This problem still exists today in settings far more important than the Oscars, but far less newsworthy – until disaster strikes. A notable example is medicine packaging, where medicine names look alike or sound alike or have similar labels for different drugs or doses. Many packages and labels require users to force attention onto small details of text, perhaps with the addition of a small area of colour that, on its own, is quite inconspicuous.

It is asking a lot of pharmacy professionals to make critical product selection – sometimes life–and-death critical – decisions based on small design features. This is in addition to drugs that look alike or sound alike, such as amlodipine and amitriptyline, or carbamazepine and chlorpromazine, or vinblastine and vincristine. Or different forms, such as chloramphenicol eye drops and ear drops, or adult ranitidine liquid and paediatric ranitidine liquid.

Experience of human factors suggests a number of coding methods (eg, shape, colour, size, tallman lettering) that, used appropriately, can make vital distinctions. There are also several design guidelines for medicines by NHS NPSA (2007) and the European Medicines Agency (2015).