box vox

Kinder Joy’s Dual-Chambered Egg Pack

Photo from SmALl CloUd ...'s Flickr Photostream

Kinder Joy brings several favorite box vox themes together in one package.

1. First off, it’s another egg-pack, fitting nicely into our entirely egg-shaped week—(that, technically, should have begun with the Silly Putty/L’eggs post from last week)—and although Kinder Joy may be sold at Easter, the company, by no means, confines their marketing efforts to that time of year.

2. It’s another thermoformed, single-serve, peel-off pack in a metaphorical shape. Similar to the bottle & jar-shaped packets and the half-orange-shaped packs from earlier this month. In fact, Kinder Joy’s dual structure—one half for the edible treat; one half for the prize—is exactly like that of Alberto Ghirardello’s Salvo concept (where two halves of an orange break apart to form two separate containers).

3. Kinder Joy (like Kinder Surprise) is a “surprise package” and includes the classic, question-mark styling, typical of that tradition.

Photo on right (revealing prize) is from P.J.S.'s Flickr Photostream

(Case-packs & TV commercials , after the fold...)

Wacky Packs: Right or Wrong?

In a recent post about LTL Prints’ Supergraphic Wacky Packs, I fretted about whether the juvenile satire of Wacky Packs made certain consumer products look bad. (And whether a Wacky Pack decorating motif for our office would be off-putting to clients.)

For some people, however, the more culturally significant question is whether Wacky Packages, themselves, are a good or a bad thing.

PRO: In an episode of Unwrapped (above), Wacky Packages are given a very favorable spin—(despite the vaguely Hoarders-like compulsion to collect that the Wacky Pack collector profiled in the piece exhibits).

CON: Michael Chabon, on the other hand condemns Wacky Packages as a commercial co-opting of kids’ gross-out humor.

“'I Remember how it felt, at the time, to open those first packs of Wacky Packages stickers: delicious, incredible, pleasurable in the way that only something truly wrong can be.”

Michael Chabon
Details Magazine, December 2005
(via The Boston Globe)

This article also appears in Chabon’s 2009 book, Manhood for Amateurs as the chapter entitled, “The Splendors of Crap.”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Silly Putty & L’eggs

(Two famous egg-shaped, plastic packages.)

Silly Putty: invented around 1943—(either by Dow Corning’s engineers or by inventors working for General Electric)—but ultimately marketed and sold as “Silly Putty” in the early 1950s by Peter Hodgson. Originally called “Nutty Putty” and “Bouncing Putty,” Hodgson changed the name to “Silly Putty.”

As Easter was fast approaching, Hodgson decided to package 1-ounce chunks of putty into plastic eggs and he sold them for $1.

In February of 1950, Hodgson introduced Silly Putty at the International Toy Fair In New York. The other toy marketers saw little use for Hodgson’s Silly Putty and encouraged him to abandon his plans to promote it. Without any regard to their discouraging comments, Hodgson brought the Silly Putty production to a converted barn in North Branford, CT. He continued to package the Silly Putty in plastic eggs and these were shipped to toy stores in pasteboard egg crates that he acquired from the Connecticut Cooperative Poultry Association. Although this was an innovative idea, it didn’t catch on as Hodgson had hoped, until he got some help from an unexpected ally. That August the writer for the Talk of the Town section of “The New Yorker” magazine wrote an article about Silly Putty after he had discovered it in a bookstore. Hodgson shortly thereafter received orders for over a quarter million eggs of Silly Putty within just three days time.

–Retro Planet

(So while it was in no way an “Easter” product, it turns out that Silly Putty was packaged in eggs—which were, themselves, packaged in egg cartons—on account of Easter.)

L’eggs: The other well-known example of egg-shaped packaging is from the 1970s.

The L’eggs naming, package and logo were created by designer Roger Ferriter, working in the design studio of Herb Lubalin Associates in New York City in 1969. On the morning of the scheduled presentation to the Hanes Corporation of the marketing and packaging ideas for the new low cost pantyhose launch, Ferriter was not satisfied that the work was sufficiently creative. In an effort to revisit the name and packaging one last time, he attempted to “experience” the product in some new way, hoping that the exercise would suggest a new creative direction for the branding. Among his efforts, he attempted to compress a pair of pantyhose in his fist, wondering how compact the product could become. Staring at his clenched fist with the pantyhose inside he was struck with the possibility that the package could be an egg. Just as quickly, he realized that egg rhymes with leg, and then adding the popular mid century marketing boost of giving a product name some French sounding twist, he incorporated the l’ (French for “the” when followed by a vowel such as the “e” of eggs) and arrived at L’eggs. Some sketches were prepared in time for the presentation, including a logo that incorporated two egg-influenced letter “g”s and thus was born one of the most successful product launches in history.

