Imagine this: You're eight years old and trying to skip school, but simply lying in bed feigning fever doesn't cut it. Don't you wish you could actually magically fall sick so you could skip taking your dreaded exam or facing your teacher?
Well, now there's a solution. And it doesn't come out of magic, but bizarre marketing.
A US-based company is selling used, snot-filled tissues to help you get sick. Yep, you read that right.
As disgusting as it is, it's real.
Vaev is based on the idea that "you should be able to get sick on your terms." The description about their only product, Vaev Tissue, continues, "We believe using a tissue that carries a human sneeze is safer than needles or pills. This isn’t like any tissue you’ve used before, but we love using them, and you will too."
The only purpose of their product is simple - to infect you with a cold.
Vaev Tissue, from the the new startup Vaev, based in Los Angeles, costs $79.99 or INR 5,700, according to the company’s website.
All of this raises the question though - why would anyone voluntarily choose to fall sick?
In an interview to TIME, Oliver Niessen, the 34-year-old founder of the company explains the reason behind it. “The simple idea is you choose now to get sick, with the idea in mind that you won’t get sick with that same cold...later.”
"You’d wipe your nose with a Vaev tissue a few days before leaving on vacation, for instance, and get your cold out of the way before your trip", Niessen says. “That kind of freedom, that kind of luxury to choose—I mean, we customize everything in our lives and we have everything the way that we want it, so why not approach sickness that way as well?” he adds.
How does the process work?
“A sick person sneezes into a batch of our tissues, and then we put them in our packaging," Neissen revealed. Then, this snot-filled tissue is sent to you by mail. He further explains in the interview that they have a set of "stable sneezers" whom they turn to, some of which were recruited online.