in charge of band eight in the mid 60s. So like why didn't they do it in the mid 60s? It was very, I mean, I'm obviously not apologizing for Johnson and Johnson,

but it is like that is capitalism, like that it is like. Well, and then, but that's also a wild like by today's standards to issue a public statement like that. I don't know the context of this. It makes me like, ooh, I want to hide under the desk listening to it. I know.

Now, the first product to actually address this was not released until the late 90s, if you can believe it, and it was created by a guy named Michael Penny Yotz. Penny Yotz, he was from Cypress. you can believe it. And it was created by a guy named Michael Penne-Yotzes. Penne-Yotzes, he was from Cyprus. And he created Ebeneid, a product designed to fill the gap. He was a father or two, realized that there was this space in the market.

He said, I think he told the Atlantic this as well. We found out with our market research that between the African American market and the Hispanic market, we would capture about 25% to 28% of the market. We wanted to do the first products in all black. They were marketed as the first bandage designed for people of color that came in shades called black licorice, coffee brown,

cinnamon and honey beige. Oh, very pleasant to hear and to say, I will say. It seemed like it was gonna go really well. The Walmart and Rite Aid, both agreed to carry it. Remember Rite Aid? I do. I remember Rite Aid very well. It used to be one near our house,

I'm gonna go with it all the time. That's much more pleasant by the way than flesh. Yeah. Right, flesh is just like that's a, ugh. Yeah. Walmart and Rite Aid agreed to carry them. And but this was not going to be a success story because the band-aids, the,

they were sorry, the ebonyads were kept in sections of these stores where the products were specific to people of color. So if you look at like, I mean, I know we still do this with hair care, right? Where it's like, this is the section for black hair. This is the section for, you know, this sort of like division of the products. So if you needed a bandaid and you weren't aware that Ebeneid existed, you would go to the bandaid section and they wouldn't be there.

And they wouldn't be there. Gotcha. So by late 2002, out of an original one million boxes of Ebenez, he had sold only around 20,000. He had lost a $2 million investment, $600,000 to manufacture it, and the company folded. What a shame. He stored the inventory in a 10,000 square foot warehouse, just kind of donating them to anybody who had an interest and eventually selling the remainder to a company in Miami. He is now 65 and he moved on to

run an IT service company. Now I know today and are you going to address back like there are multiple sheds of band-aid today. I did want to touch on our tone is the product line you are referring to. There are obviously other products that are servicing this, but we've been following bandaid. So here we are. Does he get any credit?

I'm assuming that was there any sort of IP that anybody that he got paid for? Well, he got to be on a podcast. I know, but that's not money. I just feel like it was his idea, you know? Yeah, that's true. So he should have, you know, it was his idea. I can't write this injustice, I'm sorry.

I have to do this credit that. Well, I'm asking, was it ever write it or is it still an injustice that stands? Well, here's what is interesting. Our tone is a line of products for people of color created by Band-Aid in 2020, right? And they were created, and they make reference to this. Like, they were created very quickly,

like way faster than other, like, Band-Aid products. They said normally it takes like 18 months to get a product to market. So this was just in reaction to all the events of 2020. Exactly. 100% and they like said it in the article, they're like, listen, stuff's wild right now and we are just gonna get out in front of this thing

and say like, this is the quote on their website, they have this whole story of like the Arton line. It's then, this is a quote from Joe Anthony, chief executive officer of hero collective, which is a black own culture driven collective and digital agency that Johnson and Johnson, uh, engaged to help shape the launch of our tone. He says, no secret that the current climate is extremely polarizing. And as a result, certain people left

out of the conversation. Now more than ever, it's important that brands like Johnson and Johnson take a leadership role and demonstrate the importance of diversity. So like good intent, probably a little late, like grand scheme of things. Well, it just feels like, well, you made us. I mean, I mean, we were kind of, everybody was so mad. Yeah. And I do think, I'm not sure about the timeline, so this is like, take this for what is, but I know we've seen products like this on shows like,

I would swear there's one on Shark Tank. I've, I, 100% had the same feeling that we have seen this before. You know what? In fact, I don't remember the name of the brand. Shark Tank Bandages. Maybe we'll have Shark Tank. Brown, okay. Browned edges is the,

I'll read the bell. It's a good name. I mean, let's just call it as a good name. And it was the same intent, right? Same intent. Band-aids for everybody. Yeah. So, they got a deal, actually, with, looks like Mark Cuban.

