Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/01/31/50-examples-of-product-packagi.html
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The buckets of markers is even sleazier: It says 150 pieces - that’s 75 pens and 75 caps
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NARGH. There are only 4 examples here; well, 5 if you count the headline!
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Has anyone got the link for all 50 examples? (I don’t know why I want to see them, I guess I like getting angry? Because these are SUPER infuriating, nothing mild about it)
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I love you.
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Every bag of Chips I have ever opened.
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Oh shit, seriously? That is just pure evil.
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Slightly different, but if you look at Tic Tacs, they say 0 calories on the package. The reason is that each tic tac has something like 0.4 calories per tac (each is a serving) and they are allowed to round down.
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When it comes to packaging chips there is some method to the madness. They need to leave the bag partially unfilled with chips and then inflated with air. The purpose is to protect the product from being crushed into crumbs during shipping, the air bubble provides the thin plastic bag with some resistance against gentle outside kinetic forces which could leave you with a bag chip dust. This is not to say that some companies don’t take advantage of this requirement and window placement on the packaging can certainly be deceiving but there is at least some utility provided to the consumer beyond simply lining the pockets of the manufacturers .
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Most of these are really egregious, but the chips make sense, actually. They are extra pillowy to keep them from getting all smashed up. My first job was in a grocery store and when a box of chips had a random popped or under inflated bag they were pretty badly damaged.
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That style sheet for that subreddit itself is wonderfully mildly infuriating. Bizarre cursors, incorrect icons, tilting text and flipped voting levers to name a few.
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No, it isn’t. The 150 items, as itemized in the Reddit post the image comes from, are as follows:
- 75 markers
- 59 color-in stickers
- 15 activity sheets
- 1 bucket
And there aren’t even 75 unique colours of markers: there are something like 3 each of 25 colours. It’s still a deceptive ripoff, but it’s not so shabby as to count the markers and caps separately.
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All true, but there’s a vast difference between leaving a fourth of the bag empty for ‘cushioning’, and only filling the bag up one fourth of the way, to begin with.
The deceptive packaging just hammers home the active intent to rip their customers off.
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Well played.
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Not seeing the full 50 either. Maybe 50 is the character count, just like the 150-piece pen set.
ETA: pretty close, 56 characters
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Same with non-stick spray. It says “fat free” only because the serving size is so small.
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And we are thankful for that
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Came for a list of 50 deceptive product packages, as promised in a headline, had an article with 4 examples and a “deceptive advertising” tag. Is Mark experimenting with irony?
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As a former packaging designer I can tell you that in some cases a customer will go for an existing box or container because the inventory exists. Add some filler if the content doesn’t fit, print and serve. Whether intentional or not the end result is an illusion.
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