Product Plight
Crap. Stuff. Things… Product.
My boy Finn, a year ago during his pleasingly plump phase.We digest tons of marketing and advertising whole, like hankering hot dog eating contestants. Brands sell it all: how scary babies are to handle, how deadly life can be trekking outside with your kids and how VITAL they are to our survival, day-to-day. They become the solutions to our problems, even problems we never knew we had.
I was listening to the news the other day (which sucks by the way, I don’t recommend it as a parent), and they spoke of a new fad in product packaging: The Edible Container. The basic idea is, let’s say, you buy an ice cream. The ice cream is housed in a chocolate shell that you can eat. No plastic wrapper. You inhale the ice cream, wash off the choco-cup and then eat that too. It saves the planet and you get fatter. Win/win.
You don’t realize how addicted you are to commercial hypnotism until you become a breeder. Everything has to be the best, the fastest, the safest. And you need it. Now.
All that came crashing down the other day when Finn wouldn’t eat a pouch of pureed organic vegetables by Plum Organics. He’d been eating them FOREVER but something had changed.
Same brand. Same flavor. One key difference.
[ The new product is on the left, and the old, on the right. ]
They just changed the packaging. That was all it took and as far as eating goes, no dice. Of any kind. I found his refusal so annoying and ridiculous that I was on the edge of losing my cool. We were out and about at the time. I needed him to chow down on some veggies, lest he start turning into a human meatsicle.
But then I started thinking, ‘What if I’m being tricked in the same way? What if I do the same thing he’s doing, only justifiably since I’m an adult?’ Kids are funny that way. They teach you things by being smaller representations of yourself.
So, I thought about it, and remembered back to when I NEEDED things and HATED things. I needed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cereal (and wasn’t ever allowed it). I hated everything that came from Real Foods (a Whole Foods precursor back in the 1980′s) in San Francisco. Marketers had me wrapped around their finger on packaging and commercials alone. I threw tantrums to get what I wanted because they had hypnotized me. I became their top salesperson.
So, now we’re all adults and pretending we’re smarter than that. Meanwhile, I’m trying to feed my kid some vegetable puree and he simply won’t eat it because the plastic is colored differently, albeit more artistically. I try to get him to just taste it, proving that his prejudice is false. He won’t do it. I try to switch the pouches behind my back, because he obviously wants to eat it, and won’t be fooled. I try all the ‘I’m a parent and know better than you’ tricks. He just sits there like a magician watching someone do card tricks. “That’s all you got?”
I’m not sure brands understand that we need stability more than innovation in most cases. I’d rather have something that works than something that looks like it came from The Fifth Element.
Does anyone else have this packaging problem? How many products do we buy based on the labels or packaging?
Take this one for example that Andy found. I know for a fact that lots of people are drinking this one.
–
Instructional Diagrams
We haz them and the word “instructional” has a very wide definition.
The HowToBeADad Pinterest page
Strong enough for a man, but Ryan-Gosling-balanced for women.
33 Comments
33 Responses to “Product Plight”
Man, get out of my head! I was just thinking about this the other day while cereal shopping. I saw that the Frosted Flakes went with a retro label and gravitated towards them. I only really realized later what had happened.
My son stopped enjoying those ridiculous yogurt tubes after loving them for over a year. They changed the color of their packaging but never put those two things together until right now!
You sir, are a genius!!
PS – First!! Spoil me with visits!!
All the 1′s of visits you’ll get are going to spoil you rotten.
Beats the zeroes of visits from before! Also, I just tried the Sour Cream and Bacon flavor of Ahole Juice and it tastes like sh*t!!!
“Liquid Lava Rage straight from the Devil’s nipple” is Genius! Clearly, lots of ppl drink that stuff especially before or while driving.
Also, I know without a doubt that if I don’t like the packaging, I am guilty of the same thing. I hate when they keep changing the packages, but what really gets me is not only when they change the package, but they put less in the container but the price stays the same. I see it a lot. Keep up the great posts!!!!
Thanks Monica! This one probably won’t be shared as much but I know there are a ton of us that deal with this craziness.
Have you tried sili squeeze pouches (or something similar?)We never did the squeezable food pouches, but those seemed like a similar way to undo branding… I haven’t run into this yet, but I wonder how much is because we tend to buy large packages of stuff, and redistribute it into smaller packs, so our son doesn’t see the brand name very often.
No, that sounds great.
I’m totally on the same page with you, but is this a plug for Plum Organics?
Nope. Just happens to be what he eats. If anything, I’m telling them they need to handle their marketing and packaging better.
The wal-mart brand items went through a redesign last year some time I believe. The new “generic white sterile” design is unappetizing. I don’t like many of their generic options to start with, but to put it in “I am too cheap to buy quality food for my family” packaging… yah, not much makes it into our home.
