Punishment Cereal
Occasionally, I register my disgust on the internet, like so:
I was so disappointed today when I went to purchase my usual
weekly box of Alpen and discovered the familiar, cheery red and white
box was now a badly-designed dull brown. Such poor graphic design! The
photographs of the grains and the color palette look like something from
the 70′s – and not in the happy, Scandinavian way that Alpen looked
before. I’m not sure what possessed you guys to change the box so
drastically, but I’m sad to see it.
Sincerely,
Sunday
What am I going on about? Oh, why, just this totally retarded box redesign from my favorite healthy cereal, Alpen:
Please tell me I’m going nuts, because where I’m standing from, this looks like a lovely, sort of retro but pretty delicious-looking cereal that has been transformed into a 1970′s-made-for-TV-movie cereal comprised of mulch, horse hay, compost and owl pellets.
Alpen had this to say in its defense:
Thank you for the email giving us your review of the new Alpen box
design. We are very sorry you didn’t like the new graphics.
We appreciate receiving our customers’ suggestions and comments about
our products, and we have forwarded your comments about the packaging to
the appropriate department to take under consideration.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further comments.
We hope you will continue to enjoy our other products in excellent
health!
Regards,
Kathy Zorn
Technical Services Coordinator
Weetabix North America
Barbara’s Bakery Division
Kathy, I didn’t respond because I don’t want to be the lunatic who keeps emailing you about the Alpen box, but I just want to understand what is happening. Do you want Alpen to fail? Was this an act of vengeance? A spurned lover down in the box design department, perhaps? Some Republican scheme to torture eaters of hippie cereal? The last part I’d understand, but in all seriousness, it’s working. Each time I pour a bowl of Grim Alpen for myself, I think, here’s one bowl of muesli closer to my demise.
March 10th, 2010 | Drama!, Food Rant, Obsessed, Pet Peeves
This is why I eat Marshmallow Mateys out of a giant bag.
Apologies in advance for the pedantry, but you’ll be thinking of Switzerland, not Scandinavia.
Fortunately, we still have the original boxes in the UK.
And this is going to come across as argumentative and defensive, but I meant Scandinavia. I know the Alps are in Switzerland, but I was referring to the design aesthetic of Scandinavia.
This does not mean that Americans aren’t stupid. We are. I mean, look at that box.
Ah. Makes sense.
That box is utterly hideous.
One small consolation: almost universally, companies stealthily lower the content weight with packaging re-design (bought a ‘pound’ or 3 of canned coffee lately? Nope, you haven’t, just read the label).
At least you’re still getting the same amount here … so there is THAT.
FTR (for the record) I believe the new packaging is an abomination … and yet another sign that America is in serious decline across-the-board, from world opinion to cereal box design.
Not forgetting the “contents may settle during transit” con…
Wasn’t quite sure where to post this so I figured I’d go with a cereal post….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/29/the-creepiest-childrens-c_n_594019.html
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its called retro advertising – a lot of cereals (and even sodas…chips..candy) are doing that right now -
Uh, no. Sorry. It’s not called “retro advertising” when the box in question was never previously printed.