Johnson & Johnson Healthy Essentials

Way back in mid-Fall, the Healthy Essentials™ program site of Johnson & Johnson™ had a promotion.  You were allowed to sent an invite to the site to five specific email addresses.  If one of them accepted, they said you would get a gift bundle.

I dutifully plugged in my five and waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  I knew at least one person had accepted long before Christmas.  Still no word.  I was getting annoyed  - perhaps I had submitted this information under false pretenses and these people were getting spammed.

Lo and behold, Friday, January 17th in my inbox I receive an email from Healthy Essentials™ subject line "The Special Trial Gift Bundle is Yours!".

Hi ,

Great news, we’re sending you one of the great trial gift bundles of Johnson & Johnson Inc. products for you and your family to enjoy. It's just our way of saying thanks for sharing the benefits of the Healthy Essentials^™ program.

Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for your trial gift bundle to be processed and shipped. In the meantime, thanks again for being a valued member of the Healthy Essentials^™ program.

Take Good Care.

OK, so great that it is coming, a trial gift bundle!  Woo-hoo!  I'm excited by the prospect of a bundle - my head is filled with images of gift bundles and gift baskets.

Yesterday, February 3rd, a little box appeared at my doorstep:

The size is reminiscent of the Proctor & Gamble™ seasonal sample boxes that I used to get.  It is not really the gift basket I envisioned or felt was advertised, but it is still free stuff.

Inside was:

The Neutrogena™ is a For Men product with SPF 20. The long Splenda™ is a French Vanilla flavour for coffee flavouring.  Expiry dates for Reactine™ is October 2015, for Tylenol™ for January 2015, and for the Motrin™ March 2014.  Um, that is less than a month away.  Not so good on that one, J&J! 

I'm happy that it was all free, but I feel a bit mislead about the size of the bundle, and of course it doesn't look good to give a pain killer sample that expires in less than four weeks.  3/5 stars including the wait. Still worth doing again if the occasion arises.

The Health Essentials™ program allows you to collect points mainly via printing and using coupons from their site.  You can earn two points per week by printing coupons, and two points per redeemed coupon.  One-time point offers include signing up, completing your profile, your Health Grade™, and signing up for a survey panel (no points for surveys themselves).  Once you do these four, you end up with 45 points.

To get a themed product package requires 100 points.  If you print one coupon and redeem one coupon each week, it will take you 25 weeks to earn enough points for a gift bundle.  That is two per year, and there is usually a selection of at least four from which to choose.  I think twice per year is decent, although personally I do not use enough of the product to need one coupon per week.  A larger family would do well with this, so if that is you, go for it!