A woman uncovered a Walgreens generic brand label underneath an on-brand label on a nasal spray in a viral TikTok.
In a 15-second clip, TikTok user Kyrstyn (@.kyrstyn) reveals to her followers how Walgreens rebrands itself.
“If anyone needs proof that they just rebrand the store brand, look at this,” she says. She then takes out a nasal spray and presses down on the packaging, pulling off the plastic label, and uncovering a different label underneath.
“Don’t mind me, I’m sick. But anyway, just buy the store brand, it’s the same thing,” she captioned the video.
@.kyrstyn Don’t mind me, I’m sick. But anyway, just buy the store brand, it’s the same thing. #rebranding #tricksofthetrade #itsallthesame #fypシ゚viral ♬ original sound - Kyrstyn
The Daily Dot reached out to Kyrstyn via TikTok comment and Walgreens via press email regarding the video. The video amassed over 645,000 views as of Mar. 5, where viewers claimed different brand products are typically manufactured by big-name companies in the same facility and contain the same active ingredients.
“Most name brand and store brand items are made in the exact same facility, it’s just a label change,” one viewer claimed.
“Store brand is always going to be same active ingredient, however check the inactives. Often different binders or additional colorings,” a second said.
“Well most name brands make the off brands lol you think they rather buy separate containers,” a third stated.
Others shared their experiences working for companies that rebrand off-brand products.
“My husband & I worked in a cheese factory. They literally run the same cheese into different company packaging,” one person shared.
“When I worked at rite aid a customer brought up a bottle of name brand olive oils and pointed out that when you peeled the label a dg label was under,” a second commented.
“Did this for candles took mainstay walmart candles removed the label and put the cheap dollar tree logo on many years ago where I worked,” a third wrote.
According to the FDA, medicines are essentially the same as their brand-name counterparts: “A generic medicine is required to be the same as a brand-name medicine in dosage, safety, effectiveness, strength, stability, and quality, as well as in the way it is taken. Generic medicines also have the same risks and benefits as their brand-name counterparts.”
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