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June 30, 2011
Oversized Containers as Counter Displays
“General store oversized product displays, Skippy Peanut Butter bank tin, 10.75"H x 10"Dia & Campbell’s Tomato Soup pail w/lid, 9.5"H, both in VG & Exc cond.”
Sold for $60 on October 31, 2009 at Rick Penn Auction Company
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
June 29, 2011
T-shirt Boxes: 2 Kinds
1. Box to contain “tea shirts” (on left)
“Hanger Tea” concept by designer, Soon Mo Kang (or 강순모 or “Kang Soonmo”…?)
2. T-shirt shaped box (on right)
The Mountain’s current packaging for their T-shirts. (The same company whose “Three Wolf Moon” shirt became the beneficiary of so much “reviewer-flash-mob” attention in 2009.)
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
June 28, 2011
Schenley’s Patented Jar Mystery
Recently I saw a design patent for a jar and it struck me that the jar wasn’t much bigger than its cap. The patent didn’t specify what it was designed to contain. I was thinking it would be funny if this jar contained something whose directions called for using “one capful” of the product.
The strange thing is, the patent was assigned to distillers, Shenley Industries. (Note: Paul Rand’s design for Shenley’s Gin packaging above, left)
Assuming the jar didn’t contain a single shot of distilled spirits, I wondered, “What was it meant to hold?”
(Mystery solved, after the fold…)
June 27, 2011
Wacky Packages Display Box
7x8x1.25" deep empty box originally contained 48 packs. Topps 1974. Lid art includes grocery bag containing “Wormy Packages, Quacker Oats, Mrs. Klean.” Edge wear with one corner split. Still glossy and Fine. ($75)
via Hakes
(See also: Wacky Packages, Wacky Pack Anecdote, Wacky Pack Press Sheet, Packy Wacks, Supergraphic Wacky Packs and Wacky Packs: Right or Wrong?)
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
June 24, 2011
Martha Stewart & Lifebuoy Soap
Ever since we found a video of the Martha Stewart Tareyton Cigarettes commercial, we’ve been on the lookout for her 1956 Lifebuoy Soap commercial. Yesterday, it suddenly appeared on the Advertising Age web site. Unfortunately for us, that video was not the embeddable type, so last night I made this crude silent-movie version below…
Then this morning I found this embeddable version (via Professor Barnhardt’s Journal). It has a slightly reduced aspect ratio, but at least it’s a “talkie”…
Stewart mentioned her role in this commerical on Larry King Live in 2003…
STEWART: I remember making some commercials. I did a Lifebuoy soap commercial.
KING: You did?
STEWART: Well, when I was like 15.
KING: Lifebuoy, Lifebuoy.
STEWART: I played a young married. Can you imagine? As I say, I was 15-years-old.
CNN transcript of “Interview with Martha Stewart, Martha Kostyra”
Larry King Live, December 22, 2003
After seeing it again at an event last week Stewart commented, “I loved seeing that commercial because who smelled? — Did he smell or did I smell? It was done on Shelter Island. … I took off two days from school, I had a chaperone.”
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
June 23, 2011
Containing a Product / Supporting the Troops
We recently needed a can of WD-40 and the one we bought turned out to be one of their limited edition series of collectible cans to honor American military forces. It made me wonder about this kind of “Support Our Troops” packaging.
There were lots of companies during World War II that made “supporting the war effort” a key element of their advertising. (See: Life Savers at War) Today, I expect, few of our transnational, global corporations would want to be closely associated with any one side of a conflict. Not when there’s so little political consensus and even terrorists are potential customers.
As a marketing strategy, “Supporting the Troops” is similar to other ethical marketing causes. A portion of the proceeds of each purchase are supposed to benefit the troops.
Necco’s “Red White & You” Sweethearts candy, the benefit is delivered via the USO:
As part of the program, New England Confectionery Company donated Sweethearts for every Operation USO Care Package sent from June through August. Candies were printed with heartfelt sayings like “Miss You,” “Brave One” and “Home Safe.”
Srixon Golf Balls also “teamed up” with the USO:
Srixon, a world leader in golf club and golf ball technology, is proud to announce that in support of our troops overseas and the sacrifices they and their families have made in service to our country, Srixon has teamed up with the United Service Organization (USO) to give back to our troops. From July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011, we will be donating 5% of net proceeds from the sale of Srixon camouflaged packaged golf products and accessories or those featuring the USO logo, to the USO.
WD-40’s troop support proceeds go to three different charities:
Crown Aerosol Packaging North America, a business unit of Crown Holdings Inc. and WD-40 Company are launching a limited edition series of collectible cans to honor American military forces. The series consists of four different designs: three depicting air, sea, and land themes and one combined graphic showcasing all five military branches, including the Coast Guard.
WD-40 Company will donate 10 cents per can purchased to three military charities: Armed Services YMCA, Wounded Warrior Project and Veterans Medical Research Foundation. Crown will also make a donation to each of the charities.
Sometimes, even with the most charitable intentions, a package design can be disturbing.
