To let you know that Tesco stole the skin tone plasters

[drspouse]

I just saw this on Twitter

twitter.com/lovettejallow/status/1234880832415969282?s=19

I would like to say I'm shocked but I'm not really.

Why does a plaster need to match your skin tone? 😕 I may be being really stupid here but it's a medical thing not a shameful thing.

That being said I use kiddy cartoon ones anyway at every opportunity 😂

Yes everyone I know was still using up Peppa Pig/Thomas plasters for years after their children passed the toddler stage (god knows if that was wise, does the adhesive go off?).

Would you put a cartoon plaster on your face? Under sheer tights for a business meeting?

Well I think it's fantastic that Tesco are selling them to give choice to people who prefer them.

If you go to a major retailer pitching your product, which is NOT and original idea or unique, and they decide that yours isnlt the one for them then of course you run the risk of them deciding that making their own version is the best for them,

@drspouse I hope you will back down and appreciate you were duped by the Twitter post along with all the other posters who responded to it.

I don’t get it. Plasters like this have been around for many years. I doubt this woman invented them.

Sounds like a fuss about nothing to me, or an attempt to drum up publicity for her own product.

Probably dr if that's what I had in, why would it matter? Does it make you look less professional? A plaster on the face is always going to look obvious so you'd probably explain what it's for anyway wouldn't you?

I don't care what kind of plasters people use providing they're using them. Are we now supposed to consider what impression we're giving by our choice of plasters? Wait until the fashion designers hear about that.

I mean, I go for the transparent (except for the dressing bit) swimming ones anyway - they don't come off without some major effort, and I don't think I've ever met anyone at all with skin the colour of a plaster, but no, Tesco didn't steal an idea - I've seen them before in other places too.

this is ridiculous. Obviously the person on Twitter hasn't patented skin tone plasters. Obviously if Tesco (or any other store) is going to launch a new product, they're going to buy up all the other products in the market to see what competitors are doing. That applies whether it's plasters, chicken soup or white wine.

Of course they didn't, they've been around for ages. Anyway as soon as a new idea is taken on by one retailer, competitors are sniffing around either covertly or openly.

What about the spray in plaster - so they still make that? I see to remember some horrible bright pink spray stuff too. And those little closure tabs for stitches (not sure what they are called) just come in white.

It’s interesting isn’t it - why are white plasters not common? They may look grimy but you want your players to be clean don’t you?

You never pitch an idea to another company without some form of protection in place, that's rule 1 of business.

Surely any savvy organisation that sees a profitable idea that is not legally protected and knows they can produce it and get it to market first would do this, of course they would.

There is no sentiment in business, it exist solely to make money, just like I work solely to make as much money as I can.

But there's no such thing as an invisible plaster on any skin tone.

No, but there is such a thing as "less obvious" and the standard plasters are only less obvious on white skin.

Honestly you have to be so careful when pitching. You often hear of writers who pitched something, were turned down and then a few days later the publication has one of their writing staff do a knock off version of the pitched work. Same with artists and designers.

@Lockheart copyright isn’t the intellectual property right that would be used to protect against copying the concept of plasters to match different skin tones; if it were protected, it would probably be a patent right.

And yes, skin coloured plasters are necessary. I don't want to go to work with a pink plaster on my black finger, elbow, knee, whatever. It looks ridiculous and stand out from across the room.

This is like when Nubian Skin came out with different black/brown skin toned underwear and people were like 'We have that already' but they were talking about that ONE ugly nude bra. You know the one I'm talking about.

It's not something she thought up as an original idea regardless. Ive seen them elsewhere before so if anything she was the one using others ideas, as most people are and it's hardly a genius or patentable concept- underwear companies have been on the hype for a few years now.

These sympathy pleas always do the rounds on SM, and mugs rush to virtue signal to 'support small business' by buying from them and spreading the perceived theft on social media. I'm sure she'll do ok out of it. I saw one with some fairly ubiquitous jewellery recently that topshop allegedly 'stole'- lots of extra sales for the accuser, lots of extra press and shares. All reminds of the story of Dali smashing up a cinema once because he thought the filmmaker had 'stolen his ideas from his subconscious' that only he could possibly ever have thought of. You couldn't make it up.

They've stolen nothing OP. Hopefully some people will find the better availability of it useful. I usually use clear plasters regardless.

Yes post cartoon plaster days I use clear ones with the white padded bit. You don't seem to get that sweaty, blanched crinkly effect that you used to get with old style pink plasters.

So much white privilege with "plasters don't match skin anyway". They might not match white skin exactly, but they don't totally contrast it and stand out. Imagine if all plasters were black or dark brown, you'd have a hard job getting them to look inconspicuous on white skin.

She should have patented her design, got a massive business loan and produced then sold them to Tesco herself. Before long we’ll see them in Asda and Boots. That’s how business works.

But it’s hardly rocket science to produce plasters in different colours, does she think she’s some kind of design genius? Or did she rip the idea off someone else who started making them a decade ago?

Made me laugh. Sorry, but skin tone plasters have been around, in the UK, for decades.

Tesco haven't done anything wrong. They ordered as themselves, corporate order... no subterfuge, or maybe an employee having them delivered to work! If indeed that screenshot is to be believed. It could be that they ordered them to make sure that their own goods had not been copied! We don't know.

What we do know is that skn tone plastes are not new, have no copyright and are sold in many places, many countries. That Etsy seller did not invent them.

I wouldn't give a toss if plasters were black or dark brown . If you work in catering the plasters have to be bright blue so that they are conspicuous.

Clearly there are issues with plasters that I have never considered so I shall bow out.

Nonsense.

As I said on the other thread, my Mum was buying them in the early/mid 80s.

The person on Etsy most definitely didn’t come up with the idea.

Tesco’s are ruthless though. Where I used to live there was a Vietnamese shop that was making a living for the owner, supplying Vietnamese food that was popular with locals. Tesco started supplying the exact same products and undercut the price. The owner lost profits and was trying to diversify by offering Vietnamese sandwiches to office workers after that but was struggling to make money.
You’d think why can’t Tesco let one small business live alongside without trying to take their business.
With the plasters, it’s a good idea and not difficult to copy but why didn’t they tell the person to grow their business and they’d take orders from them instead of just taking their idea?
I guess that’s capitalism

So she sold them before Tesco did it doesnt mean they pinched the idea besides It quite clearly has the address as Tesco so why did she send the order and not cancel it?