Tesco's "about bloody time" bandage product is accused of plagiarism.

As I pointed out already, Tesco's bandages for diverse skin are not the first of that kind, but now they're even accused of plagiarising the concept from a small company that has specialized in diverse nude underwear and bathing suits before embarking on bandages together with a Swedish company. 

While band-aid brands with diverse skin tones like Urban Armour and Tru-Colour are easily available in the US, previously launched brands in the UK like Stickyskin didn't survive in the market despite glowing press reviews. 

Now that Tesco has launched its in-house version, Nünude claims they've copied them. They launched a range of fabric skin tone plasters in collaboration with Swedish brand, Skin Bandages, last July.

In a series of images on their Instagram, Nünude founder Joanne Morales compares the TESCO brand to the one she launched with Swedish company Skin Bandages, both packaging and plaster colour. She also shares a screengrab of an online receipt that shows an order for the dark, medium and light plasters with the delivery address listed as Tesco’s headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

However, when a product is being created and in production, it's business standard to order competitors products to compare and improve on one's own.

Tesco has denied having any commercial conversations with Skin Bandages, but said their range of plasters was inspired by a viral tweet from April 2019, when a man said he was overwhelmed after using a plaster matching his skin tone for the first time.

Vivian Murad, CEO of Skin Bandages says that her inspiration came from a radio show in Sweden back in 2015. Swedish blogger Paula Dahlberg complained that there were no bandages in her skin tone and that this default that white skin is the norm is part of "everyday racism". The Swedish pharmacy CEO admitted that they had never thought about this, and would make an effort to find other tones. Today you can find Skin Bandages diverse toned plasters at large retailers in Sweden like Åhléns. 

What we learned from the rise and fall of Ebon-Aide and other prior products, is that product placement in the shops is extremely important for the survival of these brands. Let's hope Skin Bandages can get into retailers like Boots in the UK so band-aids like this will be easier for shoppers to find, and these new brands survive, unlike so many prior attempts to offer a diverse palette of nudes. 

A now-viral tweet by Lovette Jallow has drawn attention to this plagiarism issue.

What this articke doesnt mention is that my best friend created skin coloured plaster many years ago. Pitched the idea to teaco two years ago. They took in samples and then copied her work, repackaged it and shut down yet another small poc owned company https://t.co/iBmPQoppRZ

— Lovette Jallow (@lovettejallow) March 3, 2020