Box Vox

packaging as content

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April 22, 2009

Little Liquor Bottles

Jagermeifter2 A few months ago we went to lunch at the coffee shop across from Tappen Park. As we were walking by the bank on the way back, I spotted this little 4 inch tall Jägermeister bottle. Noticing the stag on the label with the cross in its antlers, I picked the bottle up, but then—(contemplating the implications of putting it into my coat pocket)—I decided, “I’ll pass” and I dropped it back where I found it at the base of a newly planted tree. (The city recently planted a bunch of new trees on Beach Street.)

The next day was Saturday, and taking the dog for a walk I reconsidered my aversion and walked purposefully back to the spot and pocketed the little (mostly empty) bottle, after all.

I’m no teetotaler, but apparently miniature liquor bottles carry a negative connotation in my mind. Why is this type of packaging something to be ashamed of? (Another example of packaging & moral turpitude?) Why does the alcoholic keep his can of beer or his bottle of wine concealed in a brown paper bag? Who buys little bottles of liquor? Hardcore alcoholics. (Unless you’re riding in an airplane.) Ironic that a wee, small bottle carries a heavier stigma than a large quart but there it is. If I go across the park to the liquor store and buy a liter of vodka to bring home and put in the liquor cabinet, I’m a respectable family man. But if I go to the same store and buy a 50 mL vodka bottle to put into my pocket for consumption that day…

The little Jägermeifter bottle label says “SERVE COLD — KEEP ON ICE” but who the hell keeps ice in his pocket?

In an effort to overcome my own “packaging shame” I began collecting a few other little liquor bottles that I found around the neighborhood and carried them around in my pockets. Knowing all the while, if I were run over by a bus, that around here a man is judged by the packaging he carries.

LittleLiquors

I think I need to become more like Slawek whose collection of 1,822 miniature liquor bottles, in his view, represents not moral turpitude, but “the nobility of alcoholic beverage.”

Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design

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