Wikipedia’s entry on “L’eggs”

(In 1991 L’eggs switched from their plastic, egg-shaped container to a (vaguely) egg-shaped paperboard carton.)

Even though “the egg” is one of those oft-cited examples of nature’s perfect packaging, the egg-shaped plastic containers of both companies always required additional packaging and were sometimes even put into boxes.

(Boxes and more L’eggs, after the fold...)

Crayons and Cigarettes

Artist, Christian Faur makes—(among other things)—pointillistic pixel-related images out of crayons and at least one crayon-related, packaging-related artwork: the “Crayonettes” pack, on left. (via: Rungy Chungy Cheese Bees)

I like these conceptual packaging-mashups.

I wondered if anyone had done it the other way round. Sure enough, searching on Google for “Crayola + cigarettes” I soon found Emily-Kate’s “Crayola Cigarettes” pack, on right. 

(Also: in William Missouri Downs’ play, entitled “Dead White Males: A Year in the Trenches of Teaching,” in the “art cart” of roving art teacher, Ms. Woods, there is a prop box of Crayola crayons in which she secretes cigarettes.)

Because cigarettes and crayons are of similar size and shape, maybe it’s to be expected that they’d both wind up packaged in similarly constructed crushproof boxes. (See: Read It Dammit)

By combining their packs, we confront a stark contrast between the innocent childhood connotations of crayons, and the more adult connotations of a cigarette habit. This irony is not lost on the artists above or on the others who have employed the same idea.

(Multi-color cigarettes and crayon-based anti-tobacco campaigns, after the fold...)

Cans Without Labels

Animator/cartoonist, John Kricfalusi tells an interesting autobiographical story about his dad’s motivation to buy all the “cans without labels” from their supermarket. His “George Liquor” character (above) plays the thrifty father figure. Below, John K tells the story in his own words.

It’s telling that, in order to “pitch” his project, Kricfalusi relies both on his skills as a raconteur as well as a cartoonist. Naturally, I dig the packaging-based story line (dramatically highlighting the importance of labels!) I also like the Ren & Stimpy-ish glee that Kricfalusi shows in George Liquor’s face as he demonstrates his deeply flawed method of sussing out the contents of the unlabeled cans.

(More “Cans Without Labels” artwork from John K., after the fold...)

Supergraphic Wacky Packs

60s kid-satire, “Wacky Packs” meets early 70s, “supergraphics” via Philadelphia-based LTL Prints’ peel & stick wall graphics.

Last year I was touting my decorating acumen for having framed a Wacky Pack press sheet to decorate our office. But these large-scale Wacky Packs (available in sizes up to 7 feet tall) raise a serious client-relations question. How far do I dare go with the Wacky Packaging decor?

Some of these mock packages actually imply that the products they contain are maybe not so good. Is that the message I really want to send? Certainly not the usual market-speak of a consumer packaged goods design firm. Maybe that’s refreshing.

What do you think? If you were a client, would it alienate you? And which one of the Wacky Packages below, do you think would look good, say, seven feet long over our conference table—I mean, without damaging our credibility with you?

 

(Another room photo, after the fold...)

Another type of kind of "can car"

A “car-in-a-can” that maybe should have been included in our first Cross-Category Packaging post (Part 1: Cans), but would have also made sense as a third type of “can car.” At any rate, here it is now as a feature story...

Miniature remote-control car, comes in a soda-can style package. (Via: Totally-Funky)

(Film, after the fold...)

Cross-Category Packaging (Part 5: Bottles and Jars)

This will probably be the last of the cross-category posts—(unless I discover some huge, unsuspected batch of cross-category toothpaste tubes packaging.)

Meanwhile, here are some cross-categorical bottles & jars. Sometimes glass, sometimes plastic, but all containing solid stuff, rather than anything liquid, as such.

1. Lots of candy is packaged in little plastic bottles and jars. Candy is one of those categories that seems very inclined towards cross-category packaging in general. (See: Soda Candy and Medicine Cabinet Candy) Kids seem to have some innate, cultural fascination with packaging. (See: Wacky Packages) Whether these simulated packages are appealing to kids as toys for “playing house” or as some sort of consumer-in-training, developmental thing, candy makers have apparently noticed that kids go for it. Baby Bottle Pop is the example we’re featuring here today.

