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Calcium Sandoz – For ’90s kids, happy-pup bottle scored on health benefits of pills

August 29, 2021
Bharat Times

Graphic by Manisha Yadav | impression

Form of words:

New Delhi: Little happy-pup bottles – That’s how people who grew up in the ’90s remember Calcium Sandoz today. Each bottle contained a dog with an open mouth and a smiling face and they were so intricately associated with a brand of colored pills launched by a Swiss pharmaceutical company in India that most households kept the bottle handy . Such was the vibe of the bottle, that for many, it was as much about the pills as it was the packaging.

These bottles took their place on kitchen shelves as spice containers or as decor items next to a potted plant in balcony gardens. Even now, one can find them in nooks and corners of Indian homes – reminiscent of the time when calcium supplements began to be synonymous with accessible over-the-counter healthcare.

Initially introduced in a lemon’american ice cream’ and the orange flavor, the first consumers were school-going children.

The playful ‘Agdam Pagdum Tagdum’ jingle from the televised Calcium Sandoz ad captured the fascination of children and more importantly, their parents.

Jingles caught a lot like punchlines”Ittu Bittu Chhim Patuta” From sonpari and that”horn beetle servling” From prank, two fantasy TV series for children popular in the 2000s.

As the Calcium Sandoz ad recommended giving children two tablets a day with meals, this was a mantra many Indian parents followed. Access was part of why these pills became a brand – they were health products that one could buy without a prescription.

Sandoz never let its consumers get bored, it continued to refresh its flavors and diversify its products by launching women-specific supplements, which they branded as Sandoz Women, which they claimed were “today’s women”. specially developed for active women”. It also gave gifts in the form of promotional maneuvers with bottles.

In 2008, it adopted a guerrilla marketing strategy and Established A 29 feet tall “pillar of strength” with a bone on top of it – built by Saatchi & Saatchi creative agency in Mumbai. Then the advertising agency’s vice president, Anand Siva, explained that it was common knowledge that bones are meant to support the structure of the human body, so making a “clear point” a giant bone supporting the flyover was his way of doing it. “

But apart from clever branding, behind the long-lasting craze for puppy bottles was a mix of socio-economic factors.

Read also: ‘Meri Khubsurati Ka Raj…’: Shah Rukh’s bath-tub ad that made Lux soap bold and beautiful

post liberalization demand

The launch of Calcium Sandoz as an over-the-counter product in India by the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, coincided with the rise of a new upwardly mobile middle class in the 90s. Economic liberalization gave rise to a wave of consumerism. With rising incomes, the emphasis was on health and nutrition in India for the aspiring middle class.

Even before, calcium pills were sold as prescription drugs, but the introduction of a sweet pill changed the nation’s health market. Calcium Sandoz Calcium Supplement that promised consumers a superior quality of nutrition came with a ‘flavor’ similar to Bournvita and Horlicks’ kid-friendly chocolate-flavored milk powder.

Targeted ads turned calcium into an essential ingredient to be included in every child’s diet. Incessant depictions of children exhausted from a long day at school due to a lack of nutrient-rich diets on TV and print ads played on the fear of young parents who would go to any lengths to prevent their children from falling behind. were ready to go. The pills also prevented the chances of increase in height if consumed regularly. Thus, confidence in Calcium Sandoz was high and so was its consumption.

However, Dr Ridhika Sharma, senior drug safety doctor based in Delhi, said that there is not much medical literature available on the product, which is unusual for any pharmaceutical company.

“There is always the possibility of developing kidney stones as a side effect of taking calcium supplements in general, in one study I observed as a side effect in the case of hypercalcemia (excessive calcium intake) due to Sandoz. Cardiovascular problems have been noted in the U.S., but this may occur in rare cases. There is another ingredient called ‘aspartame’, which is a sugar substitute and may be harmful to children. However, many have been peer-reviewed Without the availability of the research done, it would be difficult to ascertain anything.”

However, kids in the ’90s seemed happy to crack the chocolaty but sweet pills. Regular intake of supplements after meals made them feel like adults. This had the same effect on them as “phantom cigarettes”, serving the dual purpose of tasting delicious and “looking cool”.

Prakriti Kaushik, MA first year student at Christ University, Bengaluru, says, “I can barely remember their taste, but I remember seeing them on the shelves in the store and asked about its various flavors like this one. It was candy.”

The main attraction for him was “the packaging of the animals,” says Kaushik. “Calcium Sandoz has been nostalgic for me but mainly because of the bottles.”

end of product

It is not clear what has led to the discontinuation of Calcium Sandoz in India. business standard Reported the closure of the Sandoz facility in 2013 (Novartis was the parent company and Sandoz was the company that produced the tablet in India) financial pressure on parent company and a strategic shift from “generic to differentiated, complex drug”.

Calcium Sandoz is a brand that is fondly remembered even today. Last year there were several social media posts that reminded how the Sandoz tablet might have aided against COVID based on the popular belief of its health benefits.

Social media users said that if Covid had happened 10 years ago, Calcium Sandoz would have “killed the virus” and been a true “life saver”. It seems that the image of a dog with an open mouth and smiling face is all we need in this difficult time.

(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)

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