this little gem is my husband’s new favorite food (yep, that’s right, there’s a Mr. PublixPackaging now!). well, truly the vanilla flavor is his all-time fav, but the Publix I stopped at on my way home today was all out. Personally, though, i prefer the blueberry on the rare occasion that a yogurt mood strikes me.
the packaging design is an example of one of the first layouts we saw several years ago. it lacks the “punny” tagline, and instead relies upon a sketch of the item’s primary ingredient (in this case, a trio of blueberries). it’s also an example of Publix’s tendency to focus on the item’s descriptive word instead of the item name itself. i realize several very educated and experience people likely articulated a system long ago for choosing which words to highlight; i just don’t get it. in this case, i think i would have focused on yogurt — or maybe “blueberry yogurt” — and relied on consistency of design in the rest of the product line to immediately convey the rest.
On the pecans, the line reads “Pecan-can.” The white flood on the bag leaves three strategically shaped areas open, and a simple sketch completes the picture of three pecans dancing. Clever! Some of us can also feel vindicated by the confirmation of correct pronunciation—after all, if the nuts are going to dance, they’re not going to do the “cahn-can!”
This is one of my favorites. It took a long time to switch over to the new design, but boy it looks better. It follows the same style common of most snack foods—a simple sans-serif-looking serif font for the big name, and a unique product shot with a witty saying below.
the new package, though, was worth the wait. it’s one of the first ones i saw to feature what i call the “teasing tagline” technique: they combined a product shot with a simple drawing and humorous phrase.