I am not a name brand snob. Malt-O-Meal is my hero! But I like value for my $ Whitebox packaging does not express value to me, but rather “cheapness”. “We cut corners to give you this lame product that tastes nothing like what you would expect it to… but maybe you can try to fool your kids” It is not a good value if my family will not consume it.
I actually have a hard time buying name brand cereal… I think our vacuum is the largest “consumer” of cereal in our household. The close second being the car seat- See: http://www.howtobeadad.com/2012/9773/black-hole-zon-cribs-car-seats-stollers
So, yes. Packaging does make a difference. It might not be the final decision maker, but often times, it is the initial decision maker.
It’s also interesting how it influences on an emotional level our purchasing decisions. Andy probably knows way more about this than I do, but if someone puts greenery or green on a bottle, people thinks it’s more eco-friendly or organic, implicitly.
Any way to squeeze from the new package into the old one?
Tried it. Sucking gas out of a gas tank is easier.
Are the packages the same size and shape? Sometimes thats hard to tell from a photo but maybe the judicious use of super glue and an x-acto knife might solve the issue if you can glue the important parts of the old ones to the new ones…
I’m a visual artist and a visual thinker. I have bought things based on slick packaging alone even though I KNOW it doesn’t make the product any better than its competition. In fact, my tried and true way to buy wine is to pick the one (that I can afford) with the coolest looking label. My own brother is a communications designer/graphic designer who works for a marketing and advertising firm and I STILL fall for all of the tricks. Not all of the time, but I know I do it. I feel like it is impossible not to.
It is. It plays on our needs and obsessions and tastes. We also find aesthetics so pleasing, natively, that we can’t help but be attracted.
Interesting. It never happened to me, because I never give my daughter anything wrapped in its original package (due to many reasons that wouldn’t apply if we were in the US).
What has happened more than once is that my daughter one day wouldn’t accept something she adored until the day before. And no packaging (changing or not) is included in the equation.
Very smart. But yes, toddler fickleness wins all.
Our solution, that does seem to help, is get rid of the packaging ASAP. When the groceries come home almost all of the dry-goods immediately come out of their packages and into half-gallon or gallon mason jars. This was initially started as a practice by us years ago to rodent proof our food (had a problem) and we just stuck with it. We are also moving away from buying things that don’t come out of the bulk bins at the “health food store.” Without flashy labels for distraction, you learn what kids will REALLY eat. Often they’re more adventurous than we think!
Nice “Fifth Element” reference btw.
Only one of the best sci-fi movies of all time.
YOU ARE A LEARNED MAN, ALAN.
I hoped someone would appreciate that. And did you watch the video? YES. How about that for some branding?
Im so glad my son didnt notice the package changed! Sometimes thats the only way we can get him to eat his veggies. PHEW! But on the other hand.. that does stink.
Maybe you can put the pouch into a regular cup with a straw and call it a smoothie or give it a new name (we call those sucky pouches lol) and then you will reinvent it to be something new!
Good for you!
You don’t even want to know what my son used to call those pouches.
This is why my man Marty is a genius and just puts stickers of his kid’s favorite things on the labels of normal packages of stuff. Or he has one version with a custom label and bait-and-switches them out when the little ones are distracted.
http://dadand.com/2011/03/23/brand-synergy-kids-vegetables/
Sharing this little mofo right nowzies.
How long has the Cheerios box been yellow and at stroller level? Someone gets it.
Yes, they do. His name is Darth Vader or Beelzebub.
high five!
ugh. i’m such a sucker for cool hip packaging. i’ll even buy wine that has an interesting label… and also because i have no idea how to buy wine.
Mad Dog 20/20 is not good wine, Jess. Wino.
Adults doing the same thing:
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/Coca-Cola-Drops-White-Cans-120111.aspx
But yeah…it is kinda crazy. Not like parents have enough trouble trying to get their kids to eat something we know they like >.<
The Coke cans were confusing because they looked like diet! Some of those other comments were over the top though.
I still haven’t forgiven Pepsi for changing their logo in ’91.
Holy crap! Happened to me last night. The packaging on some chicken nuggets that my girls eat changed and all of a sudden, they don’t like it. I had to pretend to go to the store and get the right one for them, all the time hiding the packaging so they _thought_ they were eating the ones they like…Uggh!
How funny. Elena prefers the new packaging. She is drawn to bright colors. I let her “choose” what she eats from 3 or 4 pouches. She typically gravitates to the Earth’s Best bright colors versus the old Plum mostly white ones. Now she is picking the Plum ones more. Or course I pick what I buy and ultimately what she eats. I prefer the Plum because they are like what I make at home. No additives including no added vitamins, therefore it really tastes like the actual foods.