So, good job, browned, browned folks. So, that is the our tone line. They kind of like, they wanted to get into the market. They were there. They do make these in a variety of skin colors now. I think we've seen Crayola do. I wonder if it's like, it's probably the same date that Crayola was like.

I don't think they do the flesh. I really do think there was one that said something like skin or flesh or in somehow insinuated, this is the color of skin. They have colors of the world, the colors of the world line that has like, it's all skin tones, but there's 24 different skin tones. Yes, our kids have these crowns.

As you're saying, this mom bought these crowns for our children recently. Other just like bandaid related stuff, as long as we're like in discussions here in 2017, they launched a line called skin flex. Can you guess 2017? Can you guess what the advancement of those is? Ginn Flex. And then like, FLE, yeah. It's not in a name. Flexing on a name. Okay.

No, I don't know. It is made so you can use a touch screen through them. They're conductive. Interesting. Yeah, so if you have a boo-boo on your finger, you can still, or your thumb, you can still use your, still use your iPhone. That's interesting. I like the waterproof ones.

Those are big. Oh yeah. I use those a lot. And like the big boy, water proof ones. Those are big. I use this a lot. I like the big boy, big boy ones. The big old ones. I always need more of those. If you ever want to give me something I need, I need giant band-aids to hand out to people. Band-aids are marketed as healing cuts twice as fast, which is a line I remember seeing a lot.

The data for that has not been publicly released, I think was been internally, according to an article in the conversation, Johnson and Johnson says that data is aging. Aging. And it's currently being phased out, so that you will probably not see that line. How old, do you know how old that line is?

I'm just curious if it was like, I mean, because these came out pre-annabialyx. Yeah. Band-aid has sold over 100 million units. They're in one out of seven homes. Now that sounds low, but if you think about like band-aid brand band-aids, it's a lot. It is. Well, and I would say like, well, no other brand that I can think of would spring to mind

like band-aids. If you go to most like supermarkets or pharmacies or whatever, you're going to have a generic like whatever the pharmacy or store brand is right next to it that's usually less expensive. So I can see why they would... You know what I mean? It's like they're not being outcompeted on a marketing standpoint. They're being outcompeted by that's cheaper and it's the same thing. Now, what's the future of bandages, Sydney?

Well, we might have a hint from UW-Madison, which is working on a bandage that uses the body's own electrical energy to speed wound healing. They are electrical bandages that they've been testing on animals. Basically, it works. It has a tiny generator in it called a nanogenerator. And it takes energy from small movements like breathing and twitching. You're creating energy by doing that. And it converts that energy into a mild electric pulse, sent to an electrode in the bandage,

which then creates an electrical field around the wound, which is something the body does already. Did you know that? Yes, I did know that. That's wild. But I'm trying to figure out, like, for a major wound, I could see the utility for a scratch or a cut

that for most of us... I mean, you're not gonna slap a electrical bandage if you just get a little paper cut. Well I'm wondering who they're marketing these too. Like would this be for hospitals or medical use or would this be for like selling on the shelves? You know what I mean? That's what I'm trying to figure out.

Cause like most of the time, I mean we put band-aids on a lot of stuff that our kids get that really don't need anything. But a band-aid has now, they've done a good job of this, becomes synonymous with like, this will get better now. I put a bandaid on it now, we'll get better. Also, then they don't have to look at it. Kids really like that, I've found. I just don't have to know it's there. I can pretend it's not there. They listen to this. They tested it on wounded human skin that they grafted on to a mouse.

They tested it on wounded human skin that they'd grafted onto a mouse. The wound healed completely in seven days compared to the typical 30 days using a standard dressing. That's wild. That is wild. And with a bigger wound, I can see the utility in that. And certainly, if they had these, I would want them, you know, for what I do. But apparently these things are surprisingly cheap to make like interesting.

Yeah, and apparently like this, this could be something coming down the the pike in the near future. But that is my story of band-aids. I hope you have enjoyed it. Thank you, Sydney, for for being such a delight. Oh, well thank you, Justin, for doing all this research and sharing all of this knowledge with me and everyone else. Thank you to the taxpayers for using their song medicines as the intro and outro program.

Thanks to you for listening. That's going to do it for us so until next time, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. I always don't. Alright! you