(Packaging that attempts to honor “the fallen”, after the fold…)
June 22, 2011
Shoe Box : Tissue Box
More orthographically-projected “shoe boxes” reminiscent of the ones we showed last December, but these boxes (designed by groovisions in 2006 for Oji Nepia) are meant to be both shoe box and tissue box. The idea being that once the shoes are removed the box may be saved to dispense tissues.
Nice business on the “soles” of these boxes where there appears to be evidence of something having been stepped in. Which is odd to see on the proxy box for your brand new shoes, but does create a clear spot on the treads for some legible product information.
(Via: Packaging of the World)
(Another box and second thoughts, after the fold…)
June 21, 2011
Package as Vending Machine
Another surprisingly elaborate package for the lowly gumballl. A far cry from the simplicity of the Lucky Cat packets, but no more absurd than our own Gumball Cube Pack.
I bought my miniature gumball-dispensing package, on left, at Rite Aid Pharmacy. I found the counter display picture online.
(Some other gumball machine packages, after the fold…)
June 20, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Bottle(s) #5
Here are the last two bottles I’ll be showing on this, the final day of Curated Dead Horse Bay Bottle Week(s): Coke and Pepsi.
Like shooting fish in a barrel, but with such idealized advertising images of cold, refreshing soda bottles on an unspoiled beach, how could I resist?
The Coca Cola ad is via Vintage-Ads.com; the Pepsi ad (from a 1954 Mexican edition of Life Magazine) is via Puercozon’s Flickr Photostream. The center photo is another of Debby’s photos of “bottle beach” where the bottles were found.
Note how both ads above featured sea shells in a supporting role. I actually did see one conch shell that day on bottle beach, but shells there are clearly outnumbered by bottles.
(Another photo, after the fold…)
June 17, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Bottle #4
This bottle turns out to have contained either Fitch Dandruff Remover Shampoo or Fitch Ideal Hair Tonic. (The same bottles appear to have been used for both products.)
I like the way these men’s hair care bottles originally had matching embossed skirts & caps. The company’s founder, Fred W. Fitch, started out as a barber, so the slanting, slightly helical pattern is probably meant to evoke: barber pole.
And, as was so often the custom in those days, these bottles were, themselves, packaged in a carton. I like the concentric exclamatory graphics on the box.
In 1946 Fitch’s advertising ran afoul of FTC.
In 1892, Frederick W. Fitch was a barber in Madrid, Iowa (pop. 565). His shampoo became so popular that he quit barbering to make “Fitch’s Dandruff Remover Shampoo.” By last year, his company had annual sales of $11,000,000. The advertising that did the trick: “Fitch Shampoo removes every trace of dandruff on first application.”
Last week, after 54 years of such advertising, the Federal Trade Commission decided that it was “false and misleading.” Reason: it made the public believe that “dandruff is an abnormal condition.” The truth, according to FTC: “Dandruff is a physiologically normal condition . . . and cannot be removed permanently through the use of any cleansing agent.”
Fitch Won’t Save It
Time Magazine
Monday, June 10, 1946
(“Fitch Shampoo Airport” after the fold…)
June 16, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Bottle #3
Third bottle up is barnacle-covered with vertical, corduroy-like ridges. This bottle turns out to have once contained a Marcel Rochas men’s fragrance called, Moustache. Launched in 1948–49, the product is still available, but comes in a different shaped bottle with a sans-serif logotype. (During the 1950s the “Moustache” logotype was, itself, mustachioed.)
Sometimes these bottles were sold in boxed sets…
Sometimes these bottles included atomizer bulbs…
In addition to a “citrusy opening” note, the Moustache scent is said to also include “the urinous aroma of animalic notes that recalls horses’ sweat.” (Which is fitting, considering that I found my bottle in Dead Horse Bay—final resting place for so many 19th Century work horses.)
Moustache was clearly intended as a mens product, but like Irish Spring and riding horses, some women like it too…
After the citrusy opening, the characteristic faintly floral and hay-ish powdery heart slowly gives way to the funk of the base notes with their sweaty, urinous and pungent leather impression which lingers quietly, intimately for a long time. Despite it being, marketed as a masculine scent, women who find citrusy or "hazy" suede compositions to their taste should definitely give it a try.
Rochas Moustache: fragrance review & history
Perfume Shrine, september 7, 2009
I thought there might have been a design patent for this bottle, but if there was ever an American one registered, I could not find it.
(Although I did find one design patent by Marcel Rochas for something else entirely, after the fold…)
June 15, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Bottle #2
Some vintage medial waste found on the beach at Dead Horse Bay:
1. An injectable medicine vial (shaped just like my insulin bottles, only a litle bigger) with a script “L” on the bottom, identifying its source as Eli Lilly—(again, the same company that manufactures my insulin today). But, who knows what injectable drug this bottle once contained?
2. Part of a huge 20cc glass syringe with Luer-Lok branding. Luer-Lok is Becton, Dickinson’s trademarked name for cofounder, Fairleigh S. Dickinson’s patented hypodermic syringe connection system. No sign of the needle or the plunger.
