Gin and Generic Juice

Must blog more. (I know. It’s getting pretty bad.)

So today (Monday, February 23, 2009), on NPR, I heard a story about the packaging of Tropicana. They explained that the usual packaging of the orange juice features an orange with a straw in it, and they had changed it to have a glass of juice that wrapped around the side of the carton.

They are changing the package back next month due to customer complaints. According to the report, customers complained it made the package look "generic." This brings to mind a couple of points.

One, what’s the problem if it looks generic?

You know what you’re going after, and once you locate the new generic-looking package, you put it in the cart. I’m imagining a bunch of blue hairs in designer track suits suffering from mortification that another blue hair in a designer track suit say her buying GENERIC JUICE. What a travesty.

Two, who actually calls and writes these manufacturers to complain about stuff like this?

If I see that the packaging for a product has changed, I just think “different” and move on. I don’t spend hours in the grocery store developing a critical analysis of this packaging as compared to the previous packaging. I do not have a deep, spiritual bond with the packaging for my products. There are not enough hours in the day already without spending time analyzing juice boxes.