2. The “Bottle Rockets Waterproof Nova” vibrator, too, comes packaged in a bottle. (via)

3. For some reason: Cupcake in a Jar. (Although this idea seems kind of counter-intuitive to me.)

4. Two watches: A swatch watch that comes in a bottle, and the Too Late watch (that we also featured: here) comes in a jar. (Photo via NotCot)

5. A treasure map puzzle that comes in a bottle. (See: Packaging Puzzles)

6. Two powdered mixes: a “9 Grain Beer Bread Mix” that comes in a beer bottle, and a pancake mix that comes in a conveniently half-empty plastic jug. (So that you can add the wet ingredients and “shake” it.) via weirdmeat.com

7. Baby gear including a “Six Bunnies” body suit in a pink jar, and baby bibs in baby-food jars—(yet another cross-category pack from FreshWear, a company that seems to be all about the cross-category packaging. See also: Milk Cartons and Egg Cartons.)

8. Spice Salt in a Tabasco bottle

9. Giant Art Jar of craft supplies

10. A survivor kit in a bottle—(not to be confused with the survivor kit in a sardine can!)

11. A firefly-theme T-shirt that come in a jar with holes on the top. (See: Packaging as Imprisonment)

(Another picture, after the fold...)

Cross-Category Packaging (Part 3: Egg Cartons)

Top row, left: ”Soggs,“ socks from Xplorys (the same company that brought us FreshWear baby clothes, packaged in milk cartons); on right: egg shaped candles from Coastal Candle Supply; 2nd row, left: Soso in egg-shaped salt shakers (via the dieline); on right: a six-pack of Tenga “egg” sex toys; 3rd row from left (clockwise): marshmallow eggs (from Cybele-’s Flickr Photostream); Benny Bully’s “egg chop” dog treats; Swatch “CHICCHIRICHI” watch and packaging, and “Dancing Egg” game packaging from Haba Toys; on right “Feeling Egg” LED light set packaging; 4th row, left: chocolate eggs from Thompson Candy; on right: a Language Egg Carton Game; 5th row, left: Disney’s Chicken Little figures packaging (via Stuart Ng Books and Toy Whiz); on right: a craft felt egg carton project via eBay; below that: MailleBox yarn packaging (photo from PutYourFlareOn’s Flickr Photostream); 6th row: children’s “egg” toy packaging; bottom row: Asher Jasper’s packaging for felted creatures

Continuing with the cross-category series—(as defined in Part 1)—here are egg cartons which do not contain eggs. (At least not the genuine, laid-by-a-hen type of egg.)

For Easter candy & chocolate eggs (and other deliberately egg-shaped items) it‘s not really such a stretch to come up with the idea of packaging them like eggs. Not so obvious that socks, sex toys, pet treats, yarn, salt, felt toys & LED lights could also be packaged this way.

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

FBI Jr. Spy Toy Packaging

In our previous post, we focused on package-shaped cameras, one of which was a toy spy-camera in the shape of a Resse’s Peanut Butter Cap package. Further research turned up this collection of other “FBI Jr.” brand toys on Sam’s Toybox. 

Turns out that “FBI Jr. by Nasta” was all about spy paraphernalia designed to resemble soda & snack food packaging. (None of Sam’s toys are for sale.)

 

(Another Pepsi Walkie Talkies box—one that is for sale—after the fold...)

Packaging Cameras

Top row, left: Velveeta box camera from Allee Willis’s Blog; on right: Coke Can cameras from eBay;  2nd row, left: film canister camera via I New Idea; 3rd row, right: Fanta can camera from CircusCat’s photostream; center: King’s Cigarette box camera from Rick Soloway’s photostream; on right: instant coffee jar camera from eBay; 4th row left: chocolate milk box camera from Four Corners Dark; center: juice box camera from Zebriana’s photostream; on right: Budweiser Beer can camera (from eBay, I think); bottom row, left: Smarties camera from RockyCameras.com; on right: “Zeon Tech” Pepsi camera from Arthur Smokes’ photostream

There seems to be no end to the personal accessory categories in which you can find objects designed to resemble consumer packaged goods. We’ve already covered cigarette lighters, telephones and transistor radios. (Not to mention: salt & pepper shakers) Now we’re looking at package-shaped cameras.

Are they merely advertising promotions or are they products in their own right? Are they toys or another example of extreme brand loyalty?

(Another packaging camera—& the box that it came in—after the jump...)

Oatmeal Box Radios

Photo from The Rocketeer’s Flickr Photostream 

Quaker Oats came out with their cylindrical box in 1915, coincidentally coinciding with the popularity of home-brewed crystal radio sets.

Young boys were at the forefront of the broadcasting movement and were frequently credited with introducing the technology into their households. Given the scarcity and expense of factory-ready receivers, the boys’ primitive crystal sets, often made by wrapping wire around an empty Quaker Oats can, were no longer seen as trivial toys. At the opening of the First National Radio Conference in 1922, Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover directly acknowledged the “genius of the American boy,” and observed that many of them possessed the requisite knowledge to create a radio station.