The contents now washing out of this eroding landfill preceeded the AIDS epidemic by about three decades. So no worries there. Although, as one person familiar with the area put it, “Don’t get too comfortable handling it. The 1950’s were the worst for chemical dumping in our country’s history. The garbage from the 1850’s [on the other hand] is deep in the middle under the airport.”
Not that you can’t find more recent medical waste on a New York City beach. Just last April, Debby (my partner at Beach Packaging Design) found a relatively fresh vial of blood on South Beach. (photo on right)
This more contempory bit of medical waste still had its label showing the source to have been Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.
As suggested by its name, “Franklin Lakes” has lakes and is not adjacent to an ocean. This blood vial, therefore, did not float all the way to Lower New York Bay from one of Franklin Lake’s lakes. Not without some illegal human intervention.
But I digress. Here’s what my 20cc Luer-Lok syringe probably looked like when it was still intact…
(See also: Diabetic Packaging, Early Insulin Packaging and Color-Coded Bloodstream)
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
June 14, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Bottle #1
OK, it looks like curated Dead Horse Bay bottle week is actually going to be two weeks. And you may say that I’m beating a dead horse, but I’m only just now getting to the bottles…
LePage’s “Grip Spreader” Mucilage. (The “before” photo on left is from Christian Montone’s Flickr Photostream; the “after” photo on right is my own blurry work.)
It was thoughts of the polluting 19th Century horse rendering factories along the shore (giving Dead Horse Bay its name) that made me pick up this glue bottle from the beach. Not that LePage mucilage was that kind of glue. Although it might have been a fish glue.
The rubber applicator tip says “PAT’D” and, although there are lots of musilage applicator cap patents from the 1800s and early 1900s, I couldn’t find a specific one assigned to LePage and its “Grip Spreader” cap.
Photo on left from Vanessa Le Page’s archives; illustration on right from Popular Mechanics, Nov. 1960
The rubber applicator cap seems to have been both its chief selling point and biggest drawback.
Note: Vanessa LePage (Canadian cake artist) also made this LePage 125 Years Anniversary cake. (on right) We’ve covered package-related cakes in the past, and so we liked seeing this cake with all the various glue containers from their product line.
Randy Ludacer
Beach Packaging Design
June 13, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Jar #4
Musterole: Before & After. Not the usual “before & after” package redesign photos. The photo on left (by Rick Schies) and my photo (on the right) shows what the small white jar looked like “before”—migrating from its uncapped landfill to Dead Horse Bay Beach—and “after.”
Early advertising below shows that this jar originally came in a box.
Another Musterole ad from 1913 touted the clean whiteness of the jar:
“You get this clean, white ointment out of a clean, white jar. You simply rub it on—and the pain is gone!”
Smearing Mustard on the Skin, by Roger M. Grace
2005, Metroplitan News Company
(One more early Musterole ad, after the fold…)
June 10, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Jar #3
There were lots of uncapped milk-glass containers on the beach—mostly Ponds cold cream jars, but I thought this double-ended jar was interesting. One cavity deep and the other very shallow. No branding, but embossed in the shallow end is, “PATENTS PENDING.” (Note: “Patents” is plural)
We’ve featured a some more recent double-ended package designs, so I was intrigued to discover an older example. A patent search turned up the design patent (below) by Albert Abrams. No longer “pending” as it was granted in 1939. (Although it presumably expired 14 years later, in 1953.)
But what did this jar contain? Since it was milk glass (like a Ponds jar) I’d been assuming that it was some kind of combination cosmetics jar. Wrong.
(Abram’s utility patent provides the clue, after the fold…)
June 9, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Jar #2
This eight sided jar has embossed letters on each panel which (if you start with the upper case “B”) spell out the brand “Barbasol.” Guessing that (prior to containing sand and seaweed) this jar must have once held shaving cream, I checked their website’s history section which confirms:
Over the years, Barbasol has been sold in a variety of packaging types and sizes. The Giant Jar was originally sold for 75¢.
As the photo on right shows, this jar originally came in a red, white and blue folding carton. That box apparently did not make it to Dead Horse Bay’s “bottle beach.” Nor did the jar’s cap. There are, however, a surviving examples to be found online…
(More Barbasol jar photos, after the fold…)
June 8, 2011
Uncapped Landfill Jar #1
First up from Sunday’s beach excursion is this jar, which had patent number 159169 embossed on the bottom. That led me to Frasier Smith’s 1949 design patent for a jar, assigned to the American Molasses Company.
A little more Google sleuth work led me to a 1950s magazine ad and a recipe book, confirming that this jar once contained molasses, specifically Grandma’s Old Fashioned Molasses…
(Smith’s design patent, after the fold…)
and by
Home Textile Package Design
Kudos
Consumerism
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The MKTG Tumblr Site
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Justin Kirkwood's brand fiction site
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The Unconsumption Tumblr Site
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What did you buy today?
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The Church of Stop Shopping
other pack-blogs
links
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The Man Who Moved Manhattan
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Belgian journalist, Tom Ronse's blog
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