It's Jubilee weekend here in Blighty. 60 years of the Queen reigning over us. I like this and I was fascinated by the amount of products in the supermarket that were packaged in Union Jacks (I know it's Union Flags unless it's hoisted at sea but Jack is a much better term for it). I was thinking of just trying to survive for a month on items that were just packaged in Union Jacks and blogging the results but obviously I couldn't be bothered in the end.
The sad thing about all this is that slapping a Union Jack on your product is considered a bold move by marketing companies. Product packaging has reached an all time low. What happened to the exciting crisp and cereal packagings of my youth.
I was talking to a marketing person at Walkers about this when I was whinging about how the company could do so much more with the Monster Munch monsters. I was appalled at the packing of their new Baked Stars. Have a look at the branding of this product, it looks like Walkers has just given up but the lady I was talking to was sure it was the cutting edge.
It was very exasperating conversation as she seemed to think it was the pinnacle of branding. Too me it seems like a cheap use of clipart and looks like a generic rip off product from the pound shop rather than the national institution that is Walkers. Who does this appeal to? It's to bland for kids yet skewed to young looking (albeit terribly executed) for the slimming lady crowd that Special K (which I love) always goes for. I don't understand their thinking at all.
Check out the website too - it's just like a selection of images from a company power point presentation. I don't think that future generations will hold as much affection for the childhood brands of their youth as there just isn't anything there to catch their attention or to appeal to them anymore. You can't even get stickers or toys in the bags anymore. Oh Walkers what has happened to you?
Rant over - God save the Queen!