Noah Arceneaux
Paul Reveres of Early Radio:
The Boy Scouts and the Origins of Broadcasting

---

“Sales of Quaker Oats went zooming, not because the populace had suddenly gone ape over hot cereal, but because the cylindrical box made a perfect base for coil winding.”

San Diego’s Hysterical History
By Howard W. Howard, Herbert Lockwood

(More pictures of Quaker “oat box” radios, after the fold...)

Kellogg's Variety Pack

From the Internet Archive: 1961, black & white Kellogg’s commercial with primitive animation effect showing cereal boxes shrinking down to “Variety Pack” size. When I was a kid, Kellogg’s called this package their “Snack-Pak.”  Now-a-days “snack pack” might mean packet. I’m not too sure. (An early boxvox post covered the aerodynamic aspects of the “Snack-Pak”: here)

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

Fractal Jenga Box

A fractal-pack idea from the high concept section of London-based The Core’s website...

Designed to resemble one of the building blocks it contains, this self-similar Jenga box could, itself, be stacked like Jenga blocks for an in-store display. (More about how packaging can be fractal: here, here, here, here, here, here & here)

(Note: I extracted the single box on the right from The Core’s picture of stacked boxes below.)

 

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

 

Marlboro Doll Case

Vintage Marlboro Cigarettes Barbie Doll case from a 2008 eBay auction:

“Marlboro Cigarette Barbie doll case....back when it was cool to get a cigarette case for your child’s doll!! ...you had to order this special!....can be used as a box purse.....all intact but shows wear and some pen marks ... Plastic PVC covering in still nice with no cracks to the edges....made by the Philip Morris co and has patent # on bottom.....VERY fun find for your collection!!”

(via Worthpoint.com)

Aside from the issue of cigarette branded children toys... The thing I don’t understand about this item is, if Marlboro was bending over backwards to overcome the supposed stigma of its “sissy” origins, how come they came out with a little girl’s doll case? How does this jibe with the tattooed man campaign?

Another couple of photos, after the fold...)

Shopping Cart Toy?

I got this shopping cart last month from the Salvation Army. Is it a toy? I’m not so sure. It’s pretty utilitarian and, aside from being little, there’s nothing to indicate that it was meant to be a toy. (No toy company branding, etc.) I was thinking it might be some sort of retail display prop. If it is a shopping cart toy, it’s the second shopping cart toy that we’ve featured here on box vox—(see: the first one)—and the only shopping cart that I ever actually bought. It’s about 1/3 actual size, but I got it for 1/2 off.  ( $12.00 ÷ 2 = $6.00 )

For the photo I loaded it up with groceries and foodstuffs that we had on hand. A couple of these brands, we’ve covered before. (Remember this one or this one?)

(Update: All questions answered by an astute commenter, after the fold...)

Marbles as Bottle Toppers

Okay, this is the last post about marbles. I promise.

Back in the days when they were still somewhat popular with children, marbles were sometimes used to help sell soda pop. (Coca-Cola bottle toppers from eBay)

Not that this was the first time that marbles were added to beverage packaging. (See: Codd Neck Bottles)

(One more photo, after the fold...)

Vintage Marbles Packaging

Not the popular children’s toy, they once were, but to continue with yesterday’s thought: boxes. During their heyday, marbles were packaged in boxes. Sometimes these boxes might include a carrying pouch, but marbles in plastic polybags came later. (With one exception, all of these photos are via Marbles Galore.)

(More marbles boxes, after the fold...)

More Marbles

Top row left: jar of marbles from Plow Plane's Flickr Photostream; on left: water cooler jug and 2nd row: shelves of jars from from Dusty 73’s Flickr Photostream; bottom left: Lipton Ice Tea bottle from Tare Panda’s Flickr photostream; to the right and on far left: photos from eBay, I think; milk bottle of marbles from Santa Cruz Bread’s guess-the-quantity contest

In case you haven’t noticed, I like to follow a thread. Therefore: from a jar of marbles with manufactured meaning (sold at a significant profit on eBay) to more reused containers, containing other (less significant?) collections of marbles.

Jars and bottles seem to be de rigueur among collectors for the display of their collections, although not the type of container in which they’re generally sold. (More about that tomorrow.)

(One more collection of marbles, after the fold...)

Lucky Cat Candy Packet

Tiny cellophane packet achieves a surprisingly effective illusion: transforming its contents —(two gum-ball shaped candies)— into a miniature Maneki Neko.

Different packets feature different facial expressions.

(More photos after the fold...)