If Apple made medicine, it would look like Help, the stylishly simple new alternative to over-the-counter drugstore standards. Created by two guys with advertising/product development backgrounds, the concept of Help is "simple solutions for simple health problems."

The brand offers painkillers, allergy medicine, sleep aids, bandages and more in the most basic form — no coatings, fillers or dyes. Products come packaged in a thin, square box made of compostable paper pulp and bioplastic from corn resin. Each color-coded item is titled to solve a problem: For ibuprofen, it's "I have an aching body"; for bandages, "I've cut myself."

Each product sells for $4 — simple, but not necessarily cheap. You get 16 ibuprofen tablets from Help, which adds up to a quarter each, compared to about a dime for an Advil. But as Apple has proved so successfully, consumers will pay for character and ease.

Help is just starting to roll out to boutiques nationwide and can be purchased online at helpineedhelp.com and drugstore.com.

— Allison Kaplan

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