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The Museum of Hoaxes is dedicated to promoting knowledge about hoaxes. (Click here for opening hours, etc.) On our blog we post about dubious- sounding claims, and whatever else strikes our fancy. The site is also home to the Hoax Photo Database, the Hoax Forum, and the Hoaxipedia.

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RUDE ROVER
The Christmas dog with no class! He sings and toots Jingle Bells.
INFLATABLE TREE
Who needs the hassle of a real Christmas tree?
FARTING SANTA
Go ahead and pull his finger!

My Granmother and Aunts were never without their AYDS. Let me tell you, they may as well have been laced with coke, these ladies were productive! ADYS, coffee and cigarettes the breakfast of champions if you were a woman in the early 70's. My grandmother kept them in her room next to her bed (along with the Benson&Hedges 100's). I would sneak into the box, there seemed like there were hundreds in that box. Rows and rows of yummy little plastic wrapped candies that looked just like candy caramels. Being only 6 years old I figured it was candy that they were hiding from me so why not sneak a few - afterall that box was virtually bottomless! Then one day I ate a candy in my other aunts room. She was the free thinker, not held down to the pressures of being the perfect woman. She went to Woodstock, she liked rock music! She was pretty and fun! It was wrapped in a plastsic wrapper just like AYDS. It was also sticky and a little chewy Like AYDS. But then it tasted crumbly and not very yummy so I took the other half, patted it back together, wrapped it back up and put it back in her pretty little jewelry box. The last thing I recall was trying to dance with our terrier on the coffee table and my grandmother yelling, "wait til your mother get's home!". Yeah, ok so that was my first hash experience.
Bring back AYDS!

The ingredient in Ayds that suppressed your appetite was the same thing that's in nasal spray.

I remember the product Ayds, but it seemed that it was already fading before the AIDS epidemic became widely known. If that percepetion is incorrect, it seems silly that they didn't simply change the name to something completely different.

I remember Ayds as well. As a kid I would sneak a few from time to time -- although I believe the active ingredient was phenylproponalamine, not benzocaine as someone else said. And since the stop meth act of 2005, you can't get that any more in a diet pill, so anyone wanting that again (or the original dexatrim or anything like it) -- heh, sorry, you're out of luck!

I'd forgotten about these things -- too funny to bring it up in today's context!!!

wow! that's the "best marketing compagin ever"

I remember in the seventies when it was spelled AIDS. It was the only diet product around. I wanted to lose weight as around 14 and I would always see it in the corner Pharmacy in my Montreal neighbourhood (those little pharmacies do not exist anymore). I saved my money and ran to buy it. I was a bit embarassed in case someone saw me buying it.

I found that they held a secret to losing weight. I don't think I lost any, but still I liked eating them and thinking I would lose weight.
When the aids epidemic came into being in the mid eightees, sadly I did put the two together.

I wonder where they are now? Under some new name selling diet pills instead?

Ironoic, isn't it...

Worms in Ayds was a popular urban legend. Our nun in 7th grade told the class she had a friend that put an ayd (?) on the window sill and came back and worms were all over it. This same nun constantly sent our inane essays to the National Inquirer. For entertainment value alone, Catholic School was worth it.

i remember Ayds... i've been looking for them for years. :( it's too bad they're no longer made. it's no better than the other fake diet aids out there... but some people need mental psych outs, if it works, it works. and it worked for a lot of people.

like Ima, my grandmother also had those little packages. i guess that's why i attach such good thoughts and nostalgia to them. they remind me of my grandmother.

i miss Ayds. only newbies associate AIDS with Ayds.... but then, there are older timers who remember Burma Shave and Lucky Strikes with the warm glow of nostalgia, too. i'm a newbie, too. so it's all good. it'd be better if someone brought Ayds back, though.

I have no idea what those marketing advisers were thinking when they came up with that name. Were they on something? I mean there's a whole bunch of people who can't spell words right, not to mention the fact the the only mentioning of AIDS makes most of people shiver and become reluctant. What they did was pure suicide.

Oh, I forgot, what about all these teenage girls that are simply freaking out when it comes to their body weight? If it's a diet drug and you want to sell it to them, you'd better watch out, they're already on an AIDS alert by every media and their parents also,regarding contraception.canadian pharmacy

Um, Ayds came out years before AIDS hit the news. It was an unfortunate coincindence, but nothing more.

Of course you'd have known this if you had bothered reading the article.

I used to work for Kraft in Kendallville IN during the mid 80's. We used to make AYDs candy on our caramel line. It was pretty interesting stuff and contained an amphetamine if I recall. After watching miles and miles of caramel being churned out, I got pretty sick of eating anything that even remotely reminded me of the stuff.

if my memory serves, AYDS contained: Phenalpropanalimine HCI, Diphenhydramine HCI, and Ephedrine Sulfate. But, I could be wrong, cuz I drank a lot of an experimental pre-sweetened drink called Brisk that contained cyclamates, primarily because my Dad worked for Gen. Foods, and brought it home in buckets. Did I mention that he invented the Good Seasons salad cruet and strawberry-banana jello? True

My mom used ayds when I was a kid. I dont think they helped her. If they helped anyone lose weight it was probably the placebo effect that did it. (placebo = power of suggestion)

I occatonally used the Ayds candy in the sixtys and had great results with the product. Please start selling them again. I would be your number 1 customer.

I remember ayds weight loss candy because my mother use to take them and i do use to sneak in to them and i think they really help me to curb my abitie and i would love to them them come back, they never bother me, and i really like them and the tast,

Cool stuff, as long as it works lol.

About the only thing MORE unfortunate than this, is the fact that there's a town called Nambla in the country of India (Nambla, India). To that person says it's silly to no longer call it Ayds just because of the disease... doesn't mean new companies are willing to create the next anti-whatever (anti-allergy, anti-asthma) and call it Nambla or Boylove. lol

So, I suggest everybody get out there and get Ayds and die(t)!

I don't believe in taking up pills for weight loss. Anyway one day it will end up in some side effects.

I remember a commercial for AYDS candy during the early 80's "Lose Weight With AYDS". (You sure do..no pun Intended) Obviously not a good marketing strategy during a time when the disease AIDS was running rampant.