The "One Chip Challenge" is an excessively spicy tortilla chip sold by the single in boxes with skulls on them. A 14 year-old boy died after eating one, and the product has been immediately removed from store shelves.
Lois Wolobah told WBZ that the nurse at her son's school called her Friday to tell her that her son, Harris, had fainted after eating a tortilla chip. When Wolobah got to the high school, her son showed her an image on his phone of the Paqui chip that made him sick.
A few hours later, Harris passed out at home, Lois and her husband, Amos, told WBZ. He was taken to an emergency room, where he died.
The only clear evidence that the chip caused the medical problem is the timing, which isn't strong evidence. Even so, that is some stupid marketing, obviously inspired by inane, dangerous social media challenges and aimed at teens, and the company making it, Paqui, a Hershey Company-owned brand, evidently knows it could be in serious trouble.
It's just in passing and not key to the story, but note that The Washington Post and others gave anonymity to a spokesperson at Hersheys, a multinational corporation with about $10bn in annual revenues, so it could offer condolences without attribution. Not a good sign of the times.
